Designing a simple paving pattern

Hi everyone

I'm putting down a sandstone patio at the back of the house. The boyfriend does this stuff every day at work so the technicalities of hardcore/sand etc. etc. are taken care of. I am in charge of figuring out how many slabs we need and so need to make a design. The area isn't a square or rectangle but is more like 3 rectangles stuck together as I'm constricted by existing trees and sheds.

Is there an easy way of using excel (or something) to work out a pattern? There are 2 size slabs; 60 x 30 cms and 30cm square. We want to stay away from cutting as far as possible.

Thanks
Rebecca

Hi Miss Ribena


I am an Arch. Tech and does this sort of thing for a living. Your best bet is to measure the area accurately and drawing up a survey plan to scale. Then using greaseproof paper and graph paper you can optimise the design to suit. If you want to avoid cutting slabs you can stop just short of any walls, obstacles etc (to the nearest whole slab) and fill the remainig "gap" with nice round pebble or bigger round cobbles. You might be able to get this free from the beach (although maybe not advisable- could be illegal!) This not only breaks up the area and gives a bit of visual contrast/ interest but is good for drainage. You can buy 1 tonne dumpy bags of clean, washed pea gravel (choice of sizes, colours available) from good garden centres, quarries. Expect to pay about €100 or thereabouts, a tonne would go a long way in your case. Be sure to to lay "Terram" weed barrier beneath any paving/ gravel. Leave out slabs for planting, using bricks to create feature bands margins.....And finally buy Tommy'Walsh's book based on the Ground Force programme. It's full of tips, ideas and dodgey puns! I find it invaluable. It's published by the BBC and will pay for itself in no time. Most of all enjoy, the design is worth spending time on, think about aspect, orientation of the sun, where you will site your table, deck chair etc. Good luck.

Thanks Carpenter. You are a mine of information! I was afraid that the TV series type books might be a bit gimmicky. I have a Readers Digest and Collins DIY manual but they don't go into enough detail on a the design side.

Rebecca

I'd be wary of those type of books myself but I can personally recommend Tommy Walsh's book, it's called "Ground Force- Practical Garden Projects". The only gimmick with it is his humour, but worth it. It's about €15, about the cost of 4 of your paving slabs I'd reckon. Let me know how you get on.

MissRibena said:

Hi everyone

I'm putting down a sandstone patio at the back of the house. The boyfriend does this stuff every day at work so the technicalities of hardcore/sand etc. etc. are taken care of. I am in charge of figuring out how many slabs we need and so need to make a design. The area isn't a square or rectangle but is more like 3 rectangles stuck together as I'm constricted by existing trees and sheds.

Is there an easy way of using excel (or something) to work out a pattern? There are 2 size slabs; 60 x 30 cms and 30cm square. We want to stay away from cutting as far as possible.

Thanks
Rebecca

Click to expand...

For additional info and advice from somebody who knows what he is talking about (and I dont mean to imply those that reply do not know!!!) then head over to tommy at http://www.pavingexpert.com/


S.

Hi SuzieI checked out that site, wow! all you could ever possibly want to know about paving, I'm impressed.

Carpenter

Thanks Suzie and Carpenter.

I have the design worked out so I'm all set. In the end (and why didn't I think of this earlier!), I did it in excel by setting the cell height and width to correspond with the smallest unit and then joined some together to produce a bigger unit.

Rebecca