Preparing ground for porcelain paving tiles

[marslo911]

Good afternoon Guys,

I spent few hours over the weekend removing an old paving slabs in my garden. What i've discovered underneath can be seen on the pictures. I would like to ask, what would be the best way moving forward to lay proper ground for porcelain paving tiles?



Thank you in advance,

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[aeromech3]

Try to get your pictures right way up, S-E has a link and I for one certainly cannot turn my PC screen 90*.
Have you a Builders rake to start with, to collect the larger hard core lumps?
As it looks fairly level have you decided on covering the whole area, then what about drainage?
Have you decided on a bed of sand or mortar mix base?
Have you decided on thickness of tiles?
If you are leaving the concrete remember you need at least 30mm on that of sand or mortar and plus the tile thickness is it getting near to your DPC?

[marslo911]

Apologies, pictures - no matter which way i turn on my pc, it still displays wrong way around on the forum.

1) Will do - so just a bigger pieces.
2) There is a drainage cover, which previously was covered by slabs, i know its a rookie question - but if this was covered by slabs for years, is it even necessary ?
3) Not decided yet, based on what you see, what would be the better option for solid base for my tiles?
4) Not yet, just putting things together for now.
5) I can measure this up tomorrow to double check.

[Someone-Else]

Try to get your pictures right way up, S-E has a link and I for one certainly cannot turn my PC screen 90

That will be me then.

2) There is a drainage cover, which previously was covered by slabs, i know its a rookie question - but if this was covered by slabs for years, is it even necessary ?

Builders often spend a long time installing things you don't need


You should also use the following buttons in numerical order.

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[dewaltdisney]

Will the porcelain tiles suit the property? I would look at ordinary slabs, they would sit better with the brickwork.

DWD

[marslo911]

Will the porcelain tiles suit the property? I would look at ordinary slabs, they would sit better with the brickwork.

DWD

Thanks for advise, we had slabs before. Maybe this could be a good idea.

[dewaltdisney]

I just think that tiles might be less robust and slippy when wet. There are so many slabs to choose from now you do not need to go plain squares.

DWD

[marslo911]

Good afternoon, being absent for couple weeks.

I managed to pick bigger pieces of concrete and left over of the old cement and leveled up with remaining stones (at least as much as i could).

1) From the concrete to the line of DPC on lowest point i measured 140mm. Would it be enough to not cover DPC with base, cement and thickness of the tile (lets say 20mm tile)
2) Still have this unsolved mystery, of what to do with drainage cover, as pointed out it must be needed if installed (joke). I was thinking to tile around it and maybe make a wooden (like decking cover) or dedicated cover which i can put tiles over it ? Any suggestions please ?

@Someone_Else can i have a link to arrange the pictures vertical please ?


Soonest i have a link i will post pictures showing the patio.

Thank you again for all help and support.

[etaf]

1) From the concrete to the line of DPC on lowest point i measured 140mm. Would it be enough to not cover DPC with base, cement and thickness of the tile (lets say 20mm tile)

looking at the picture - the DPC seems to be 1 brick above the existing gravel - but i maybe wrong , difficult to see
Brick is around 65MM
so as aeromech3 has said
30mm sand/cement mix + 20mm tiles
50mm - then very close to DPC -
Recommendation is for the ground finished level to be 150mm below the DPC

Consider what are planning to use to cut the tiles - Porcelain is much tougher , as i discovered when laying porcelain tiles for my Porch and cutting those , chipped quite a few - BUT they were ALL going to be under the wood panelling/threshold so did not matter in this case

[dewaltdisney]

This link is worth a read https://www.pavingexpert.com/flags-and-slabs

DWD

[marslo911]

estaf, thanks for reply. It is 130mm-140mm at the lowest point (there is a more to DPC) however not clearly seen on the picture. And is covered in sludge hence look like one one brick height. So we are left +/- with 80 mm. Not great but honestly i am not looking forward to crack this amount of concrete. I can say the highest point of the patio is righ below the French Windows.

I was thinking to work with paving edging made by bricks, and white stones. So i don't have to deal with uneven corners: Similar to this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGGFv2dAwW4

Next question would be: Can i lay tiles (which ever tiles i will choose to go with) directly in mix mortar, over the concrete? How about the surface over the left side of this picture, recently removed bigger pieces of concrete and mortar, and now is pretty much leveled however i will still establish level with 5% drop for water to flow down, and will compact the stones.

Can anyone enlighten me how to turn these pictures correct way ? Thank you

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