A few questions on making pavers / garden path.

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before i ask the questions i should set the scene. I have a space of around 14m2 that i wish to cobble/pave. However there are 2 raised garden beds and many round posts supporting retaining walls in the area to be paved. I have retained the area i wish to pave and am ready to start the ground prep.

What i was thinking of doing was rather than cutting paving stones and then laying them, building box section and casting pavers onto the prepared ground (so i could shape them around all the obstacles) it would be like laying a path but i would want to cast them into a uniform square pattern for ease of installation and cost saving, also to look a lot nicer than a concrete pad.

My questions are:
1. If my pavers are to be 450 x 450, what depth should the paver be.
2. What depth should i make the sand bed to lay them on??
3. if i am to cast my own pavers then what mix should i use. Will an 1:8 (cement : builders mix) be suitable and also come up with a nice finish. Or should i move into a more 1:2:3 (cement : fine stone chip : sand).
4. if i was to add a coloring additive to the mix, how hard is it to keep it even between batches of concrete that i make.

any thoughts or help would be appreciated.

Cheers.
 
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Firstly I wouldn't do it on a sand base because what you are doing really is just laying concrete but in short sections. So I'd suggest a properly prepared bed with compacted hardcore rather than sand.

Next, these aren't really pavers but sections of uncompacted concrete so I'd say 75mm minimum.

I wouldn't use 8:1; 3:2:1 with fine chippings sounds good but you'd probably be ok with 5:1 25mm all-in and light trowelling.

In my experience with small lots you won't get the colour exactly matched because it's just too awkward to measure the mix accurately. Also if you use aggregate it will not all be evenly distributed. How about staggering the sections laid with each batch so that it looks like a natural assortment?
 
In my experience with small lots you won't get the colour exactly matched because it's just too awkward to measure the mix accurately. Also if you use aggregate it will not all be evenly distributed. How about staggering the sections laid with each batch so that it looks like a natural assortment?[/quote]

thats what i was thinking of doing, cheers for the advice.

just to clarify: how thick would the hardcore need to be once compacted. i was thinking around 75mm.

also the 5:1 mix is that just cement : sand, or an aggregate.

cheers
 
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Your base should be 100mm compacted. As for the mix 5:1 is 5 'all in ballast' to 1 cement. Just in case you don't have the same name for it, in the uk all in ballast is just 3 parts clean stone and 2 parts sand already mixed up so that when making concrete all you need to do is add the cement.

If it were me i would definately use small stones, 12mm or under and not all in ballast becuase you often get stones up to 20mm in it and when it comes to trowelling it smooth large stones will make it a nightmare.

I don't want to discourage you but this is not as easy as it sounds becuase in an ideal world you would vibrate the concrete to remove the air and also you could do with chamfering/ slightly rounding the corners to stop them being too brittle and getting broken/ chipped easily
 

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