Drill holes in paving slabs for drainage or remove them?

[martin645]

Hi,

I have an area of my garden about 2 meters by 3 covered with paving slabs. Because we have dogs, we need to clean this bit of the garden regularly with a hosepipe, however because the slabs are laid completely flat, the water does not drain off but just pools on top of the slabs which is not very hygienic!

I am thinking of putting a layer of gravel on top to allow the water to drain better, but obviously this is no good if the water is just going to drain down to the level of the paving slabs and then sit there as before. I was thinking of just drilling a bunch of holes in the slabs before putting on the gravel, but I've just been out to take a look and on second thoughts it looks like it might be less effort to just lift the slabs up with a crowbar (possibly breaking them into manageable chunks with a sledgehammer).

Can anybody give an opinion on which of the two options would be easiest?

Ta,

Martin

 

[noseall]

Lay some more slabs on top with a drain off camber.

 

[Robotmannick]

Slabs with a camber make most sense. With an area that size, there should be no problem with drainage through the soil/grass etc to the side.

I'd definitely avoid gravel on the existing slabs though. It'll be like walking on marbles and only a matter of time before someone slips over.

Nick

 

[martin645]

I have considered laying more slabs with proper drainage, but:

- I'm really quite keen to have something other than slabs to walk on - without getting into too much disgusting detail, gravel/pebbles are much easier to clean off once the dogs have used an area for toilet duty.

- The area is surrounded on 3 sides by the walls of the house, and on the fourth side by a neighbours garden. I have a vague idea that it's not a good idea to direct run-off water onto the walls of a house, and because we use cleaning chemicals to hose the area down, it's probably not polite to direct it into our next-door neighbour's garden either.

- I'm 99% sure that if I tried to lay paving slabs they would not end up with a nice neat camber, but instead would be pointing all over the place That kind of precision work is not my speciality!

 

[skotl]

Is it possible for you to cut a canal groove down the middle (hire a cutter from HSS) then have angled slabs on top that drain to the centre?

Wouldn't think that it would have to be massive - maybe 30mm wide?

 

[martin645]

Just to give some closure here....

When I took a closer look at the slabs it became obvious that the mortar was in pretty bad condition so I lifted them out, dug some shallow drainage ditches and filled everything in with gravel.

Thanks for all the replies,

M