Laying A New Granite Sett Patio

Follow my new Instagram page for much more frequent updates!

https://www.instagram.com/georgianrenovation/

I decided I wanted to sort the permanent mess outside my back door once and for all. We were also experiencing a surprisingly pleasant summer, so if I didn't sort it now, it would be another year before I could get it done:

I started digging down and laid a course of hardcore. The huge granite rock you see has been in the garden since I bought the house, I haven't had the heart of energy to get rid of it!

String lines set the level:

It would have made far more sense to get hardcore and sand delivered by the tonne, however I ended up going with 20-25kg bags bought locally:

I went with tumbled granite setts, bought from Natural Stone Ireland outside Kells. Absolutely beautiful pieces:

I began laying the outside course in cement mortar, 3:1:

Then a dry mix of cement and course sand, 8:1:

Another string line was dragged down the courses as I progressed to maintain the levels left to right:

I kept going right up to sun-down.

I then laid some white stones either side, in which I will likely set some green plants. I used pointing fuge to fill the gaps between the setts, which sets hard after a few days and binds everything together:

See a timelapse of the process here:

More Work Completed On The Stairs

Follow my new Instagram page for much more frequent updates!

https://www.instagram.com/georgianrenovation/

The top floor landing has been niggling away at me for the last 5 years; looking at it from above, you'd think all is well, but look a little closer and you can see that there's actually two layers of floorboards under foot. It would appear that at some stage, a new layer of floor boards were simply pinned on top of the worn out ones below, which throws off the level at the edge of the first step on to the stairs:

Once the boards were lifted, it was clear to see much wider, original floor boards beneath:

The cavity below was filled with a natural insulation, a mixture of straw and other plant matter:

The nose of the landing now finally meets up with the first floor board:

Some of the finds from inside the stairs:

Pay Lynch finall came back to perform the last repairs on the stairs, I marked out the last areas that needed attention:

And I cam back to the top floor landing and filled it with insulation before pinning down new boards, only where needed, keeping the original boards mostly in place: