Rachel's Journal

ordinary building sand does the trick. buy it by the tonne bag. however pack it down tight with the whacker plate and then start to lay the paving. The secret is the dry mortar mix between the paving to stop weed growth. But if still not happy contact Jim on the Meath site as he layed a beautiful stone circle recently and he would be best able to advise.

morter. plastering sand in a finer type of sand and usually costs more. Morter sand will not under compaction move as much as the finer plastering sand. I think there maybe alot of different types and grades of sand to be had , but morter sand will do the job for you. hope this helps .

Mortar is what you need, Rachel. It's a coarser sand and is better for drainage and easier to level off. But if you are setting the slabs into cement, you shouldn't need any sand.

Morter sand would do just fine once it is compacted down well. It would be no harm to put a few shovels of cement in it to firm it up, and as spider says the dry mortar mix between the joints is the secret

Thanks, everyone. That's really helpful. Mortar sand it is. I intend to get 8cm of it and firm it down to 5cm. I note your tip, spider, on getting the sand between the paving. I saw the guys who laid my greenhouse floor do that and took due note. They left me a pile of it and I occasionally top it up on the greenhouse paving. A few shovels of cement, Big Noel, now you're confusing me with someone who knows what they're doing. I think that is a bit beyond my abilities. I think the firmed, levelled sand should suffice. It's what they did on the inside of my greenhouse after all. Besides, the paving can't slip out towards the grass - see the cliff we had to build to make it level! So, it could only slip into the flower bed - oops. Hope that doesn't happen but, if it does, you'll hear all about it in good time.

rachel, will you keep some gaps in to put stuff like creeping thyme (i just typed 'creeping time' by accident, how funny) or are you going for a more tidy look? i can't wait to see how it turns out.

Rachel, I am always learning something new on these pages. DIfferent types of sand? It never would have occurred to me to think about it. I am hoping to lay a stone circle later this year, so I am watching the comments closely. Friends of mine have had to take one out, to make space for an extension, and I am going to give it a new home.

It's going to be formal, Jools. I have a stone table I want to put on it to make an eating area. Trug, that's a great find. You did right to take it. I hope your garden is more level than mine though as we had to make quite an excavation in the end.