Little tip if you do it again. Set a strung line up to get your line AND level, saves you reaching for the tape all the time. Nice cutting around the posts 👍🏼
Ha Ha the dog waiting for you to throw the ball, exactly like my dog whenever I'm trying to do a job :) great job well done, very satisfying to see your own results isn't it!
I really like The Restoration Couple videos. They show how to do the job, but also the process as it really is, which is that it doesn't always go perfectly, it's hard work, and they show the human side such as the joy you feel when you complete parts of the job. They are informative and good for my morale as I don't feel like a complete incompetent. Thanks.
There are some paving landscapers who advise against a long run of gaps when laying pavers, and one should break up the long gap line where possible, but I’m not sure whether this is actually important. But I suppose in a paver pattern such as the one laid it will be a mental nightmare in attempting to break the long gap lines with all the different paver sizes. Your patio looks amazing.
Good job, nice design and really thorough - Im always pleasantly surprised when people really take the time and the effort; that patio will probably be there 30+ years so spending a few extra hours is nothing really.
Yes I tried it on the same slabs and it works a treat. I needed to remove a slab a few weeks later and with a few taps I managed to break the bond without breaking the slab
Gerry Duggan can you explain this comment, please? I’m doing the same job (pretty much) this weekend and don’t have many spare slabs, so wanted to know what you mean? Thanks
Bokulus Hpal I'm not sure, but he may have meant to mix Feb bond, I think it's a pva adhesive. Alternatively Feb bond SBR which is waterproofing type of admixture.
Good job, you've got more patience then me dry bonding all that :o Natural stones never easy to lay in my experience! Just a little tip, its good practise to lay these on a weaker mix 6-1 or 8-1 with a splash of plasticiser. Too stronger mix can lead to cracking of bed and popping of slabs. Hope you find this helpful for next time :)
Amateur Vegan with natural stone slabs I’ve read that a mortar bed can stain the top of the Stone Slabs after 5 month of laying, as the stone is porous. The article said you need to put a primer on the bottom of the stone slab to stop the absorption. Have you ever had this problem when you did yours? I am about to lay one next week and have never done it before so any advice would be great, also why don’t people just lay onto sharp sand?
Hey Did mixed cement and sand for the base you layed on the ground and or so what did you rub on the back of the stone before layed them on the base. Thanks
SBR is a generic adhesive/waterproofer. It's basically like an external PVA. It is sold by many brands and the no nonsense is the one I used and was fine.
What coverage would you say your SBR gave? Going to be so 100-110m2 of Indian stone in the coming month and the everbuild 503 is half the price if I buy a few at once instead of one at a time.. many thanks in advance
Well you use it 50/50 with water so it does go pretty far, I guess I used less than a tub, (which are 2.5l i think) That did 40m2 at a guess. Seems ages ago now so sorry if that is wrong!
I’ve been laying natural stone slabs at work and been applying an SBR agent to the concrete base and even on the back of the slab prior to laying but noticed when cured a couple of slabs rock and are loose....I’m tearing my hair out as to why? Any tips on what’s going wrong? The mortar is quite wet as well to compensate the natural dryness of the stone
If your doing what this guy does then thatl be why. Walking on the slabs when they are just put down is the reason they come off the bond especially standing on the corners
Did you seal the top of the limestone before starting laying? Only reason I ask is because any mortar left on paving will penetrate stone and stain... Removing mortar stain from limestone is practically impossible unless you know something i don't? Nice job tho!
No. The suppliers recommended leaving it natural with no sealer. That said we will probably seal at a later date especially around eating and cooking area. They do suggest leaving it a season though. The limestone does not stain at all from cement unlike our sandstone paths which we had to keep very clean as we laid. Darker limestones may well be worse but we had no problems at all. The pointing compound doesn't stain so that also helped as using mortar to point the sandstone setts would have been a long job!
Interesting to know as i know darker lime stones are a absolute git if any mortar is even to touch them. I would suggest to seal ASAP as the colour deteriorates very quickly with lime stone. I laid a black lime stone around 4 years ago in my garden without sealing and they are now grey! Lucky i like them grey now! Did the suppliers give a reason as to why to leave a season? Full credit to you, you have done a great job!
