block paving advise

[tuckjointer]

I'm going to block pave my front drive and need a little advise on material quantities.
The area is 34 meters sqr,
Basically I intend to excavate down 200mm then fill 100mm with type 1, 50mm sharp sand and a 50mm paving. I know how much tpye 1 and sand I need although the quantities are uncompacted.

Do I need to add a small % for the compacted quantities of each?

Thanks

 

[Thermo]

firstly you want 150mm of mot for a driveway. anything less leads to a chance of areas sinking, unless youre on very firm ground such as chalk or bedrock etc

you want to allow about 25% ish on top for compacting the mot and the sharp sand

 

[tuckjointer]

Cheers Thermo

The soil around my house is very heavy clay, I guess I should be using 150mm type 1 right?

 

[Thermo]

when we do a driveway in heavy clay we do a 300mm mot bed compacted in layers. didnt want to hear that did you!

Having said that its not much more expensive if you go to a local haulier rather getting the stuff in bulk bags. only pain is the extra cost of the muck away.

 

[tuckjointer]

300mm mot bed

I have to dig 34 square meters @ 400mm deep, plus, a 1.2 cubic meter soak away.

my poor back

Thanks for the advice.....I think

 

[WabbitPoo]

A soakaway in clay wont do much.

Anyway, use a mini-digger.

 

[EddieM]

That's nearly 30 tonnes of material to excavate, I think a mini digger is a must. Useful advice here as well as the advice already given.

 

[Thermo]

just over 10m3 before it bulks up, a 1.5 excavator will do it in a few hours. a large ro ro skip for about £200 and job done.

 

[WabbitPoo]

Increasingly we use a chap who has a grab lorry - if we can, we dump it near to or on the road and he picks it up. Cheaper than skips, less work for you, but the downside is it can be tricky to time it so the obstruction on the road is not there too long.

If the front garden is cr@p as well, dump it all on there and let someone else pick it up!