Thread: Laying a concrete path between house and retaining wall

Bang in some height pegs and screed to them. Bob's your uncle.

Oh, and don't forget to pull them out before the concrete goes off.

Knew it would be easy, thanks.

And I think lamb would be better.

Nothing quite like a lamb roast.

Trav

I'm a completely hopeless useless klutz when it comes to levelling plaster or concrete, so I'd set up forms across the path at a slightly less distance than my screed is long.

Then I'd pour every second section.

But I'm no good at that sort of stuff.

Cheers,

P

Originally Posted by namtrak

I need to lay a path between a house and a retaining wall. The path is about 900mm wide, however I am not sure about ensuring levels and so on? I wont have any form work to level the stuff off against? Should I run a screed long ways? Should I have some sort of division between the concrete and the retaining wall? Will I have lamb or beef for tea tonight? What am I to do?

Cheers

Why not fix some bitumised or foam jointex on each side which is available in various widths. This will give you a level line to work to and allow a bit of contraction and expansion between the the house and the retaining wall.

I would certainly use expansion material other wise you risk pushing out the retaining wall. Pegs for level work well, so does a bit of 2" x 1" used to screed to placed at suitable intervals and pulled up along with it's pegs when you finish screeding. If you are going to rule a few lines they can be placed at this point if you wish as well, but whatever you end up doing the float will allow you to place a small amount of aggregate where the form work had been and rub it up nice and flat.

John

Small persnickity technical correction John!

Use the foam expansion joint, so when the concrete is layed it will compress slightly and as the concrete SHRINKS you won't get a gap between the retaining wall and the edge of the house.

Concrete actually shrinks over time, expansion is unlikely to be a problem.

Cheers.

P (Smarty pants)

Concrete actually shrinks over time, expansion is unlikely to be a problem.

Unless the renno was done by the idiot who had my house before me. Then anything is possible, even it it defies all laws of physics and of logic. Innneresting but.

Very interesting and pretty hard question to answer, from my experience...I think I would go for the beef.

Horseradish! definitely use horseradish on the Beef..............

You may well be right Midge, I'll stand corrected on that one . However the gap does tend to trap all sorts of muck and there is a small amount of expansion and contraction over the course of a day between full sun and the wee small hours. But the consensus is the same regarding the expansion material, its worth the effort.

Why use horseradish on the beef when a port wine sauce does the job better?

John