Paths

[Jeewhizz]

Forum Dads,

I want to lay a path on my front lawn.

Overview:
At the moment, the lawn is square, and directly in front of the house. There is a driveway down the side of the lawn, extending down the side of the house.

What I want is to do a diagonal path from the driveway, across the lawn, to the front door.

The ground is grass, and then soil - not clay-like really.

Am I right in thinking that this is the right way to go about it:

Dig up the turf and remove soil to a good depth.

I reckon the slabs will be about 3cm thick. I need to leave about 2cm gap from the grass level to the slab top, so that my lawnmower won't chew it up.

Beneath the slabs, I was thinking of putting a 5cm/2inch layer of sharp sand / cement mix at 1:9 ratio. Does that sound decent enough?

It's only going to be used for walking on, so I was hoping I could get away with not using a concrete base or concrete spots.

I'm planning on doing it all myself, so be easy on me

Any tips/pointers gratefully received!

[Shirker]

For a path a sand or gravel base will be fine. No need for concretre there young man. Chucking a precautionary bit of cement in as you suggest will firm it up, but you'd probably be fine with just the sand.

[Jeewhizz]

Cheers - you've verified what I thought.

TBH, the books I have say to use just sand, but my dad said that I might as well stick in a bit of cement in there whilst i'm doing it!

I think the hardest thing is going to be getting it level...

[yawner]

WSS

Plus, don't be tempted by fancy "coloured" concrete slabs. They tend to lose their colour after a year or two, then look crap for evermore.

[samhs]

use a bit of said sand to mark out the path before digging - it'll help you check it all works aesthetically before you do the hard work. Throw the sand on the ground as if it is chalk powder.

hth

Sam

[Jeewhizz]

Cheers

In the end we went for some big stepping stone type slabs - they are huge, but they are gonna look great once laid ( you can't say that about everything!)

Jee

[Haze]

I would put a base of small chuckies, layer of sharp sand, tamp down until sand is well compressed, a layer of cement to assist with the settling of the slabs then slabs on top as suggested. The chcukies will assist with any drainage and you'll be less likely to develop any wobbly slabs. You'll want them to be down for a long while without having to go out every few years and relaying them.

Andy

[Jeewhizz]

As with yawner's airport post, you're a wee bit too slow It's ok, you're scottish!

Path is laid now - I will post some pictures later

[Haze]

It was late (past 1am) too.... but better late than never.... but hope you had plenty of drainage under the path. We had neigbours who didn't and after a year or two their slabs started to sag....