Jan 3, 2012

Laying Your Own Patio

Before starting any DIY Project yourself make sure you have the correct personal protective equipment (PPE). The most common PPE that are needed are safety goggles, dust mask, Gloves and steel toe cap boots. It is essential to wear these at all times to protect yourself from injury as you never know when accidents may occur. 

Laying your own patio – If you are thinking of laying your own patio here is a quick guide. Firstly work out the falls on the patio, ideally the patio should fall away from the building slightly so as not to have water sat against the brickwork. If there is no option but to have it falling towards the house you will need to install a drainage channel between the house and patio to prevent damp. Ideally the height between the damp course on the house and the top of the patio should be 6” or 2 courses of brick this will prevent damp on the brickwork caused by splash back.

 Dig out the area where you are to lay the patio allowing for 100mm of compacted sub base preferably type 1, 50mm of mortar and your paving stones usually 50mm, so a total of 200mm or 8 inches. Once you have excavated the area, fill it to a depth of 100mm with a sub base preferably type 1 crush and run and then compact with a wacker plate available at all hire shops. Next mix the mortar to lay the paving stones on using a good mix of 4 parts building sand and 1 part cement. I would recommend laying the flags on a full bed of mortar. The paving stones may need cutting you can hire a Stihl saw from hire shops which will cut through them easily. Once the patio is laid it will then need the gaps pointing you can do this by mixing 3 parts building sand and 1 part cement. It is then placed in the joints and compacted in by either the side of the trowel or a jointing tool.