Crumbling pointing

[sumhouse]

Hi there, hope someone can help.

3 years ago I had a patio put in. The landscapers used the 5point blob technique (after reading various forums, now know this is a big NO NO) and wet pointed with a pointing gun. Last year the pointing started to crumble and go all sandy and now it's all totally covered in moss. None of the slabs are moving but are some are sounding hollow when you walk on them.

It is quite a large patio (60sq m) and I can't afford to have it all lifted and redone and I haven't the energy to do it myself. So I guess what I'm asking is if I was too remove the old pointing, would it be possible for me to re-point using a damp mixture and give it a damn good squashing to try to get it into the voids.

Hope someone out there can give me some good news!

 

[Thermo]

providing the slabs arent rocking then that will be the best way of doing it. If you use a length of feather edge board that will make ramming it in to the gaps a lot easier and efficent

 

[sumhouse]

Thanks for your reply Thermo.

Can I ask another question? I was going to buy the sand and cement separately but I've just received a Homebase newsletter and they have an offer on Hanson bags of mortar. Would this product be suitable? I like the idea of readymix because I wouldn't have to do the whole patio in one go and could just plod along at my own pace and the readymix would sort out colouring matching.
If not, they also have an offer on Bradstone kiln dried sand. Could this be used instead of builders sand?
Thanks again.

 

[morrik27]

You could wait for a nice sunny day.....

mix up the sand and cement while it'all dry (or use the premixed stuff.

While the sun's out run a watering can around the gaps to be pointed so they're nice and wet inside... don't worry about getting water on the slabs, leave it for a bit and the sun will dry the surface off.....
then you can push the dry mix into the gaps and voids and run over it with brick jointer, piece of hose pipe.
If the gaps are nice and wet inside it'll draw the wet up into the joint giving you a nice wet joint, but without the mess on the slabs.