Week 20: Phase 4 - The Patio. First half of the week.

 This is the bit I'm a little nervous about, but to be honest not knowing what I'm doing each phase has been a bit worrying. I've done a lot of research on what not to do and how to do it, so with a bit of luck it should go OK? But I've basically got to dig a load of clay out and get the area to a certain depth below the damp proof course and then fill it with MOT and lay the tiles. Let's see how it goes...

Over the last week I realised because of all the rain there was an issue with water collecting at point where the patio meets the gabions and I've dug a trench with the idea that this may help, but with just one nights worth of rain look what has happened and over the period of a day this water didn't disappear. I may have made the situation worse by putting a tarp over the whole area directing the water to the gully rather than allowing it to permeate into the whole area. I still think I need to make a fairly big drain though of some sort to collect the water.

I've looked at a bunch of different methods now and that's concerned me further. Now I'm thinking that perhaps I should be channeling the water back towards the house to make use of the existing drainage system? It's raining again tonight, so it'll be interesting to see how much rain collects in the gully.

For the moment I'm thinking I'll make a system similar to what I had planned previously using gabion cages filled with rock, but now I'm going to have 3 pipes that will direct the water back to the original drainage soak-away system that was installed when the houses were built in the 1970's. 

Monday and Tuesday. Strewth. This bit is hard, dull and slow. I had a plan to dig out about a square yard a day and I've just about done it. I'm probably making it harder for myself for the following reasons.

Tuesday: Working with the levels and putting back the stones once they've been sieved today. The sieving is tedious and slow. I'm pleased with the use of the pegs and setting the levels as it means as I put the stones in I'm able to see how consistent the levels are. I'm not sure how deep I should go with the stones, but I need to keep in mind that they're going to be compacted and a bloke at the cricket club - Paul Singleton mentioned the fact that the bed doesn't have to be that amazing as it's only going to be walked on and wont be subjected to any real weight. so that's something to keep in mind. He also said that it's not necessary to go as far as I am with the sieving of the dirt.