Week 23: Phase 4. First half of the week.

 Rain's the other issue, it's no longer mentally hot, instead we're having constant showers, which may be a problem when it comes to the Slabs going down. I've got two weeks left of the holiday now, so hopefully I'll get the slabs done in that time! I've got everything - the primer came yesterday, so it's all systems go. It's just getting the level of the MOT right. There's another bag due on Monday 2/8/21 and hopefully that'll be enough to finish it off. In theory, if that goes down and is sufficient I can start laying slabs on Monday.

Monday - The MOT turned up at midday. I got 85% of it down to the bottom and then Ben got involved and helped finish it off and pack it all down using the Whacker plate. Initially I thought I was going to have too much, in the end it looks like I've probably got the right amount and I've used all of the bag.

Ben compacting the MOT and getting it leveled. I checked it with the level and it runs away left to right nicely and consistently and generally looks pretty good. 

Dry run looking at things like the gaps and how the slabs are inconsistent in terms of their size which means that the gaps between the stones will be different. Having done this above, I've decided that the cobble drain/gap against the house can be smaller. This'll help with the size of the slabs that will need to be cut on the gabion side.

I've got most of the slabs down and ready for tomorrow and the cement mixer.

Easy prime ready, just got to get some Febmix plasticizer for the mortar.

Cement ready and dry in the garage and the sharp sand is in the garden at the top. Everything is ready and it's all systems go. The only thing I'm not liking is the horrible red 'Engineering bricks' around the edge and as far as I can make out you can't and shouldn't paint them. To me they look ugly and spoil the aesthetics. 

Tuesday - Whoa, today was a bit tricky... Mixtures, ratios, space, timing with things going off and drying up, getting the ratios wrong and things going awry later on all a bit worrying, then when we got things going learning on the job, initially not getting enough mortar down, stuff like that, but eventually after the first barrow of mortar and about 4 slabs in we were on a roll and getting it done. 

I'm happy with today's progress as all of this was new to us, when you do the research it all sounds complicated and there's loads of worse case scenarios that they mention. Even the most basic things like the consistency of the mortar mix isn't an exact science and is more down to having a feel for it or prior knowledge. Our first attempt following the guidance on Youtube 'Don't make it too wet' was too dry, which mean that when you tried to level it using the rubber mallet the mortar didn't give. But the next batch and subsequent batches were spot on. 

Process was important and people having designated jobs as all of the mixtures go off or dry out and so you don't really want to be hanging around doing nothing, so it worked out that Ben was the Mortar mixed and I was the layer of slabs and we both primed the slabs before getting them down. One tricky thing was getting the levels of the mortar bed right. Initially I tended to not use enough which then led to having to lift them again - put more mortar in and re-lay the slab, which might compromise their longevity in the longer run.

We finished quite early in the end giving us time to clean everything up. There's a lot of residual waste - mortar, slurry and what have you and cleaning the mixer created some waste filled water with no obvious place to get shot of it. The waste cement we've put down the edges of the gabion steps to reinforce them as well, but I'm not 100% that's a wise idea as they need to be finished too. 

Wednesday - Today we ran out of space to work and almost run out of sand, so finished up at 5pm again. I then spent the evening clearing up as much of the stuff at the bottom to allow us to finish up on Friday. Tomorrow because of the lack of sand I'll get organised and plan Friday. The sand will be delivered on Friday morning some time, so we'll make a concerted effort to get the patio completed by the end of the day on Friday.