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Thought I'd spend the week doing a bit of DIY at my Mum's - ace way to spend a week's leave 😕
Anyway, a large step/ledge outside the front door has had all the stone slabs come loose. Stone looks like limestone but I might be wrong- real stone in any case. The step/ledge thingy is one slab deep and 10 long, built up with a cinder block of some description and the slab laid on a half to one inch bed of mortar. The slabs have come away completely clean of a scrap of mortar which was rock solid to the base and I've just spend a very pleasant 4hrs chipping all 50kg of it away to the cinder block level again.
They were originally laid by someone who apparently knew what he was doing but clearly failed miserably. Any tips to getting them to bond better this time? Considering soaking them in water or a coat of pva first but all advice welcome!
Ta.
Sand ( building )/ cement 4:1 not too wet but not too dry ( just right basically 😀 ) better wettish. IMPORTANT..Make sure the underside of the slabs are dust free. Put some frost proofer in the mix. ( based on you living in a winter climate )
Thanks. Doing this in the Highlands. Mum 'remembers' (a term with different meanings!) them doing the work in the winter so it could just be it was too cold the first time. Will be 12deg tomorrow apparently so should be ok.
Although 'set' the mortar @ 1.5 inch thick will take months to dry out completely so I'd still use the frost protecter. Only what I'd do. Maybe someone else could add the science bit..
Personally it'd be three and one for me as its in theory underground. Nice and creamy (like bricklaying mortar) and lay on five spots. Are they completely flat underneath?
The slabs have been machined with grooves on the undersides which I was a bit gutted to find as I had thought roughing them up a bit with an angle grinder would be an instant win but I'm assuming they are already pretty good on that score.
All running the same way? If so put some in at 90deg to them. A good wet mortar will hopefully key into the grooves.