Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Chatting => Design and Construction => Topic started by: Goosegirl on October 01, 2020, 11:45
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I re-pointed the patio flags at our previous home and made mine from a mix of plaster and sand which turned out fine. I'm now replacing the pointing between the patio flags at our new home using a ready-mix powder then adding enough water to make a cake-mix consistency and am having a bit of trouble. Despite being careful not to get any on the flags by scraping off any escapees I keep ending up with a light grey "dust-like" area on their edges which won't brush off. Also, I found it went stiffer as time went on so should I have left it a while before use? Any tips would be gratefully received.
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Sounds like a mortar mix, which obviously starts to 'go off'' soon after mixing, so best to mix it in small quantities, although you can add a bit more water if it's getting harder to work with.
It's very difficult for the amateur (well, this one anyway ::)) to avoid getting some on the surrounding flags - you may be able to remove stains with stainless steel wirewool, water, and lots of elbow grease (brick cleaning liquids are available, but they usually contain hydrochloric acid which would dissolve limestone and possibly damage concrete flags too.)
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How about stuffing the mortar mix between the flags when still in a dry state, tamping down, refilling brushing off the excess THEN misting down the mortar. Or wait for the morning dew to do it.
Cheers, Tony.
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Hello my uncle use to point between flags with an adapted skeleton gun and tube it had an upright tube for the mortar and a plunger on the back it could get between flags with out marking them jezza
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Methinks I could cobble some Heath Robinson jobbie up. I was thinking of making something like an icing bag by getting a sturdy cellophane bag, cutting the corner off, inserting a device like an icing nozzle, taping it onto the bag with insulation tape, filling said bag with the mix then piping it into the spaces between the flags.
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You can get a reasonably price mortar gun from Screwfix. Use building sand and cement with added plasticiser to the water. It needs to be quite wet. An easy job though. Talking of easy, we often use Easi joint. It comes in various colours and sets really hard. The advantage over mortar is that it can be applied in the rain. In fact it makes things easier. Just sweep the material over the area Whilst constantly spraying with a hose pie with a nozzle on.
https://www.azpects.co.uk/products/easy-joint.aspx
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I'd use a mixture of mainly sand with just a little cement, as a dry mix. Just sweep it over the flags, and do it several times as it sinks down.
When block paving is laid, there are always some tiny cracks in the joints, and some layers just dust plain sharp sand down into them!
Years ago, there was a spate of new block paving in a London Borough. In one particular area, a depression was noted in a road, often crossed by buses, and on investigation, the blocks were taken up, and a huge void was underneath, several feet deep! The strength of the blocks being laid tightly together had meant that they didn't even sink more than a few millimeters!
I try and keep any moisture away from pointing, as around now, there's enough in the air to make a weak cands mix harden as well as anything!
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Dick Strawbridge.
Escape to the chateaux channel 4, showing how to do things, ep 2 or 3.
Love this guy, also Angel
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Hi Gg, I have to repoint some flags now, and wondered what method you finally used. I feel myself erring toward just some sharp sand with a very small amount of cement. Brushing it in and leaving. What did you do ? Mrs Bouquet
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we used dried kiln sand for both our flags and block pavers after cleaning we filled the joints and they look quite good we where told to get some dried kiln sand that contained weedkiller but as i had some dried kiln sand in the shed i used that up but I'm going to look round for dried kiln sand that contains weedkiller next time also you need a dry day to do this work
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I had a look at the sand with weedkiller and to be honest the reviews with 'photos were not all that good. So perhaps your using the dry sand is as good. Thanks for your advice. regards, Mrs B
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that's interesting to know Mrs B the builder put dry kiln sand with weed killer when he did the drive and its lasted 4 years so we are only just getting weeds through now but as i said I'm using the old sand up first so it mite be a good idea to spray the weeds when they come up between the joints instead of using dry kiln with added weed killer and i will do the same with out slabs on the patio