Good luck with the pour - don't forget to let us know how it goes! :~)

The sloppy clay *must* be removed before you place the concrete. Don't worry about the water table as long a syou are not below it.

Should I add some hardcore to give an extra few inches of "stable" base for the concrete foundation? (the right answer to that question at this stage in the works is hopefully no ) Not really.

Maybe I should make the concrete foundation wider (it is current 450mm for a double-skinned wall)?

That would not help the situation.

Or maybe use a footing course of bricks for the very first course?

Eh?

I have used staking pegs [...] Any thoughts about how to easily get these up when they have served their purpose?

Yank them out before the concrete sets. As soon as the concrete is in place and has been levelled, wriggle the pegs free and chuck them out, then re-settle the concrete in the disturbed area.

At least you've got the weather for it!

Depending on local conditions and the amount of work to be done, a collector drain normally costs between 8-15 quid per linear metre installed when less than a metre in depth.

You don't sound terribly confidant with the contractor you've called in. You should always get at least 3 quotes for any work of the nature; if the contractor know there is only them up for the job, you run the very real risk of being ripped off! Get at least 2 more quotes before giving anyone the go-ahead to proceed with the work.

A BCO would have you take the lot out!

A water table can be very shallow, but, with me living in the big metropolis of Warrington, I'm not familiar with this liitle village you mention (Lundun, did you say?), so I can't say exactly what you should expect, but I wouldn't anticpate such a dramatic change in level over such a short distance.

Could there be a leaky water service nearby?

If that doesn't help, post back here and I'll see what else I can do. :~)

As for the Classico, you should be fine laying it square to the direction of travel. I think that pattern loses itself when viewed from an angle.

HTH and good luck!

I deal mainly in concrete interlocking pavers. We use a QP base (3/4 inch stone mixed with fines) as a base, then use stone dust for screeding. I have found, that after compacting the base, there are a lot of pockets of 'raw stone' that do not pack very well and that have a lot of smaller pockets of air. These seem to be created alot, alot of time do to inconsitancy of the bedding material (especially on smaller jobs, when you dump a load, it seems the stone seperates, and when you get to the end of the pile, you are left with more larger material than fines, which happen to end up on the top of the base as it is the end of the final load)

now, after compacting the base course, I rake a thing layer of stone dust across the top of the base, and then compact that in, filling all of those small gaps. After that, I then proceed with screeding my bedding course that ther pavers will set into the traditional way as tony suggests.

Your man is trying to rip you off!

Whereabouts in Manchester? Contact me by email, and I'll see if I can put you on to someone who might be able to help.

From what you tell me about the clay sub-grade, I'd definitely use a sub-base, even if it were only 75mm thick. A good covering of DTp 1 will help speread the load of the patio paving and make sure it doesn't sink or settle during the even wetter weather of winter.

What sort of paving have you chosen? Flags/slabs?

Only problem is, its quite pricy. Usually around $1.25 a sq foot here in the states (not sure the conversion for you guys on the price) I often recommend it for a jobs, but a lot of clients do not want to spend the extra money. It is a tough sell for me, even though I know it should be installed.

Either way, fabric or not, defintely use a good base (I like 6 inches min for patios) and be sure to compact it. Depending on equipment, be sure to do it in 3 inch lifts and wet it down while you are compacting, as I find it leads to a much stronger base.

Also, it seems that the geo-membrane is slightly cheaper over here. There are two common 'grades'; a so-called "Landscape Membrane" sold at Garden Centres and DIY stores that is basically a weed blanket and sells for 50-80p or so per square metre (about $0.70-$1.10 in US-ian funny money). The higher grade product is sold via Builders' Merchants as a true geo-membrane, and is much, much tougher than the landscape fabric, which makes it a better bet beneath driveways or wherever membrane puncture is a possibility. This sells for around 1 quid per m2 ($1.40 or so)

Anyway, when you say the nearest "drain" is approx 2' higher than the low point on the driveway, do you mean the cover of the drain or the invert level?

Pumping water uphill is a bloody expensive business. You'd need a sump chamber, with a pump and a float switch, plus a rising sewer to pump the water along until it reaches the main surface water system, then a trap to prevent the SW system surcharging into your sump....it really has to be a last resort. Is there no other drain point nearby, even if it's on a neighbours' property or even in the carriageway?

