Sopping were sand liquefying

[pilsbury]

Meant to be sopping wet sand.... predictive text! Finished block paving yesterday in the rain. Didn’t sand or wacker as it was pi55ing down. Absolutely lashing down today as well.

tonight is dry and so is tomorrow so was planning on drying the surface with a roofing torch then wacking down. Can’t help but think the sand laying course is gonna be saturated. What are the chances of me vibrating it to a liquid mush and cocking the whole lot up?!

 

[Leofric]

Quite good I would think.

 

[pilsbury]

Hooray! Kind of like when you’re at the beach and pat your feet on wet sand and they sink in the liquid sand.....

 

[KenGMac]

pilsbury, good evening.

Have a look for "Sand bulking"

If dry sand is a hard stable matrix.

If just damp [very wet] sand will bulk up and expand.

If the sand is totally saturated it goes back to its original hard stable matrix.

Your problem is trying to determine if the sand is damp /wet or saturated?

if it were me??? I would err on the side of caution.

Ken

 

[^woody^]

You'll need to let the subbase dry out a bit

 

[pilsbury]

pilsbury, good evening.

Have a look for "Sand bulking"

If dry sand is a hard stable matrix.

If just damp [very wet] sand will bulk up and expand.

If the sand is totally saturated it goes back to its original hard stable matrix.

Your problem is trying to determine if the sand is damp /wet or saturated?

if it were me??? I would err on the side of caution.

Ken

Yes Ken. Just looked that up. I would have no idea if my sand is totally saturated. Either way, if it was, vibrating it probably would liquify it

 

[pilsbury]

You'll need to let the subbase dry out a bit

Care to expand Woody? I noticed before I screeded with sand, the sub base was nice and tight and would not readily absorb water. Hence my fear of a waterlogged bedding sand layer under the blocks. Kind of like a big sloppy sh1t sandwich with the bread being MOT and pavers!

 

[noseall]

The paving will tend to warp and flex rather than compact, when whacking saturated paving.
Best to let it dry out a bit.

 

[^woody^]

We had a massive amount of rain on Thursday night and Friday, and the ground below will be saturated. You'll need to wait for that water to drain away for a couple of days or so. It won't be dry, but the excess water will go and that's the important thing.

 

[catlad]

Was it one of those ultimatums my mrs gives me!
if its not done by Christmas then i'm leaving

 

[pilsbury]

Was it one of those ultimatums my mrs gives me!
if its not done by Christmas then i'm leaving

No such luck.... I’d happily leave it unfinished!

 

[pilsbury]

Lord have mercy. A dry (kind of) day today, out with my roofing torch drying as much as I can - managed to swiftly move round some sand before it clagged and did a fair job of filling joints.

Fired up the wacker and did a pass of the edges before having to stop sharpish as water was pooling up through the joints.

God knows when I’ll be able to wack this lot down as rain looks like it’s set in till spring! How this saturated bedding sand will loose this water is beyond me. What the hell do the pros do over winter?

 

[pilsbury]

Update: wacked the blocks down yesterday, well over a week since any rain. first pass went fine but on the second pass had some water coming up through joints in a couple of areas. Continued with the rest without issue and decided to call it a day with just the 2 passes to consolidate to avoid more of the same. Relieved to have a drive to park on and only time will tell if this is sufficient. I suppose it will be many months before I can tell.