How to lay a garden path

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My "how to"

....ok so I have to make my own garden path (on me tod). Sounds easy, huh. The main thing putting me off is hard work ;), but stomping up & down the sodden garden in the ****ing rain over the winter has convinced me I need to man up & get it done. This one appeals to me:

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However, after much reading I have decided on the following: to dig and lay 20mm limestone chippings (prefer these as they are slightly smaller than type 1 MOT which is larger); whacker plate down; Then I will put down sharp sand & whacker plate down; Then lay my pavers (bricks). I notice there are many ways of achieving this job, and none of them are necessarily 'right'. Since it is only for me wandering up & down to the shed, sometimes whilst pushing a motorbike, it doesn't need to have the strength of a main driveway where cars are parked.

So, here's the garden. I need to go from the back of the covered motorbike to the shed.

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I was going to go in a straight line & curve around the tree, but when SWMBO saw the plan, she insisted on minimising land grab of the lawn, and making it curvaceous, and who am I to argue. My path is now going to be 80 cm wide - was going for 1m but the missus downgraded that. First thing I did was lay a hose out in the curved shape that I wanted the path to follow, and then I used some line marking paint (toolstation.com was the cheapest for this at 5 quid off for a can - other places are 9 quid) to mark it on the grass:

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I ordered a small 3 yard skip at £156. When it turned up it was smaller than expected (even though I've hired one of these before!). They look like a toy one, and doubtful that I can fit all the earth in, but fingers crossed. One advantage is that they are low so it's easier to get the wheelbarrow up into it than a more traditional 6 yard skip

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One way of using up some earth was that my missus wanted a couple of veg plots (raised beds?) for her and our daughter to plant veggies so I used gravel boards to construct two at 120x80cm each. These are to the right of the garden down near the shed (where it's sunny):

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I started digging to see how much soil came out / depth etc

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then saw sense and realised I should start at the far end near the shed and work my way up towards the house as I go. Now the hard work set in. Overall good progress is made (over a couple of days).

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monday; dug out deeper along the length, and made sure it's 80cm+ width the whole way, and done the bit nearest the house (still not complete though)

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Gravel board to keep the straight edge, pinned with some stakes and some concrete. The bricks will butt up to this.

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Thursday

ok today 2 tonnes of 20mm limestone and sharp sand + a load of bricks turned up. I barrowed the limestone round and spread it with a rake - looks quite nice now! I don't get the vibrating plate (whacker plate) until tomorrow afternoon, so I can't put the sand down until I've done that. So I will whacker the limestone, add more as necessary etc until it looks about right, then start laying the sharp sand down, level it, whacker it, level it, whacker it etc

Putting this down has been quite enjoyable, it's so easy to level out just with a rake.

materials:
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during:

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after:

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FRIDAY

Most bricks carried round so they are to hand nearby for laying tomorrow.

Vibrating plate picked up (it's fecking heavy BTW) & a block cutter; gravel whacked; sand barrowed round, leveled with rake, then whacked. Here's where we are tonight. Tomorrow I will level the sand properly; mist it with water from garden hose, whack it again; then final level off. Then hopefully start laying the blocks!

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Saturday

Got a bit more than half the path laid, maybe 2/3rds. Got faster as we knew what we were doing. Tomorrow got to finish path, buy some silver sand (or kiln-dried sand, sometimes called paver sand) and brush over path, then use vibrater plate for final time over entire path to pack in the silver sand down the gaps. I bought half 'buff' (yellow) and half 'autumn gold' (the reddish ones), and have just put them down randomly. I like it and would recommend the same to anyone else. All one colour is a bit much IMHO.

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Costs so far (probably almost the total)

materials....£381.24 (for your info if you're ever comparing prices, each block cost is 26.4 pence for these ones)
HSS hire....block splitter.....£42.23
HSS hire....vibrating plate.....£47.63
skip hire....3 yard skip.....£156.00

total so far £627.10

Sunday

finished. Bought 4 bags of kiln-dried sand to brush over and get between the cracks, then vibrate it one last time. The sand is very different to sharp sand - it pours like water into all teh nooks & crevices and gaps between blocks. They all then become rock-solid as none of them can move.

I love it :)

(wet in this pic - had just hosed it down)
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dry:
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Finshed.

weird to go from

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to

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within eight days.

In a way I can't believe I've done it. It's not perfect by any means, but it's going to be so ace now to wander up & down to the shed in me slippers :smoke: It's about 100% more useable now, as previously it was often wet (the clay soil retained the water). The blocks have dealt with the undulations (not really visible in the pics) very well, and none of the blocks are loose or rocking. I'm not worried about people taking a short-cut as mentioned above, as it's only me who goes in the shed. It's actually quite nice to meander down the garden.

Ideally I would now paint it with resiblock 22 block paving sealer but it costs approx £175 for 25 litres and I just can't justify that. It stops weeds seeding in your sand (between blocks) for approx 5 years. As well as prevent stains (if it was your main driveway).

http://shop.resiblock.com/products/resiblock-superior-natural-matt-sealer#!prettyPhoto/0/
 
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Good on you for getting stuck in. Just one small problem

For future readers of this posts benefit you should use MOT type 1 as sub-base not single sized clean stone as it doesn't compact properly compared to the above.

In reality on a small path such as your it will probably be fine.

Sorry for the downer, But kudos for getting it done i particularly like the winding curves looks good.
 
Just one small problem

For future readers of this posts benefit you should use MOT type 1 as sub-base not single sized clean stone as it doesn't compact properly compared to the above.

In reality on a small path such as your it will probably be fine.
cheers.
I wondered about that but I thought type 1 MOT was too big for a small path (I assumed it was for proper road surfaces that are being done). I thought it wouldn't compact well enough! Anyway in reality the path isn't going to get too much use so fingers crossed it doesn't start sinking!
 
Well done Cool hands!!

I think it is a job well done.

I am going to attempt to patio an area at my back including 2 round steps which have 2 steps up, if you know what I mean.

My dad who recently passed done this type of work for a living and I have worked with him years ago so hopefully have some knowledge.

We also completed step with 2 steps up at my front door but the ones which I intend to do are bigger I mean not just 1 door but 2 doors for each step.

Did you just measure the area and ask for a price for the brick pavers?
 
paving is sole by the metre but you can get any amount of a common type such as tobermore tegula or pedesta, from a local builders merchant.
 
Nice post.

A few quick questions:

1. What depth did you go to for the sub base - 20mm, is 100mm required for a garden patio and pathway or is that too much as I know we've had 100mm of crusher run for our block pave driveway sub base? Of course this will be only be pedestrian traffic in the garden. Also was the limestone chippings any cheaper than MOT type 1?

2. Is it a good idea to use edging slabs - I know its technically not necessary but does it give a better finish and is there any upside?

3. Is there an art to creating an undulation (nice new word for me!). If I wanted to get large wavy lines for a path way, how can I ensure it looks equally round and smooth all over?

4. Is that plastic sheeting or damp proof membrane you put in the raised bed? If so, why did you not use the black weed fabric as surely that would prevent weeds from growing but allow the water to soak through?

Thanks!
 

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