Laying this is not going to be as difficult as you might imagine, Mike. If you lay a soldier edging course to each edge first, using a string line and steel road pins to guide line and level, and bedding onto a cementitious mix, you can then screed off the soldier edgings for the body of the paving. You can lay the soldiers to summits and valleys with relative ease, and then, once the rest of the bedding is screeded out, the body of the paving is more or less guaranteed to be falling in the right directions. :~)

Take some pix of the work, if you can, and let me see how you get on with it.

There are one or two situations where the concrete bedding may be placed on the sub-base, but in the vast majority of small residential jobs (which I assume this is), have the concrete bedding laid directly over the sub-grade.

You can get 'firsts' of Sherbourne Red in the 50mm Claypave from Jewson or Leigh Concrete.

Yes. When done properly, with a quality sealant, the weeds, mosses and other undesirables have no place to get a hold and so find it much more difficult to establish themselves. However, they *will* find a home in any detritus that accumulates on the surface, so you will still need to brush and/or power wash at regular intervals to dislodge this unavoidable surface crud.

Alternately, I could resurface the drive with tarmac. Is there a simple surfave sealing coat that ca be applied or must the old topping be removed and completely relaid? (The base is fine. no movement etc) What are my options?

Without being familiar with the drive itself, I would hazard a guess that you should be able to overlay the existing with a new wearing course, after all the loose material has been removed and a tack-coat applied. That will result in a significant cost saving to yourself.

Third and last question (thanks for the patience) could I use one of the new epoxy coated finishes or would it scrub off with turning vehicles?

You could, but you'll need *deep* pockets. Again, I'm not familiar with your particular drive, but, as a rough guide, and epoxy bonded surface will cost approcximately 3 times the price of a brand new bitmac drive.

Can a builder reasonably ignore this problem ?

No. The Building control Officer should spot any shgortcoming and will insist that any defect or breach of Building Regs is corrected.

Are there any regulations covering this situation or, what is recognised good practise that can be expected?

As stated above, there should be a gully or other drainage point on the lower end of the slope to protect your property.

Whose responsibility is it?

The builder, for now.

What would you advise is the best method to deal with the drainage?

Personally, I would prefer to see a drainage composite, fin drain or linear drain installed approximately 1 metre away from your property, so that the entire 12' gap between the properties drains into that, rather than allow surface water to lodge against your brickwork. If this was set, say, so that there was 50-75mm of fall away from the wall of your property, there would be no chance of surface water causing any problems.

Seventy 450 squares - that's a bonny greenhouse! What do you grow?

When it comes to fastening down the greenhouse, I'd suggest you get a few lengths of pre-treated timber, such as 75x47 or 100x47mm. Lay out the timbers so that the GH will sit on top iof them once they are fixed. Drill the timbers and the flags at approximately 1 metre centres and then fix the timber to the flags by using anchor bolts or frame fixings. Once the timbers are secured to the flags, the GH can be screwed onto the timbers with standard woodscrews.

That's how I did mine, and it's still standing (and bursting with fuchsias)! :~)

Whereabouts are you, Gordon? There are some good salvage yards up here in NW England.

Good luck! Let me know how you get on.

A soldier edging, either single or double width, and possibly in a contrasting colour, can look really good around a feature such as a linear drain or a manhole cover, but that is up to you and what's suits your taste. The main point to note is how what would have been 200mm long cuts have been replaced by two 100mm wide ubits cut down to size. Whilst this may break the bond of the pattern, for such a small area, it really doesn't matter.

Good luck! Send me a picture when you're done. :~)

Best Wishes - Mike

Then, I'd lay a strong geo-membrane, such as Terram 1000 over the clay and the land drainage, and plave my sub-vbase material over that. the membrane will prevent the stone becoming mixed with the clay and will allow surface water to find its way to the drainage without washing away the sub-base or the decorative gravel.

The key point is that the threshold edge of your paving is set to the correct level so that, if, at some future date, the boyoes from the council come along and resurface the apron, they will lay the new surface to the level of your drive. However, if the driveway threshold is laid to match the undulating surface of the apron, as some less competent contractors do, when the resurfacing work does takes place, the levels are still a mess!

Have you read the page about repair macadams? They are used by a lot of contractors to construct these fillets but they are not without problems. Best to 'dust' the surface with some of the jointing sand, just to prevent the binder being tracked over your new paving.

