Path materials for Tudor cottage

[karenscott]

Hi all

Has anyone got any suggestions for path materials to surround a small cottage and for a patio area..? I'm keen not to have anything too garish or modern.. House is mainly red brick and peg tiles.

Thanks

Karen

 

[keatsie]

Karen,

Its going to be a matter of personal taste, but you can get some interesting paths from reclaimed slabs that have weathered. We have a mixture of very old and well weathered along with relatively new and slowly coming into age slabs either lines with red granite stone chips or roses. Looks gorgeous with our tudor house.

But, i am sure others have equally or if not better suggestions. A couple of pics.

 

[mims&pip]

Hi Karen,

This is a subject close to my heart at the moment as I'm currently laying out a reclaimed stone path in the garden of our Arts & Crafts house*. Fortunately I've found most of what is required lurking in the undergrowth of the garden - including some particularly attractive moss-clad flags! We had something similar to Keatsie's at the Tudor house we sold a few years ago, although the PO had unfortunately mixed in some rather nasty concrete slabs in one area

Our last house was later (a Georgian thatched village house of Shaftesbury greenstone) and we opted to lay a lovely winding path of old brick through the vegetable garden...must dig out some pics Brick paths might be too much if your cottage is predominantly brick though......

Pinterest is usually a great source of ideas.

Mims x

*Pip, however will be doing the more difficult job of fixing them!

 

[JBean]

A couple of examples (not cottages but Elizabethan): the Old Palace gardens at Hatfield house has cobbles, stone and brick paths. Not original but in keeping: http://www.hatfield-house.co.uk/30/Old-Palace-Garden And the Elizabethan garden at Kenilworth Castle (actually an expensive recreation by English Heritage) has what looks like gravel or stone dust: http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/kenilworth-castle/things-to-do/#Section2 It's based on a contemporaneous account which describes the paths as variously sand, grass and soil.

So you have lots of choice!

 

[jocelyn plummer]

I would suggest old soft red bricks laid in a herringbone pattern

 

[karenscott]

Thanks everyone. Some great suggestions. That said, we laid a pergola base last year using reclaimed bricks in a herringbone style and about 20% of them have blown..

 

[Flyfisher]

I've had similar problems with our paths made of old soft bricks. They really don't weather very well, even in mild East Anglia! One answer, I've found, is to use clay pavers. Apparently they are fired to a higher temperature to ensure frost resistance.

 

[Roger H]

Thanks everyone. Some great suggestions. That said, we laid a pergola base last year using reclaimed bricks in a herringbone style and about 20% of them have blown..

Shame. Were they laid/pointed in cement at all? That said, even unbedded, they can still blow as they will be getting a lot more water on/in them than when in a wall....

 

[Zebra]

I am considering the same question. I am about to lay paths/ patio on my garden - cottage of slightly later era - and the materials I have accrued so far, not by choice but by accident, are new terracotta slabs, old soft red bricks, a few old floor pamments, some yellow stock bricks and some modern block pavers.
That's interesting that old clay bricks, and therefore old pamments too I assume, might not survive being laid outdoors. I would hate to ruin them.
I think bricks herringbone style look very good. I wonder whether one would get away with a slightly more modern brick if it was a soft clay type.

 

[Zebra]

Also, I wonder whether treating old bricks with linseed oil or a modern stone sealer might help them to absorb less water and therefore not spall?

 

[MatthewC]

Also, I wonder whether treating old bricks with linseed oil or a modern stone sealer might help them to absorb less water and therefore not spall?

I once built a low retaining wall to keep an earth bank away from the bin position, and I treated the modern bricks with Thomson's something or other; when I moved eight years later they were looking as good as new, with no moss and no spalling.

NB by "treated" I mean "immersed in the stuff for hours"

 

[malcolm]

I tend to frown on waterproofing as while it might prevent water getting in to the brick for some time it will also prevent water from getting out. Mostly this is an issue when the waterproofing just starts to fail and allows water in, but when it hasn't failed enough to allow a good surface area to evaporate water.

I have some clay pavers that might be somewhere between 50 and 100 years old and only 30% have spalled, but they have been treated to cement pointing which allows water to puddle on them. They might have done better had they been free draining. Paving Expert website is a useful resource - they call stuff not involving concrete 'flexible' or 'loose' jointing.

I found some panment tiles beneath concrete in the yard which seem very similar to the panments used in the chimney assumed to be late 17th century. They were probably mostly OK before I started up the concrete breaker. I assume they were moved from inside to outside after earlier works and I don't know how long they spent outside.

 

[Flyfisher]

I have some clay pavers that might be somewhere between 50 and 100 years old and only 30% have spalled, but they have been treated to cement pointing which allows water to puddle on them. They might have done better had they been free draining. Paving Expert website is a useful resource - they call stuff not involving concrete 'flexible' or 'loose' jointing.

Yes, clay pavers (indeed even modern concrete pavers so beloved of pedestrianised areas and garage forecourts) should really be laid on a suitable sub-base covered with a bed of compacted sand and with no hard pointing between them at all. Once laid, fine kiln dried sand should be brushed over them to fill any gaps and stabilise the pavers. Not only does this allow some drainage between the pavers it also means they are relatively easy to replace should they become damaged in any way.

As you rightly say, the Paving Expert website is a wonderful resource for such things.

Here's an example of some clay pavers I've laid recently (ignore the surrounding unfinished bits!):

 

[Zebra]

I love it! What sort of clay pavers are they, flyfisher? Where did you get them?

 

[malcolm]

They do look nice. I still have a surround exactly like that but the paving in the middle is of cheap modern concrete slabs.

 

[Flyfisher]

I love it! What sort of clay pavers are they, flyfisher? Where did you get them?

Birkdale Blend clay pavers from the Traditional Brick Company.
The TBS website is not that useful really but there's plenty of other info out there. PM me if you want more details.

 

[88v8]

In our previous house, I laid paths in the veggie garden in, errm, 1985.
It was all 'wrong'. Stone base, bricks laid and pointed in arrrgh cement.
But they were paving bricks, and 27 years later they were still perfect. Indeed, better than new as they had acquired a nice mossy patina.

Soft reds will indeed fall apart. If laid loose that's not such a disaster but if one went to the trouble of bedding and pointing, it would be a shame.

Super pics of Keatsie's slabs. I suppose weeds will grow between them, but equally one could sow some paving plants. Anyway, they look superb.

Ivor

 

[karenscott]

These look great Keatsie :!: Thanks for sharing, Karen

Its going to be a matter of personal taste, but you can get some interesting paths from reclaimed slabs that have weathered. We have a mixture of very old and well weathered along with relatively new and slowly coming into age slabs either lines with red granite stone chips or roses. Looks gorgeous with our tudor house.

But, i am sure others have equally or if not better suggestions. A couple of pics.

View attachment 1View attachment 2[/quote]

 

[mims&pip]

Super pics of Keatsie's slabs. I suppose weeds will grow between them, but equally one could sow some paving plants. Anyway, they look superb.

Ivor

That's the issue we foresee here, Ivor......so I'm planning on planting every gap and crevice with low, spreading herbs and paving plants :wink: For us it was a choice between paving/dealing with potential weeds or a dog-induced mud bath, lol :lol:

If weather conditions allow us to get it finished at the weekend I'll add a few pics.....

Mims x