Laying mortar on damp soil

[woodman-46]

I am building a small playhouse/fort at the end of our garden and want to lay down some 600mm square slabs to make up a path. My plan is to lay the slabs onto stable hard soil using a bed of mortar. The soil is damp from the weather but not puddled or soggy and not being a big fan of laying dry mix down and letting moisture work by capillary action from the soil I was going to make up a well mixed medium dry mortar and use that.. As said the ground is not soft, soggy or puddled just damp, will it set well. Thanks in advance. James

 

[noseall]

Cement products, i.e. mortar, concrete, render, adhesive etc all love water. So much so that they can not function without it.

We often damp down masonry so that the mortar has a better chance.

Soil or ground, to some degree is always damp. Don't worry about dampness. Even a bit of rain and moderate amounts of standing water have little or no detrimental effect.

It is only when there are large degrees of torrential rain or running water actually washing the muck away that you need worry aboot.

 

[cotswoldbuilders]

Its always better to put a bit of type 1 or similar down first, even if its only a couple of inches.

 

[handyman77]

Bit of type 1 and compact it with a whacker!