Purchasing Patio slabs or Decking

cyclonebri1

Killing it is good enough for me, ;) although I do have a Karcher with rotary brush attach. I like the aged look that the pressure washer removes.

glasgowdan

Are you budgeting for the cost of excavating 80-100mm and getting a skip for the waste, then a few tonne bags of crush and your mortar bed plus a pointing product?

Bradden

cyclonebri1 wrote: »

Calibrated will cost much extra I'm afraid, nowhere near the price I stated.
Plus if laying a patio the thickness doesn't really matter, it is taken up in the bedding, only the top face has to be true.

This stuff is usually quoted as being from say 25 to 40mm thick, easily accomodated.

I agree that thickness doesn't matter to those in the trade who are familiar with laying slabs... for those looking for a simple DIY job I would always recommend calibrated as it is much easier to lay.

yangptangkipperbang

Oh dear - pedants arise !

cyclonebri1 wrote: »

So use bleach????

Slopping bleach around isn't exactly eco-friendly.

cyclonebri1 wrote: »

Pressure washers remove the top surface from anything, including your skin.

Man made paving slabs have a hard "crust" on them, caused by the chemical reaction when they harden - that is why when you break one the interior is crumbly. If you use a pressure washer this removes the outer layer and dirt is more easily absorbed by the soft concrete below. This is exactly the same as would happen if you were to remove the hard glaze from your crockery - your plates and cups would get very dirty, very quickly.

A pressure washer may remove the top layer of a softer natural stone such as sandstone, but this is of no consequence for two reasons.
1. Paving stones are not often made of soft stone such as sandstone.
2. Even if they were, the layer underneath is just as hard (soft?) as the layer that has been removed, so the dirt absorption/retention performance would be exactly the same.
This is why many of our towns and cities have cleaned up most of the old buildings to a gleaming new condition from their old black pollution stained condition. Most of these building are made of sandstone type materials so water (or even grit) blasting is used to clean them with no risk of increasing the dirt retention properties. (Although it is possible that the ingrained layer of surface pollution dirt may have formed a harder crust than the natural stone underneath...............)

cyclonebri1 wrote: »

The idea of cleaning IS to remove the top layer?????????

The idea of cleaning is to remove the dirt NOT the top layer ........!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
That is why I use a duster on my furniture and NOT sandpaper.........:D

cyclonebri1

yangptangkipperbang wrote: »

Oh dear - pedants arise !



Slopping bleach around isn't exactly eco-friendly.


Man made paving slabs have a hard "crust" on them, caused by the chemical reaction when they harden - that is why when you break one the interior is crumbly. If you use a pressure washer this removes the outer layer and dirt is more easily absorbed by the soft concrete below. This is exactly the same as would happen if you were to remove the hard glaze from your crockery - your plates and cups would get very dirty, very quickly.

A pressure washer may remove the top layer of a softer natural stone such as sandstone, but this is of no consequence for two reasons.
1. Paving stones are not often made of soft stone such as sandstone.
2. Even if they were, the layer underneath is just as hard (soft?) as the layer that has been removed, so the dirt absorption/retention performance would be exactly the same.
This is why many of our towns and cities have cleaned up most of the old buildings to a gleaming new condition from their old black pollution stained condition. Most of these building are made of sandstone type materials so water (or even grit) blasting is used to clean them with no risk of increasing the dirt retention properties. (Although it is possible that the ingrained layer of surface pollution dirt may have formed a harder crust than the natural stone underneath...............)


The idea of cleaning is to remove the dirt NOT the top layer ........!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
That is why I use a duster on my furniture and NOT sandpaper.........:D

Got a crab in your pants by any chance, I smell a true pedant.

You don't get subtlety do you? The top layer is muck, that's what I meant you need to remove.

Patios aren't exactly eco friendly either, regarding rain water run off etc. Given that the op wants to cover the ground not save the planet and that this is a money saving site, bleach is the cheapest way to kill lichen and algae and clean without damaging the stone or slabs. Sloping it about?, only in your imagination.

Stone is just as easily damaged by pressure washing as slabs as it is in strata form, just like slate and anyone who has used a pressure washer on it will know how it lifts.

Oh, and the interior of decent paving slabs isn't crumbly, the better manufacturers actually put cement in theirs would you believe. :p

You want to use a pressure washer? go ahead, I don't , end of, at least 1 poster early on realised that a bare pressure washer is not the best for any patio, if you have to use the rotary attachment.

psbrett

glasgowdan wrote: »

Are you budgeting for the cost of excavating 80-100mm and getting a skip for the waste, then a few tonne bags of crush and your mortar bed plus a pointing product?

Yes, about £200 for skip, £200 for materials. Not sure if decking is cheaper now over 40sq m.

sunshinetours

Decking will take more maintenance than a patio including treating annually with oil/stain and cleaning at least as much as patio. Will get very slippery in wet and winter if in shaded areas

We have afair bit of decking and I wish we had gone for a decent stone patio which would last for donkeys years if well done if first place

Innys

sunshinetours wrote: »

Decking will take more maintenance than a patio including treating annually with oil/stain and cleaning at least as much as patio. Will get very slippery in wet and winter if in shaded areas

We have afair bit of decking and I wish we had gone for a decent stone patio which would last for donkeys years if well done if first place

I agree. Decking looks great for the first five seconds after it's been laid. After that, it goes downhill very fast unless you spend a lot of time on maintenance.

I had an indian sandstone patio laid last year and all it takes is a quick once over with a pressure washer once every six months to make it look like new.

cyclonebri1

sunshinetours wrote: »

Decking will take more maintenance than a patio including treating annually with oil/stain and cleaning at least as much as patio. Will get very slippery in wet and winter if in shaded areas

We have afair bit of decking and I wish we had gone for a decent stone patio which would last for donkeys years if well done if first place

Someone gets the issue at last, :T:T:T:T:T:T