For reasons I won’t go into, I need to re-lay our patio in a hurry.

Whoever layed it originally just put the slabs on the earth and did a bad job of cementing them in. My wife wants to just chuck down new slabs where the old ones were but I think it will be too easy to find the bodies that way. The only time i did it before i dug down about 18 inches, filled with rubble, then sand to level, then layed slabs. Is this overkill? I’d rather do it as cheaply and quickly as possible. I was thinking because the ground is presumably pretty compacted having had a patio on it for many years, just digging a couple of inches out and covering with sand to level would be ok.

thoughts?

Why even dig it out at all if it’s already well compacted and has a base down already? Sling some new sand down and lay the new slabs.

For reasons I won’t go into

How long do you want it to last? What cp says if it’s entirely to look nice while you sell the house, otherwise your way if it needs to last longer.

How level is the old patio? Could you get away with sand + cement on top of the exiting one?

Got to do ours later this year and I’m hoping it’s built on an old cement garage floor.

The only time i did it before i dug down about 18 inches, filled with rubble, then sand to level, then layed slabs. Is this overkill?

Yes. Dig down 200mm, add a 150mm layer of MOT Type 1, then sand/cement mix and lay slabs on top. Could leave larger gaps and mortar the joints too.

and has a base down already?

Looking at it, its just earth, alothugh being a 70’s estate most of the garden is just rubble with a skim of earth on top anyway.

How long do you want it to last?

We’re going to be in the house at least 5 years I reckon. Sounds like I have to do it the hard way.

@wwaswas 😆 Its not really that interesting – basically got one quote to lay patio properly for £600 so we agreed, bought all the slabs as they were going to do it this week, got let down and now quotes are north of £1.5k which we can’t afford. Small garden so want to get it sorted before weather is nice

[video]https://youtu.be/vDcZZnEfJuY[/video]

Burying the wife?

Digging down 18″ is overkill I would have thought – that’s probably more than you need for even a driveway; 150-200mm would be more than enough I would have though (6-8″).

I liked the way that the OP brought in the suggestion not only that the wife was involved, but that there was a disagreement and she wanted to do it the quick way – a suggestion that she could have gone out simply to lay the slabs herself and fallen into the hole that he was carefully digging.

That’s thinking one step ahead.

🙂

Be careful not to dig too deep otherwise neighbours may get a wiff of rotting corpse.

@wwaswas Its not really that interesting – basically got one quote to lay patio properly for £600 so we agreed, bought all the slabs as they were going to do it this week, got let down and now quotes are north of £1.5k which we can’t afford. Small garden so want to get it sorted before weather is nice

You should have left us guessing…

When you’ve planted the body, the processes of delay and settlement of the backfill will lead to an obvious hollow forming at the surface. To avoid this, a decent thickness of re-inforced concrete should be installed over the site, bridging the hole to all sides and hopefully containing any nasty smells.

Do a proper job or get done.

Well duh! 🙂

C’mon, this is patio murderer 101.

If the wife’s name is Louise no other excuses are required

Just lay the slabs on top of the old ones after a quick dusting of sand?

BigEaredBiker – Member
If the wife’s name is Louise no other excuses are required

Beer/keyboard interface! 😆