Base for patio

karlitob

Hi all

Advice and comments if you don’t mind.

I’m planning on laying a large patio - about 65sq m. It’s a big back garden but a very tight side access - about 24” wide. Can’t get a digger down.

So I’m wondering about the base for the patio. Removing 100mm of soil, bringing in and packing 100mm of base and sand would be a challenge to say the least.

I was wondering then about a concrete base and lay the patio on that. Would it be easier/cheaper to pour it rather than the time and effort of lumping it all in?

Any comments welcome. Thanks.

heroics

karlitob wrote: »

Hi all

Advice and comments if you don’t mind.

I’m planning on laying a large patio - about 65sq m. It’s a big back garden but a very tight side access - about 24” wide. Can’t get a digger down.

So I’m wondering about the base for the patio. Removing 100mm of soil, bringing in and packing 100mm of base and sand would be a challenge to say the least.

I was wondering then about a concrete base and lay the patio on that. Would it be easier/cheaper to pour it rather than the time and effort of lumping it all in?

Any comments welcome. Thanks.

There are micro diggers that are 24inches wide. Would one of them fit? Be better than digging it by hand.

karlitob

heroics wrote: »

There are micro diggers that are 24inches wide. Would one of them fit? Be better than digging it by hand.

Thanks. Looked at it a few times. I rounded up to 24 inc. the smallest is a kubota micro digger and that’s too big.

It’s really a query on the patio base and what’s best, cheapest and quickest etx.

Thanks.

The Continental Op

Smallest digger I know of is 70cm or 28 inches. You used to be able to get a weird non tracked digger that is just a couple of stabilisers attached to an engine a seat and the hydraulic arm that would all fold up on a couple of wheels and was really narrow but not seen one in years.

Edit> I've just googled those old non tracked machines, seems I was wrong and they are no narrower than a tracked machine, loads of info on this site

Concrete? Hmmmm do the maths 65 sq m 10cm deep (4inch) is 65/0.1 = 6.5 cubic meters of concrete.

At approx 2.5 tonnes to the cubic meter thats 16.25 tonnes of concrete that needs shifting around the side of the house.

karlitob

The Continental Op wrote: »

Concrete? Hmmmm do the maths 65 sq m 10cm deep (4inch) is 65/0.1 = 6.5 cubic meters of concrete.

At approx 2.5 tonnes to the cubic meter thats 16.25 tonnes of concrete that needs shifting around the side of the house.

Thanks. I did do the maths - dreadfully disappointed that I wasn’t miles off. Thanks for that.

What I’m wondering is - is gonna be that volume anyway whether it’s batch, cement and a mixer for a concrete pad, batch and a whacked plate with mortar bed, or whether it’s poured concrete into forms?

Or am I miles off again.

Thanks for reply.

mick121

The Continental Op wrote: »

Smallest digger I know of is 70cm or 28 inches. You used to be able to get a weird non tracked digger that is just a couple of stabilisers attached to an engine a seat and the hydraulic arm that would all fold up on a couple of wheels and was really narrow but not seen one in years.

Edit> I've just googled those old non tracked machines, seems I was wrong and they are no narrower than a tracked machine, loads of info on this site

Concrete? Hmmmm do the maths 65 sq m 10cm deep (4inch) is 65/0.1 = 6.5 cubic meters of concrete.

At approx 2.5 tonnes to the cubic meter thats 16.25 tonnes of concrete that needs shifting around the side of the house.

Would you even be able to fit a wheelbarrow through that opening?

The Continental Op

The traditional way which is the way I used to lay footpaths (not patios) was to dig out to subsoil then infill with what we called quarry waste which is similar to 804 but inch and down would be as good. Leave the for a while to settle and get a really good level on it about half an inch less than your finished lever plus depth of flag stone. Wacker plate it if you think that will help. Then you lay the flags either spot bedded on wet cement or lay them on a flat bed of dry sand and cement.

If I was to do something similar now I'd put a permeable membrane like mypex under the fill.

The Continental Op

mick121 wrote: »

Would you even be able to fit a wheelbarrow through that opening?

Yeah no problem but my calculation is that it would need something in the order of 180 "manly" barrow loads. I don't count myself as particularly "manly" anymore so for me it would be 250 barrow loads - I know that as I'm in the process of moving 22 tonnes of inch and down to level up the yard so far thats 200 barrow loads and I've at least a third left to do.

Edit> Wheel barrow was outside the window so went and measured it - only an inch narrower than 24 inches so tighter fit than I'd expected. Checked our other wheelbarrow and it was 25 inches

karlitob

mick121 wrote: »

Would you even be able to fit a wheelbarrow through that opening?

Yeah. The wheelbarrow fits just about. Wheeled 50 tonnes of garden waste down the side access last year. No exaggeration.

Not afraid of hard work. Just want to get the job done right and do it once.