Ideas to fill a small concreted area

[Wialli]

Hi All,

I'd like some help and maybe ideas as to what to do with a small concreted walking area. It was ok before, but the concrete did look a bit ugly and was uneven and sloping quite badly.

I've added some pictures to show what it currently looks like. It's about approx 2.4 across, and 3ft tapering out to about 3.2ft wide, so the actual stepping area is only going to be 1-2 steps across the 3ft gap.

I've bolted 2 bits of wood to either end to the height of the steps and garage floor level so have a good solid fenced off area all around, and I've hammer drilled it down so that the shallowest below the top level of this fence is about 3.8, down to the deepest point being at around 70mm.

So my dilemma. What to fill this in with.

Preferred options so far are:

1. Gravel, I was thinking of using white to match stones we have in the garden borders:

http://www.homebase.co.uk/en/homebaseuk/pearl-spar-grade-11-maxi-bags-284201

Only problem with this is that I've read gravel on concrete can get dangerous as the grinding rounds off the gravel and makes it problematic under foot. It won't get a lot of footfall though, and the contact area will be very small indeed with only 1-2 paces ever hitting the area.

2. To offset the underfoot gravel issue, 4 450 x 450 paving slabs with 120mm in between and 220ish at front and back. But to do this would have to raise part of the sloped area to hold the slabs level so would have to concrete a bit underneath. What issues could this cause? Design below:

3. Concrete the whole area again but level and with some decorative concrete, perhaps coloured concrete if possible.

4. Any other ideas?

Thanks,
Wialli

 

[Nige F]

Self lay bagged ( coloured? ) Tarmac in bags see www.pavingexpert.com

 

[r896neo]

a nice exposed aggregate concrete would be good.

 

[Wialli]

Thanks for the reply guys.

Self lay bagged tarmac (or macadam as I understand it, looks very simple to do, but I can only find it in black unfortunately and I wanted to make it look a bit decorative rather than just practical. I'll keep an eye out for some coloured stuff but if not then I think this is out.

Exposed aggregate sounds interesting. Is it pretty easy to get right first time as I don't really have an area for testing first? Following these steps sounds pretty simple but is it easy to get the colour of the stones to show through the gravel?

http://www.doityourself.com/stry/tips-for-pouring-exposed-aggregate-concrete#b

I also looked at resin bonded gravel but this sounds like it should be carried out by an expert!

 

[r896neo]

Your post is a little confusinhg regarding what depth you have available.

Exposed aggregate concrete would need to be 60mm minimum. preferably 75mm +

Its not too hard if you have worked with concrete before.

You need to level and lightly float the concrete, not tamp it like normal concrete. Then spray a retarder on the surface once the bleed water has evaporated and the next morning brush and hose it to wash off some of the slurry and reveal the gravel.

Resin bound gravel is not a good idea diy and you may find it hard to get the materials needed too.

 

[Wialli]

Apologies about the original post. As you can see in the pictures, there is a slop from front to back, and slightly from left to right. So at the highest point of the slope, there is about 38mm depth. At the lowest there is about 70mm depth.

So I'd have to get a lot more of the concrete out to use this exposed aggregate method.

Also, I've only used mastercrete on small jobs so not overly used to using concrete, so will probably abandon that idea.

 

[r896neo]

Yes exposed aggregate can be a cruel mistress and best off not going for that if you have not done a bit of concrete work before.

You could lay a few nice stone flags.

Calibrated sandstone is usually 22-25mm so would leave you room for a mortar bed.