Alternatives to Dansand?

Theguywhovapes

Hi all

We’ve just had an order of dansand cancelled on us by wickes due to it being out of stock. Is there anything else that would be suitable to fill the gaps in between paving slabs

thanks in advance.

Robin9

On Gardener's World last night they were using sharp sand as an alternative

Theguywhovapes

Thank you for the reply Robin9. I’ll download and give it a watch later after I finish work. I forgot to mention that the paving slabs are already in place as it’s pre-existing patio, we’re simply filling in the gaps between them (some are an inch wide. Would sharp sand still do the trick?

thanks again.

grumbler

 What "trick"?

If you mean preventing weed growing, then certainly it won't. That said, I don't know how good Dansand is in this respect. Also, it's apparently very fine - good for small gaps, that you don't need for you huge gaps. IMO any sand without added cement (or lime?) will get washed away from inch-wide gaps.

neilmcl

So what are your trying to achieve? Is it simply to replace the jointing sand on your patio, in which case any paving sand will do. If you want one specifically for weed control I wouldn't bother, you're paying quite a bit extra for something that doesn't last much longer than a season or two, it would be much cheaper just to use traditional, chemical weed control once a year.

EssexExile

Dansand is for block paving, it's just kiln dried sand with weed inhibitor. Check out https://www.pavingexpert.com/

Theguywhovapes

Thanks for the reply grumbler, my father in law is the one who recommended dansand for this kind of job. Yeah it’s to prevent weed growth and just tidy the area up as it’s quite old. Do you think sand and cement mixture would be best instead?

thanks

Theguywhovapes

Thanks for the replies everyone, what I’ll do when I finish work is take some pictures of the area as it will show what I mean 🙂