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how nice is this a brand new home
someone's dream has become a reality and
the reality is there's still a few
problems like there is in every home
take the side paths if you go and do a
solid path you're just creating a lot of
moisture next to your house if it's a
damp and dark area when it rains the
water can't get away and you don't want
moisture up to the side of your building
then things start to rot stepping stones
are a great alternative they're cheaper
easier and they look fantastic and the
water can go through the Pebbles that
are around the outside one side here
gets no sun the other one bakes in it so
a path well it's not going to die on you
it's just going to look good and the end
result well it's much better than the
dirt that's here I know Danny have a
field day running that through the new
floorboards how can we completely
transform this area from this
to
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this and the reason why stepp has work
better than a full solid pave path are
pretty simple there's an egg line here
picking up all the water from this
garden bed that's hi in the house if it
wasn't there and you had a solid path
that water had come in here sit here and
eventually penetrate this wall and go
into the house you can see how damp it
is here already so the water will come
in go around the steppers through the
gravel into that drain and away from the
the house solving the problem and around
the corner there's a couple of amenity
boxes if you're Paving a solid path
you'd have to cut around it and it still
wouldn't look very nice with the
steppers you stay away from the house
and there's no Cuts whatsoever so it's
easier and it looks smarter now the
first thing you need to do is work out
how big a space you want between your
steppers I find the easiest way to do it
is put the first one down and the last
one down and then work out what's got to
go in between it now you can do the
maths work out how many steppers you
want and then divide the area by the
amount so whether it be six or seven or
eight in an area like this you might end
up with gaps from 100 Mil to about 250
mil but I find the easiest way to do it
is grab a foot model this my friend is
Carl Carl say lad everyone yeah they
really don't care they're just looking
at your legs M what I want you to do is
just gently step out from there time it
so that you hit the middle of that step
down there and I'm going to Mark either
of your feet now it's not a race and I
don't want great big steps I just want
comfortable little ones you
ready now if that's the center of our
steppers it should be nice and even the
simple thing about this is you can lay
them all and just move them with a tape
measure to make sure they are all
exactly the same you can't get it wrong
cuz the dots don't
lie now what you really need to
concentrate on here is setting up your
String Line nice I've got it level which
means all my steppers across the front
of the house will be lay level I'll
still have to check each one to make
sure they level across but I can
guarantee that they're level this way
now the mud mix it's just bricky sand
and cement four part sand one part
cement it's got enough fat in it that's
going to stick to the P but it's got
enough give in it and when I tap it with
the Mallet it's going to give and not
break the P underneath
me now the P we're putting down is
called Euro Stone this one here is
Prague it's a nice charcoal color what I
really like about it is been shot blast
so it's not just dead flat it's got a
bit of texture to it and lots of
different colors of gray in there and
it's great for around a pool a courtyard
any pedestrian path because it's
anti-slip so if you do have a side of
the house that's damp this is the answer
for you it's smart and it looks
good now house Brick's 110 it works out
that my gaps are 120 so it's a really
good guide wiggle it over to my string
line but don't touch it
check the level
across and move on to the next one
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we're nearly finished this is the point
where you see the smiles on the
homeowner's face because they've
achieved so much but it's where you need
to show a little bit of patience I
wouldn't recommend putting the Pebbles
out right now I'd leave it for a day so
you're not going to get your Afters
straight away and the reason why you
don't want to be walking on these 5
minutes after you've laid them let them
set and let them set hard I think this
is looking fantastic the biggest tip I
can give you now is make sure you sponge
everything down so you get off all these
little marks while they're still wet if
you let them dry you might have to use a
bit of acid and you don't want to be
doing that and when you're putting the
Pebbles out I see people put down black
plastic or weed mat now if your pebble's
thick enough I don't believe you need it
so i' aim for about 100 Mil of Pebbles
weeds aren't going to grow in it anyway
and it's a lot easier and the plastic
and the weed mat tend to come through
the Pebbles
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and the last thing you need to do is
just give everything a good hose down
the Pebbles come with a lot of dust and
grit on them so when you're throwing
them over the pavers and sweeping them
around you can mark them a little bit so
hose it down they come up like new now
some people like to seal them I don't
bother they're just like me they get
better with
age the Euro St has transformed an area
that was a real Problem Child into a
real beautiful part of the garden now
it's very clever cost effective and
solved a lot of
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problems for more information on all my
do projects simply go to ADB masonry.com
Au you can get all the fact sheets and
download them from there plus all the
hints and tips you'll need to do the job
while you're there check out our
Inspirations Gall there's a ton of
photos sure to inspire you to get out in
the garden and do a job this weekend
good good luck