Stonemarket and Village Stone/RMC both have a dry brush-in mortar, available via most BM's, if you ask nicely and dig deep into your pockets. :~)

However,on a pavement experiencing vehicle overrun, such as a driveway, a rigid cement-bound bed is fraught with difficulties - you'd need movement joints; any slight movement in the flags would result in permanent rocking; there's more risk of breakage unless the flag is perfectly and evenly bedded. This appiles to whatever size of flags you use, whether they are 450mm squares, 900x600's or any other size.

More and more, we are now using the small element vehicle overrun paving, such as Trafica by Marshalls, for residential driveways, as well as for civic schemes. These units are butt-jointed, and laid in more or less the same manner as flexible block paving, but are specially designed to take the weight of cars etc.

Given that the price diff between Trafica and standard flags is minimal, it's well worth considering.

As for rigid bedding, it is *essential* beneath products such as Millstone or any other cst flag, as they are simply not strong enough to withstand trafficking without a concrete bed. For that reason, we always tried to persuade clients to use some other form of paving - for the price of Millstone on a concrete bed, they could have, say, Tegula, or even 100mm thick reclaimed York stone.

Trafica comes in a range of different sizes, from G60 (300x300x60) right up to E100 (450x450x100), and is available in most of the usual Marshalls finishes, such as Saxon, Perfecta, Toscana etc, plus the standard pimple face in 5 basic different colours. As small element paving, it is laid with sand joints.

Does you LA require this apron (as we call them) to slope towards the roadway? The usual spec is 1:40 crossfall to the road, but some LAs are flexible on this and sometimes allow other arrangements.

Whether you use setts or blocks, the key to a succesful job that doesn't look like a dog's back leg, is to get tyour edge courses established first and use these as a guide to screeding a bedding layer. With block paving and the new sawn setts, this is relatively easy as all the paving units are of the same depth, but with reclaimed setts, you may have to use the screeded bed as a general guide. Although it may appear to be a complicated job at first glance, it's actually quite simple; the small scale of setts/blocks makes them perfect for 'rolling' planes such as you will have on this project. remember that your screeded bed will be an almost identical copy of the finished surface profile; so, spend a good bit of time getting that right and the rest, as they say, will fall into place.

Good luck! Let me know how you get on

The answer is "buggerall", and if you try it, the free edges of your paving will scatter and the whole body of the paving will slip out of line. Don't do it - you'll only regret it! :~)

Send me some pictures when you're done. :~)

What are you going to use to seal the sett joints? The mortar you've used on the semi-circular planter edges doesn't do justice for that lovely granite.

How much did you pay for the Indian flagstones?

The Indian flags are selling for 28-35 quid per m2 around here, too, but some of the quality is debatable. Still, when you consider that a top quality riven copy, such as Old Town by Bradstone or Chancery by Marshalls is selling for 25 quid per m2, you can't say they're not value for money!

No, but there are many ways of acheiving the same end result, depending on the pattern you're using. With a 90 degree herringboone, I prefer 45 degree planter bays....

If you're using semi-circular planters of less than around 750mm dia, then you're better off using relatively short pieces for the soldier....

....around 125/100 length, rather than trying to do it with longer cut blocks, say 200/175. This is illustrated better on the Block Detailing page, where I look at different ways of laying a soldier around a circular manhole.

2) any suggestions about shortcuts for the arithmetic and techniques for making the minimum number of cuts,

Trial and error, Mike! Cut your blocks, but if they don't quite fit, keep them to one side as they may fit elsewhere. If you are producing geometrically precise planters, then it is possible to work out the cut angles in advance, but with you doing 7 planters of varying dimensions, I'd just rely on good old trial and error

3) any advice on the best ways to handle the problem that the natural rings of cuts will get perilously close to, or need to cut into, the soldier line?

Normally, the soldier line is maintained and the body of the paving cut to suit.

I guess I should lay the main path up to these areas, so I can see the lines the pattern in the main path is taking. Then cut the ring and bed it in concrete (with haunching inside). Then when dry, cut & fit the remaining piecings, then compact the whole path right up to the ring(?)

That sounds about right. IF you soldier edges are taper cut, they act not unlike the stones of an arch, and so you can minimise the haunching concrete used or even use that awful Keyform edging restraint.

My apologies if this is covered on the website, but I couldn't find it if it was. As usual, grateful for your help. - Mike - (I can provide you with some 'before' pictures !!)

Oh, yes please - and some 'afters' :~)