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Weeds mat I am doing a small area and leaving stepping stones. Do you put the road base down then weeds mat then the stepping stones put a little hole in the weeds Mat concrete then pavers can you do it that way I am seeing a lot of videos and getting different opinion from a lot of people and seeing a lot of videos I’ve got the basic idea how to do it. I’m pretty good at that kind of stuff. I just want to doublecheck can you do it that way? Thank you hear back from you soon.
Hi @jarrod11
So you want to lay pavers on cement pads on top of weed mat it looks like. Great
A) You wont need road base unless you need to fix a drainage issue for starters and it will save you $ and time. You can use road mix to lift the level of the area up so you use less concrete, but Concrete is not super expensive.
OR
A1) If you use road mix and compact it you wont need concrete as the area primed ready to go People lay pavers directly on compacted road base once pavers has stones or stuff around them they rarly move.
Lay your weed mat on anything bare dirt is fine then simply blob your concrete on top then lay your paver on the wet cement. vary the cement height to create flat level pavers,
No need to cut weed mat to lay concrete through it.
Ultimatly no real wrong ways here but you might want to save some steps and time and money.
Good luck.
The two photos are showed that’s what I’m doing. Do I put down the jumbo weed Mat in the road base on top or put the road base down first, then the jumbo, we met put a little slit in it a little bit of concrete and then pavers I mean stepping stones
Hi @jarrod11,
Thank you for your question and welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community, it is fantastic to have you with us.
It's great to see you've already had some advice from one of our knowledgeable members @Jewelleryrescue. As he has said, there is not only one way to do this, but the most important thing is that your pavers are well supported by a strong base, whether it is mortar, road base or drainage gravel.
In your circumstances, my suggestion is to start with laying your weed mat. If you plan to plant anything on either side of your pathway, I'd suggest cutting holes in the weed mat, before moving on to the pavers. You can see an example of this in How To Install Weed Matting.
If you plan to cover the entire area in your photo with stones, I'd suggest using road base or drainage gravel over the entire area, compacting with a tamper and laying your pavers directly over.
If you plan to have grass or plants growing in and around the pavers, compact a small amount of road base under each paver then use mortar to set them in place and level. There is no need to cut through the weed mat to do this.
Check out How To Prepare For Paving and How To Prepare And Lay a Base For Pavers alongside How To Lay Pavers for some further guidance.
Let me know if you have any further questions.
Jacob
Hi @jarrod11
This is my path laid on original bare earth . As an option method that works and wont ever fail.
- Low cost
- Low Materials
- Low effort
- Will not move for ever unless disturbed intentionally
-Looks great.
1) Lay weed mat straight onto the ground (the ground be there forever it is already compacted a thousand years.) Compaction required on loose earth etc.
2) Simply pour a cement pad on top of the weed mat it will take the shape of the ground and allow the paver on top to be level and supported never moving. So now you have a row of little floating paver stepping / stone islands simply add the red stones all around them.
See Photo as a guide.
Note
I used outdoor tiles 18mm thick approx so the cement pad is critical to support the tile under foot to prevent cracking. These tiles like $2 each off gum tree. Job over runs.
Vs solid 30-40mm pavers costing $20 -$40 each which can be laid with out concrete at need just on a solid base as @JacobZ said wether it be compacted stuff, a cement pad or both.
I also have two drains under the stones for flash rain events.
3) The jobs done.
As a idea contrast for an ultra minimalistic garden path. To the right in the picture there is informal winding garden path made from black and white Marble and granite tiles 18mm thick just sitting on old mulch and soil no cement no compaction they have being there 3 years plus. The mulch supports them eventully as it mulches down but initially there was a bit of tile movment which risks tile cracking. Cracking not importand here as they where left over tiles put to use.
A Garden path can be super simple
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