Progress is S L O W ...

[Burgerman]

For those interested in how my drive is progressing, (and there are probably non!) heres a picture today...

This month has rained every single day here apart from one. I feel sorry for these guys. They started this a month ago. Dug out 12 to 14 inches. Hardcore, roller, dry mix concrete, build walls, sand, and then blocks... And they cant get on. And I cant get in or out the house for weeks reliably, and theres as much cement, mud, and sand indoors as out.



http://www.taylorspaving.co.uk/images/s ... -2-big.jpg
Big image...

This drive, is the last biyt of my big plan that started in 97 when I broke my neck/back. The plan to get everything open, easy, low maintainance, cheap to run, so as I get older I have an easy life...
It included removing walls, making every room bigger, more accessible and even things like LED low running cost lighting indoors and out throughout. And plastic "woodwork" everywhere. No painting. And even the back garden levelled, and no borders with plants to maintain or weed etc. Just big plant pots with trees.

Latest:



Should have no trouble finding a place to park... As a wheelchair user I am a firm believer in flat surfaces. So no grass. I am like a dalek. Run on the flat only.

Last week with about 1/4 of it chopped up.



Getting to the pub / walking the dog needed my BM2... Try this in one of those pride mid drive things!

[Burgerman]

Today... going to be too good to park on.

[Lord Chatterley]

They lay the bricks on sand? Why don't the bricks sink in like they would on a beach?

LC

[Burgerman]

No idea. But thats always how its done. And a 10 year guarantee. They have already had a big truck drive over to drop off more blocks for the side of the house. Nothing moved. Strange isnt it.

[Lord Chatterley]

Perhaps it is a quality of that river-sand stuff someone mentioned - the very fine particles do not trap air?

LC

[ex-Gooserider]

They lay the bricks on sand? Why don't the bricks sink in like they would on a beach?

LC

First off the sand is packed very tightly (note the small vibratory plate compactor in a couple of the earlier pictures...

Secondly, in order for something to sink into the sand, there has to be someplace for the displaced sand to go... In this case the blocks are to close together to let the sand go between them, and the adjacent blocks prevent any one block from pushing the sand under it up - essentially it acts like a single giant surface, so it floats on the sand.

Where the problems come in is if the lower layers aren't done just right so that you either get water trapped under the blocks which then freezes and expands, or if there is enough flow under the blocks to wash the supporting sand out from under them.

ex-Gooserider

[Burgerman]

Its pretty hard wearing. They do roads like this, and ancient cobbled streets were the same. After many years some will move a little. You can either ignore it, or lift a few blocks and level the sand, then get that wacker plate out and run it over the blocks again. In reality, impurities, salt, bird crap etc washes between the blocks, and the sand hardens and doesent move. But if you really worry, you wash them over with a few buckets of dilute PVA and water. It soaks into the sand and glues it together so it doesent move. Will do this in the entrance way I think.

[Lord Chatterley]

It certainly looks pretty - did you have any problems getting planning permission?

LC

[Burgerman]

No. Looking about 3/4 finished now.

[Sully]

Beach sand, the kind that surf and tide runs over is generally round under a microscope, bank run has angled corners (sharp) 5 to 7 per grain. When compacted they support each other. If the sub soil is adequate, and that is a measurable factor there is no place for the volume of soil to go (be displaced) due to the capping feature of the pavers.

If the subsoil is inadequate or questionable then a structurable fabric (Geo textile) is used. You can also cheat a bit on sand using a structural fabric. I have used fabric with a foot of crushed gravel over a swamp and run ten wheel dump trucks over it immediately after placement. There are many grades and weights of this "structural fabric".

[Lord Chatterley]

Job done yet?

LC

[Burgerman]

yep...