Which tool do I need?

sancho

Am trying to do a few bits in the garden, ready for the horrible weather next week...

Three years ago when we moved in we had a pond at the bottom of our garden surrounded by paving slabs, because we had a small child (now two!) I drained the water, filled the hole with a mixture of gravel, hardcore and broken up pieces of concrete from other things I had removed. I then set four posts in concrete in the corners and built a raised bed there.

Now we've decided that it's quite a large area taken up with only a bed and would be a good place to put our outside table and chairs.

So I have removed all of the wood from the beds and re built them in another place, there's still a pile of mud and the concrete etc. is slightly above the line of the slabs.

We have nearly enough slabs to fill the area (I'll have to buy 2 or 3 but I know which ones they are) but need to know how to proceed.

I presume I need to:

Take the concrete out so it is just below the level of the bottom of the other slabs
Put sand down all over
Bash down the sand and level it
Put some sort of concrete/sand/water mix down??
Lay down slabs to fill in area
Robert's your father's brother

I presume I would need to hire some sort of tool to bash it down a bit, can anyone recommend what sort I would need. Jewsons seem to have about 7 to choose from.

Have I missed anything/got anything wrong?

Thanks in advance

southcoastrgi

What has Robert got to do with the price of fish ?

Innys

You need some kind of whacker plate thingie which you've managed to trace on Jewsons.

As the weight of what will eventually sit on the slabs isn't too great (that is, you aren't laying block paving for a car), I'd suggest you go for a very basic model whacker from Jewsons.

SailorSam

keithgillyon wrote: »

What has Robert got to do with the price of fish ?

Bobs your uncle

sancho

Innys wrote: »

You need some kind of whacker plate thingie which you've managed to trace on Jewsons.

As the weight of what will eventually sit on the slabs isn't too great (that is, you aren't laying block paving for a car), I'd suggest you go for a very basic model whacker from Jewsons.

So something like this would be fine then?

http://www.jewson.co.uk/en/templates/toolhire/templateA.jsp?TemplateCategory=cat540035&pageType=Product&itemId=prod450153&prodFlag=yes


@keithgillyon - Not sure if you're joking or not, but "Bob's your uncle"

Innys

sancho wrote: »

So something like this would be fine then?

http://www.jewson.co.uk/en/templates/toolhire/templateA.jsp?TemplateCategory=cat540035&pageType=Product&itemId=prod450153&prodFlag=yes


@keithgillyon - Not sure if you're joking or not, but "Bob's your uncle"

Yeah, I'd say so.

Obviously, it's a good idea when you hire it to ask them how it should be used as it sounds like you've never tried one out before.

Oh, and be wary that the vibration can be a real issue for your hands/arms so don't use it for extended periods.

Good luck.

keystone

Innys wrote: »

You need some kind of whacker plate thingie which you've managed to trace on Jewsons.

Lovely technical description that. I think a plate compactor like the J.... one is a bit OTT for this job. One of these...

... would be fine and give you a bit of exercise in the process.

Cheers

Innys

Keystone is probably right, but it depends on the area you need to compact, how fit you are and whether you want to do the work yourself rather than have a machine do it.

Canucklehead

OP: check out the Paving Expert...best resource on the subject bar none.

HTH

Canucklehead

sancho

Thanks. I'll look at that site suggested.

Can't really be bothered to do it 'manually', for the sake of 30 quid or so I'd rather hire

keystone

Lazy git!!

Cheers