What sand for laying patio bed

[zuber ali]

Hi All,

I am due to start laying a porcelain patio, but in my haste I believe I stupidly bought the wrong sand. I have bought a jumbo bag of builders sand, from what I read It looks like I should have got sharp sand. Can someone confirm if this is correct as it seems to vary (I've read 50/50 in some places)

Also I have about 45m2 of patio to lay. Any idea on how many jumbo bags this equates to. I only have bought one bag thus far.

 

[John D v2.0]

sharp sand you would need a lean mix something like 1:6 and as little water as you can get away with, don't forget to SBR+cement on the back of the slabs so they don't start walking around.
Are you using a whackered MOT base or is the sand and cement also going to serve as the base?
45m2 would be a few bags, depends how thick you want the laying course but we used about 2.5 bags for I guess about 8x5m area, it was a bit on the thick side at around 40mm because we used thinner slabs than allowed for. If you were using building sand you wouldn't be able to do much of a thick layer, so unless your base is really accurate so you can go thin, you'd be leaving a risk of movement. Normally bricklaying mortar joints are less than 15mm.
If you google "paving expert" that's a really comprehensive site and if you follow their advice you will get a bullet proof job and you won't have to do it twice.
Good luck it's a lot of work but give yourself enough time and it'll be a nice job.