Block Paving Query

[r10ley]

Morning,

I have a question regarding some paving I’m having laid. They are Marshall’s Alvanley pavers.

The pavers have been laid on a loose mix of sand a cement. They were laid on Thursday/Friday and have had a fair bit of rain in between them being laid. I looked at these this morning and they appear to be fairly loose in parts (rocking side to side length ways).

They haven’t been jointed yet, however they have been laid very close together. Probably around 1mm gap.

My question is would it be normal for them to be “wobbly” at this stage. Is it the mix underneath hasn’t set yet. Or does the jointing compound bind it all together. Or is it looking like the pavers haven’t bonded to the substrate? They did seem to add a mix to the bottom of each paver for bonding

Thanks in advance.

 

[Fred Blogs]

I've had a lot of pavers laid over the last couple of years. Only compacted builders sharp sand on top of compacted rubble (not rubble but I cannot remember the word for it). Anyway no cement was used and if I walked on the pavers they did wobble slightly until dry paving sand was swept into the cracks. My blocks have been laid touching each other but they have nibs that keep them apart enough to allow the dry sand to sink down in between. Once that was done no more wobbles. Kiln dried sand will have to be reapplied every so often and weeds do tend to grow between the paver blocks so they need to be kept down.

 

[r10ley]

Hi thanks for your response. I had blocks laid at the front of my house by the same company and they did it exactly as you described. Not sure why these have been down different although they are a thinner wider block. Some of them seem solid, some seem rather loose.

Just don’t know if this is normal prior to the jointing compound being applied or they should all be solid already. I have attached a couple of pictures for context.

 

[Charlie George]

They should have a bigger joint than that, they have been laid as you would with block paving, Marshalls recommend a min of 8mm to allow for jointing compound.

 

[r10ley]

Unfortunately I had my suspicions this was the case. Do you think I’ll have problems long term if they put the compound in with this small of a gap?