I'm laying a cottage style garden pathway
with a gentle curve in it. I've got my tools for the job, my safety gear,
angle grinder, spirit level, my straight edge for my screeding, a hammer and chisel and
a measuring tape. I've got my paving sand and the cement and
I've also got my brick style pavers. Before I start work I clear my pathway of
all my materials so I've got a clear run at the job. The key to good paving is your preparation
and your foundations. I've got a 50ml depth of crushed rock, which
has been compacted into a level base and I've got the border. My paving base is now ready to start laying
pavers with a mixture of paving sand and cement through it. The ratio of sand and cement we're going to
use is three bags of paving sand to a handful of cement. Once I've put my sand down I get a handful
of cement, I roughly mix it through with my hand and then I'll screed it back then to
the necessary height so I can start laying my pavers. Before you start laying your pavers get a
straight edge exact width of your path. Two nails in the end that sits on top your
border so when you screed back it's exactly the same height so you can lay your pavers
on top. I'm starting to lay the path. I'm doing a stretch of the pathway which will
have a nice shape and snake style all the way down the path towards the house. I'll now put my string line across just to
make sure all the pavers are all level. I can see that there is a paver here that
is slightly low so I'll remove it and just put some more sand and cement underneath it
to bring it up to the correct level. I shall then use my paver rubber mallet just
gently tap it down. I can see another one here which is slightly
raised so again I'll gently just tap it down with my rubber mallet. I'll now spread some more cement I shall now
drop my level down, screed the sand and cement back and lay some more pavers. Sometimes after I've screeded you'll get a
bit of excess sand there. Just knock that back into the spaces and it'll
be the same level as what I've just screeded. There might be one or two pavers that are
a bit tight to get in so have your rubber mallet ready just to tap on them or push them
up. So once we've laid the next lot pavers I'll
bring the string line across them just to check the level. So the string levels are fine. So now mix the sand and cement through and
screed back and start laying the next level of pavers. I'm going to continue this process now towards
the end of path. So now we've come to the end of the job what
we've got to do know is put a full bag of sand into the wheelbarrow with a quarter bag
of white cement and we mix it and then we brush the sand with the cement into the cracks
of the pavers. The purpose of this is it bonds the pavers
together and it makes it compact. So to finally finish off just going to put
a light spray of water along the footpath. So that the sand and cement can bond in between
the cracks and for the pavers to finally set for eventually people to walk on. Depending on your weather conditions keep
watering and keep putting your sand and cement in until the cracks are all fully to the top
and then just do the final sweep over. And that's the way to pave a pathway with
a nice curved edge to it.