Laying a path?

dogbert27

Total newbie to this kind of thing but I want to dig up a bit of grass that runs the length of the house to the edge of the patio in the back garden and lay down a path. Well, there's already a path at the side of the house so it would just be making this path wider going over to a wall.

My main question is is it possible to do such a job now, i.e. in winter with bad weather?

gman2k

Yes it's possible but may be more work depending on how wet the soil is and what drainage conditions under are like.
Then again, the way our summers have gone the last few years, you would get dryer weather in the winter!
The important thing is protecting the concrete as it sets, and this means covering it.
Another worry at this time of the year is frost, but it seems quite mild at the mo!

A country home

the only 2 pennys worth i can offer is, Daylight Daylight Daylight. . . . .
no sooner will you have the mixer running, and you'll be washing it out again. . :rolleyes:

dogbert27

Hi, just bumping this up again.

Well still haven't got around to doing this project but with the summer coming it has to get done!

Took measurements.

Length 4.75 mts, Width .23 mts and depth .2mts (is this too much?) = 0.2185 m3 (7.59ft3).

2 Questions:

1) does anyone know how much the concrete for this would cost?

2) what do I do with what I dig out as I don't want to pay a couple of hundred euro for a skip!

Tefral

dogbert27 wrote: »

Hi, just bumping this up again.

Well still haven't got around to doing this project but with the summer coming it has to get done!

Took measurements.

Length 4.75 mts, Width .23 mts and depth .2mts (is this too much?) = 0.2185 m3 (7.59ft3).

2 Questions:

1) does anyone know how much the concrete for this would cost?

2) what do I do with what I dig out as I don't want to pay a couple of hundred euro for a skip!

Firstly, to undertake this job, your not gonna just be able to lay concrete on to soil, so your going to need blinding, 5mm chip about 50mm worth will be needed.

For the concrete your gonna need about a c20 mix for a path (Mix 4 units of 14-20mm aggregate, with 2 units of a sand and 1 unit of ordinary portland cement) so:

Concrete: 70kg (€5.50 a bag x 3bags)
Sand: 138kg (ring a builder supplier)
Aggregate: 256kg (ring a supplier)
Water: 66 Litres (Free)

You can buy sand and gravel mix which will be cheaper.

a 1m3 of readymix concrete is €95/m3, but you will be heavily charged for a small load.

Your digging out a small enough amount, could you make a flower bed out of the excavated material? a few big stones and fill it with the material and plant in it?

Overall, your going to need to look at an expansion gap also as joining a new path to an old one wont work, as it wil crack along the joing so a few mill gap will be needed.