Over the last few weekends i have been working on my new patio, the area is a decent size measuring at 3.25 x 6 meters. Below are some before and after shots.
1. The area was first cleared of the old patio which was badly laid, had no hardcore and very little sand which resulted in sunken areas.
2. The next stage was to mark the area out and put in pegs and string lines to give the heights to work from. Once i had a clear idea of what the levels were I was then able to build the step and the concrete edging.
3.Hardcore was delivered (3 x tonne bags) and put down on the area to a depth of 3 inches then compacted followed by a further 2 inches of sharp sand (2 x tonne bags), then the sand was compacted using a whacker plate and screeded to give me the required fall (I worked on a fall of 20mm every meter).
4. Then finished off by laying the blocks, I went with a simple basket weave pattern which I think works really well. There were quite a few cuts to do at the end, for this i used a 9" angle grinder with a diamond blade which made very light work of it. And I finished off by filling the blocks with Kiln dried sand, then run the whacker plate over the top just for a final squash down.
I am really pleased with the finished look and would definitely undertake another patio project on my own, it was just so simple.
1. The area was first cleared of the old patio which was badly laid, had no hardcore and very little sand which resulted in sunken areas.
2. The next stage was to mark the area out and put in pegs and string lines to give the heights to work from. Once i had a clear idea of what the levels were I was then able to build the step and the concrete edging.
3.Hardcore was delivered (3 x tonne bags) and put down on the area to a depth of 3 inches then compacted followed by a further 2 inches of sharp sand (2 x tonne bags), then the sand was compacted using a whacker plate and screeded to give me the required fall (I worked on a fall of 20mm every meter).
4. Then finished off by laying the blocks, I went with a simple basket weave pattern which I think works really well. There were quite a few cuts to do at the end, for this i used a 9" angle grinder with a diamond blade which made very light work of it. And I finished off by filling the blocks with Kiln dried sand, then run the whacker plate over the top just for a final squash down.
I am really pleased with the finished look and would definitely undertake another patio project on my own, it was just so simple.
