Hi As title. Garden to be slabbed is stepped down next to house flanked by two brick sheds either side. Effectively a courtyard once retaining wall is built for the higher terrace. So, the only place for water to drain off properly is in this central wee surface drain. Want to buy a patio pack raj blend so not too riven. 600,900,300 dims so random pattern. Possible to slant patio away from all 4 sides and into the middle? Area is small 4x3m. Can't afford to pay someone to do it, only for a cheap cowboy job so would rather try myself. Ground already excavated, primarily sand. Type 1 mot to come on at weekend and whacked to shape. I get the feeling driveway pavers would be easier. But north facing in shade and will become moss carpet. Don't want concrete oasis. Worst case scenario I make a v away from the house and opp retaining wall. Then water will hopefully make it down central line to drain. Or put a gully in middle? Don't want a swimming pool.... What you think?
Could use some slot drainage down the middle or one side, quite a few makes available. http://www.aco.co.uk/product_detail.php?id=11
I think I would be inclined to run a length of slotted drainage channel down the middle of the patio and lay your paving sloping one way (each side) into it - as you describe a 'v' shape but with a drain. You can couple the channel into the existing drain but will probably need to change the gully pot. The channel only needs to fall very slightly into the gully each way so should make laying the slabs relatively straightforwards. The harder thing in my opinion is to lay random rectangular paving so that it looks good - avoiding 'cross joints', long straight runs and no pattern repetition. It can be done though and looks great when finished.
Thanks guys. If the drain was changeable this would work great but I think it's way too high in relation to optimal dpc clearance to run into from underneath, and heavily concreted in. It's outside my remit to modify so have to work with it. There's also gas, electric lines going under that mass. If I can't find any slot drain shallow enough like 1", maybe I can make a sort-of trench from mortar that runs into drain at an angle. I'm not too fussed about the pattern looking any good and want to make as few cuts as poss as a noob so I might do it so that the slabs line up at the trench... Can't look any worse than it did prior I don't think..... If anyone comes up with anything else I'm all ears... Unless I'm overthinking it... Thanks again guys
It sounds like you've hit on the solution by using a long central joint as a pseudo channel under the circumstances. If you make the joint a little wider than the others so that it is clearly what it is, then when you fill the joint with mortar use a piece of plastic waste pipe to smooth the joint into a channel shape. It doesn't have to be that deep, just enough to look like what you're trying to achieve. I hope that makes sense.
'Kin ekkers like! Thanks that's a great idea. I'll do that. With the pipe impression I won't even need to tilt all slabs towards the drain as well as to make a v, just push the pipe in more on the drain side. I'll post a picture when it's done, said everyone ever. Cheers all
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