Our patio is old and tired – with ugly precast slabs. I was thinking of a cheap and easy solution to spruce it up, maybe spread 50mm of decorative stone chippings over the top.

Its bordered by a (equally ugly – grey concrete bricks) low brick wall except a path off each side around the side of the house, so stone would be contained. I could lift the inside edge of the last slabs each side to ramp up level with the top of the stone.

Would this work? I was wondering mainly how much the stone would move on top of slabs, would I be forever raking it back into place like one of those Chinese feng-shui gardeners?

Also, as the patio floods in heavy rain leaving a layer of slimy mud, am I just going to end up with manky grey stones in 12 months time? Not sure jet washing stones would work.

You’ll have every cat within a mile pooing in it 🙁

personally, I’d find some slabs I did like the look of put a layer of sand down and lay them on top of the existing patio then brush cement in to seal.

do make sure you leave enough ‘free’ space below any damp proof courses on the house to prevent bridging.

[edit] although the flooding bit woudl worry me as the sand might wash away?

Smash up with sledge hammer, re-cement back together and have 80’s crazy paving, today.

is this abit like wallpapering over the old wallpaper…

its half a job , never looks good for long and yet people still do it.

the patio floods in heavy rain leaving a layer of slimy mud

stones on the top will make it worse.

lift the flags, find someone on freecycle to have them (or take them to the tip) then lay the stones onto whatever is underneath

We had a similar issue with a huge slab patio that was ugly. We lifted half the slabs and put a couple of tons or dirt down and turfed it. We now have half patio and half lawn.

I’d rip the old patio up, look at putting some drainage in to avoid the flooding issue and lay a new patio with slabs that you like. Anything else is just going to be a bodge, IMO.