DIY Patio - please help

bikebarbie

Hello.

we want to put a 10 foot circle in our garden (without a sqaure off kit) and want to do it ourselves to save money - and after getting ridicolous quotes.

Now I have been looking around at various sites demonstrating how is done and know that I need to have a sub base made of hard core.

My question is - as a neighbour offered some patio slabs which he replaced, can I use this as the base? And do I need to breadk them up or can I put them down entire - mostly as is a circle??

If you have any more advice it would be most apprecciated as we have never done this sort of thing before!! Like how do you make sure that is flat - apart from checking with a spirit level??

Many thanks

MX5huggy

Presume you have found pavingexpert.com?

With the slabs as a subbase you would have to crush them up very small you can hire a crusher to do this which may be cheeper than his skip plus you buying subbase.

a spirit level is how you get it flat get a long one, you probably want a slight slope on it so that there is no chance of puddles.

MX5huggy

Her is my 1st patio used a plan I paid form from pavingexpert

bikebarbie

Many thanks for your reply huggy

Renting the crusher and all the hassle may be not worth buying crashed concrete which I have seen at £30 a ton.
So I lay the hardcore then on top the sand / cement mix - 4 to 1?

Also how do I calculate how much hardcore do I need? 3 or 4" for a 10 foot circle

thanks

bikebarbie

how strange I jsut saw that picture on another forum!!

Well done that job looks great. that's how my garden sort of looked like at first (minus the patio) but the dogs destroyed the grass :mad:

in desparation I was also looking for pre-prepared bases but cant find any
this job is very daunting!!

Ebe_Scrooge

To calculate the amount of hardcore you'll need, see if you can remember back to your schoolday maths lessons :-) Area of a circle is pi r squared. Pi is 3.14 ( near as dammit ), the radius of your circle is 5 foot ( if the diameter is 10 foot ), so the area is 3.14 * 5 * 5 = 78.5 square foot. If you want 3" depth, then you'll need 78.5 * 0.25 = roughly 20 cubic foot of harcore. Or roughly 26 cubic foot for a 4" depth. Hope this helps.

MX5huggy

Use the coverage calc on this page

http://www.pavingexpert.com/subbase.htm#calc

42 is 100mm is it 10ft diamerter? or radius which ever it is approx 3.5m

so pi r squred = 12.5m sq or 9.2m sq

Remember the skip for the neighbour will be well over 100 quid!

MX5huggy

Oh and 4 to 1 is way too strong 10 to 1 will do with sharp sand.

http://www.pavingexpert.com/layflag3.htm#ten2one

bikebarbie

wow you got me all confused now _pale_

I thought the answer would be I need x Tons amount as this is how is sold???


and why do I need a skip for my neighbour???

please answer after you got off the floor laughing!

Ebe_Scrooge

Concrete, hardcore, gravel, etc. is usually sold by volume - traditionally cubic feet, or cubic metres if you want to be European :-) Doesn't really matter how you measure it, any half-decent supplier can convert between metric and imperial measurements for you, so measure it however you prefer.

MX5huggy

bikebarbie wrote: »

wow you got me all confused now _pale_

Sorry but there is some maths involved!

I thought the answer would be I need x Tons amount as this is how is sold???
Do the calc I linked to says 1.8 Tons (I mean metric tons) so 2 big jumbo bags should have it covered. Presuming 10ft diameter.

and why do I need a skip for my neighbour???

If you don't take his slabs he will need a skip so may be you can come to a deal where he pays for the crusher hire instead!

please answer after you got off the floor laughing!

Ignore the last post start working metric its what you should be using to buy materials and yes it is sold by weight not volume ie 25kg bag of cement.