Relaying block pavers

You need planning approval to hard surface your garden/drive in England. You will probably have to make the substrate permeable and not run it into a drain.

You only need planning permission if the hard surface is impermeable, more than five square metres in area and does not drain into a lawn, border, or similar permeable area.

Colin Bignell

All block paving? When we looked into this for MiL's front garden the firms who quoted seemed to agree with

You need planning approval to hard surface your garden/drive in England. You will probably have to make the substrate permeable and not run it into a drain.

I am aware of the planning requirements which also state that, I think, under 5 sq metres doesn't require planning permission Not sure what happens if you do 5 sq m then a few weeks later another 5 sq metres

The existing drive already has a soak away and a soak away was put on it when the garden was excavated prior to the law changing. Again as the job started before the law changed not sure where I stand on that, the council did seem to think at the time it was against the spirit of the law but as long as I keep the new bit under 5 sq m no planning is required. Unless somebody wants to contradict that.

Kevin

All block paving? When we looked into this for MiL's front garden the firms who quoted seemed to agree with

If existing drive is sound ... then lifting and then re-screeding sand to level may be OK if you are confident of depth of sand & that a Geotex membrane is in place & sound.... remember sand should be at least 60mm thick, compacted, then screeded to a level that is 5mm above base of blocks.

i.e if 50mm blocks, sand should be 45mm from finished level .... this allows for 5mm compaction into sand after laying.

If it were my place I would lift blocks, scrape out sand, confirm or relay Geotex membrane. Ensure all edge restraints are sound ... re-screed .. using old sand (as long as it is sharp sand) compacted to 40mm thick and new sharp sand layer on top to correct level (5mm high) lay, vibrate in.

Following worth reading:

I dont see the point of a permeable membrane. Small weeds grow in the jointing sand regardless, large stuff is unlikely to be present on block paving, and if it is a thin membrane wont stop it.

NT

Weeds that grow in the joints are easy to pull out, but you wonder how some of the big buggers, like alkanet, find their way through the membrane. Less of a problem with pavers, but chucking down slate or pebbles obviously punctures it here and there.

In message , Phil L writes

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I've built a few as well.

The problem I have is that modern barns with eaves beam gutters retain a small amount of water because there is no fall to the outlet.

In warm weather this grows slimy crap which eventually washes into the soak and over 20 years, plugs it:-(

My lawn has so much clay in places that it cannot even act as its own soakaway - ie it puddles in heavy rain, taking a fair while to disappear.

I considered this when I was redoing my gutters. I concluded that the only viable way to have soakaways would be to set 10m of land drain pipe

Even then I expect half my water would just run downhill and annoy my neighbour.

Much more than a foot down in my garden and the clay becomes fairly solid. 2ft down it is solid. 3ft down you need an iron bar or a pick to make any headway in it.

So I reused the sewer connections in the end (I'm paying for surface drainage anyway).