# Forum Home Renovation Paving  Paving a sloping driveway.. from scratch

## becks

Hi All, 
Cool website, this is my first post.  I just bought my first block and am looking to put in a paved driveway. 
The block has a fair slope back to front and a light right to left slope. For the drive I was planning to do the following: 
* excavate to 150mm, dig out and fill soft spots.   
Will a Bobcat/mini digger do for this?
Do I keep the natural right to left slope for drainage or do I level it? 
*Fill with blue metal or road base/ Compact like buggery
What level should I fill to ? 
*Add a level compacted layer of builders sand 
* Pave -herringbone from road up - 
*Add edging 
* Sweep in mortar slurry and sponge off. 
Should I run a grated drain down the right edge? 
I have tried to do as much reading up before I got on here but chances are I sound like a dick.  First time at diy. 
Any help/comments would be great 
Cheers 
Becks

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## Pulse

Becks, go the stencilcrete instead. I bought a whole bunch of pavers second hand from someone paved driveway after it slowly slid downhill. Herringbone is more stable but with the modern stencilcrete looks pretty good. 
Cheers
Pulse

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## becks

Thanks Pulse,  
I've got to do some pretty heavy duty work on the house/garden first so I think I'll leave the driveway surface till next year.  In the meantime I'll dig it out and gravel it.  what's the best thing to use? - blue metal/washout etc 
Any suggestions?

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## laynlo

hi there in my opinion dig it out and fill with crusha dust, a fine scoria... vibrate it, wet it, leave to dry and vibrate it again. thats if your going to leave it for a while that way it wont wash out to quickly as its packed tightly. 
now if you are going to pave it in my opinion theres only one thing for a paving base and thats 90+mm of concrete... 
for example my driveway will consist of - digging down 250mm, fill with 100mm of a hard packing scoria  (this will allow for any movment below such as clay swelling etc and wont crack your concrete)
 f82 sheet mesh, 100mm of concrete. now if all measements are correct i should be 50mm below garage floor height and footpath height. 
my pavers are 40mm thick so i will lay them on 10mm of mortar and after a few hours its will be done properly and should not crack.    
i have done over 150sqm all the same, all footpaths, pergola, clothesline, tank stands etc all the same way and well worth the money if you ask me.  
im using 40mm bluestone pavers 250x250mm roughly $80/m from bam stone 
hope this helps  
Tim

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## becks

Thanks Tim, 
Knowing me I won't get around paving/concreting it for a while... espescially if the crusher dust holds up.  When I dig it out do I dig it out level?  Should I run a gated drain down the side or will the crusher dust drain naturally down the slope? 
Becks

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## laynlo

depends where will all the water end up? if it goes near the house for sure put a drain in after you concrete it. 
just dig 200mm or how ever you are going to do it on the angle from garage to footpath to wat eva slope the foot path goes to. 
if its a temporary thing there is a good packing good drainage 40mm (roughly) limestone rock for driveing on, alot of driveways are like that around where i am. i cant really suggest much more untill i see a pic.

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## munruben

> now if you are going to pave it in my opinion theres only one thing for a paving base and thats 90+mm of concrete

  Absolutely, saw many paved drives end up looking like a disaster area after a few months because they weren't laid on concrete. I had a few drives put down in Sydney on some investment properties and tried to keep costs down by paving over compacted, crushed rock and had to take up the pavers in the first twelve months and put down concrete base.

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## becks

Thanks guys,  
Here's a pic of my block.  looking from where the house will go.  It's going to be a fun job!

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## Planned LScape

> now if you are going to pave it in my opinion theres only one thing for a paving base and thats 90+mm of concrete...   
> Tim

  this is well worth the money in the long run. Especially for a driveway that is constantly getting vehicular traffic, over time you will get depressions from the wheels with a c/rock base laid in sand.  
You can still lay them on sand if laid properly over a slab but mortar will be the strongest choice. You could also go stencil crete as well, all depends on if you want the real paver look. Every man and his dog has pattern concrete these days.

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## cmore_2

> Hi All, 
> Cool website, this is my first post.  I just bought my first block and am looking to put in a paved driveway. 
> The block has a fair slope back to front and a light right to left slope. For the drive I was planning to do the following: 
> * excavate to 150mm, dig out and fill soft spots.   
> Will a Bobcat/mini digger do for this?
> Do I keep the natural right to left slope for drainage or do I level it? 
> *Fill with blue metal or road base/ Compact like buggery
> What level should I fill to ? 
> *Add a level compacted layer of builders sand 
> ...

  How s it going 
cut and filling is good as long as you have good sand or soil to begin with if there is to much of a slope you may need retaining you main thing will be compaction I would suggest limestone rather than blue metal unless your getting it for free of course but if thats the case you should wash loads of sand into it as well as compacting it herrine bone is always good but the best version is the 45 deg keeps it tighter.
forget about washing slurry in you ll leave loads of stains and never get it off if you wanna put something into it put a dry mix of sand and cement 3 or 4 -1 and brush it in the bricks cants be damp or it will stain too when you have it brushed in sweep it thoroughly as for the flow you screed it to where you want it always away from your house if you want a drain pipe it to a small pit of shay cloth filled with blue metal 
anything else let us know   :2thumbsup:

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