"Cheat" gravel/stepping stone path - worth a try, or bound-to-fail-madness?

[morqthana]

I would like to lay a straight path in my garden without doing a load of work. Basically without doing the lot of digging out and sub-base thing.

I have very solid clay soil - I used to have a path where concrete slabs had just been plonked on the grass, and eventually sank in by about 20mm over many decades.

The path would be for pretty occasional foot traffic.

My idea is:

• Hire a turf stripper and dig out a 1m wide 40-50mm deep strip. Probably put some sort of edging along the sides.
• Lay in some of that honeycomb stabilisation grid, either with integral membrane, or on top of a layer of membrane.
• Fill with gravel to the top of the grid (would adding a plate wacker to the hire contract be a good idea?)
• Lay 20mm porcelain tiles wot I have left over from a patio on that, in a stepping-stone style.
• Fill in around the tiles with more gravel.

So...

"Cunning plan, Moriarty"

or

"Are you completely mad, Baldrick?"

?

 

[Odds]

Sounds like a plan, to me. Go for it Baldrick.

 

[robinbanks]

Is it really prohibitively more expensive to hire a mini digger instead of a stripper, go a little deeper, not buy the honeycomb, and put more MOT in?

ps if I was doing this and my tiles were square, I'd consider cutting them up to be more rectangular - I find square stepping stone paths to be a bit twee, rectangles more modern:

 

[Notch7]

Or use self compacting gravel

Self Binding Path Gravel

Key Features: Bag size: Approx. 800kg or Approx. 20kg mini bags (x50) Size: 10mm to dust Colour: Buff/Golden Additional Info: To ensure water can drain away whilst also creating a firm base, use a sub-base such as MOT Type 1. If

aggregatesdirect.co.uk

 

[morqthana]

Is it really prohibitively more expensive to hire a mini digger instead of a stripper, go a little deeper, not buy the honeycomb, and put more MOT in?

£hire - dunno, but there could be access problems. And it's more material to barrow from the front of the house.

ps if I was doing this and my tiles were square, I'd consider cutting them up to be more rectangular

My tiles are rectangular, and my path will be straight.

 

[msmsm]

The only gotcha will be if the slabs sit on the grid they effectively only have the depth of the gravel size to stop them slipping. I have done it, and it works, but you do get some movement with the slabs.