block paving - ideas welcomed!

[MetManMark2]

Evening all
It has been a while since I last posted but I am now in need of some inspiration / advice .

We have a small area to the side of our house (maybe 20 square meters) where we intend to park our car. Currently the area is covered by a mixture of concrete and some black diamond victorian setts but these have been cemented in place - both the 'grouting' and also bedded onto concrete. I would like to recycle the victorian sets but I am not sure whether this will be possible.

We live in Devon just north of Exeter and the town has a mix of black diamond victorian setts and smooth black equivalents. Our house is Georgian and we are nearly at the end of our renovation work. My questions are:
What would be appropriate for a car hardstanding? Is going for black diamond victorian setts a good idea or are there other things we should consider?
Where should we source these - any ideas? Our local builders merchant quoted £1.20 per brick and I think we need ~1000.

Any thoughts / weblinks / tips would be very much appreciated.

Mark

 

[plasticpigeon]

Please excuse my ignorance but are the setts like quarry tiles or like cobblestones? I've seen people lay quarries on their drive but they get cracked by the weight of a vehicle driving on them so I know that wouldn't work well.

 

[Flyfisher]

I doubt the cracked quarries were due to the weight of vehicles per se, more likely the sub-base was not adequately prepared so that the quarries were not adequately supported when driven over.

I'd recommend the Paving Expert website for more information, specifically this section on sub-bases: http://www.pavingexpert.com/subbase.htm, and this section on sub base depth (usually a minimum of 100mm): http://www.pavingexpert.com/faq_subbase.htm#depth, which also includes this advice: Skimping on the sub-base is one of the surest ways of shortening the life of any driveway. For what it costs, spending a few quid extra on quality sub-base material is a sound investment that will pay for itself over the years of extended service it enables.

 

[MetManMark2]

I have tried to add a picture that I found online to show the sort of thing that we have in cullompton.

You can't quite see close enough but if you look at google streetmap at EX15 1JY you might be able to see what I mean.

I think this is a link to the sort of thing http://www.ketley-brick.co.uk/patterned_pavers.html but again I am not an expert so views appreciated!

Definitely agree about not skimping on the base. Just need to sort out a source of the blocks...

Thanks in advance for advice.
Mark