The reason is that their stone reaches the highest standards and therefore shouldn't really need sealing. Allowing the stone to breathe and weather naturally has worked on the rest of the 120 year old stone and flags here so I can see their thinking. It is really just the grease and oils from cooking that I want to avoid staining. Black limetone is definitely harder to keep black and cement stains as you say.
Hi great job. I brought natural stone slabs from a well known diy store but no matter what I do I can't get the lines to match. Some are thin some are thick due to the off sizes off the slabs. I am being told i have done it right as alot of the time the sizes differ with natural stone but yours look perfect and mine just looks like I ain't done it right!
It all depends on if they are calibrated or not, you can tell by checking to see if they have grooves in the back where they are thicknessed. It should not be a problem as on a full mortar bed they all end up level anyway by tapping to levels.
It's all in the next video. It's just 50/50 sbr and water thickened up with cement. Works very well. Otherwise there is a premix called pro prime I believe.
I will be laying bog standard grey slabs to site a green house. Will I need to use the slurry method on the underside of the slab or can I just brush on water? If I do need to use slurry what is the consistency of the slurry?
Do you have any advice for how to judge the amount of mortar to put down each time? I’m currently lying my patio and it’s taking ages to lay each slab because they will barely hammer down.
I've now cleared the old paving from my garden,the back of the garden is soil on a higher level.So if I clear all that and get s slight run off what do I then put down?
Hi thanks for sharing, your videos helped me a lot in my own project. How is the rain water drained from this area? Is there a gap between the sleepers and the slabs.
Hi Tim, I've been following you on YT for ages now and you have given out some great advice, thank you. I have a query, I laid a patio very similar to yours about 10 years ago but now the mortar pointing has failed, I now have weeds growing out of all the joints and I also have several loose slabs. I'm planning on raking out the joints and giving the whole patio a very good clean. What mortar mix do you recommend for bedding any of the loose slabs on? I think i used sharp sand previously but should i use red sand this time time? What ratio should i use, 5 sand to 1 cement?. Also now since laying the slabs I see that a SBR/Water slurry should be pasted on the back of each slab, that's bound to help adhesion. Lastly I was going to use SIKA resin as my jointing compound or would you recommend anything else. I hope you have time to answer my few questions and thank you for sharing your fantastic DIY skills with us all.
I’ve found that substituting one part of the sharp sand to building sand helps a little. But yes slurry mix works great. The first resin pointing we used was fastpoint from Stonemarket and after 5 years is great. The sika version I used this summer looks to be the same but no long term feedback.
@@TheRestorationCouple thank you Tim, appreciate your time. So mortar mix, 1 building sand, 4 sharp sand, 1 cement and slurry mix 50:50 SBR:water plus trowel full of cement? Many thanks again 👍
@@TheRestorationCouple thank you, this was a question I was going to ask, my other question is what's the advantage of this..?? By the way, great informative series of videos, exactly what I'm hoping to achieve.... WELL DONE !!!!
@@TheRestorationCouple I have another question. previously slabs laid on sand bedding & I use Weed Barrier Fabric. Is that safe to use sand cement mix on Weed Barrier Fabric? or It's better to remove Weed Barrier Fabric ?
@@TheRestorationCoupleThanks for your speedy reply, for what it costs it's defiantly worth doing, once again this is exactly what we're looking for, I don't suppose you can remember the product details for the actual stone itself..? I'll be getting onto this as soon as we're allowed to start visiting builders merchants again. Thanks, Ian...
All solid. The SBR slurry on the back seems to have been a good success. I attempt to remove one during some other work and had to break out as it was stuck solid to the mortar bed. 👍
I’ve been doing my house up for 3 years insides done now and I’m on outside. Your videos have helped motivate me throughout the whole process thank you. ( im a bricky by the way I was impressed with your pizza oven I know qualified Brickies earning good money on site that could not do as good a job.
There's those who know, and those who don't, sadly you come in the latter of those groups. Misleading new DIY ers. Domit properly or don't do it at all, leafe it to the pro's.!
