refurbing a garden path.

[gucciman]

im not the best at diy so need some advice.

rather than splash out on a new garden path i want to spruce up our old concrete one. my plan is to skim over the path with mortar and then sprinkle fine golden gravel into it to give an attractive new surface.

i popped down to b and q to buy some ready made mortar that just need water adding. but they had a range of different ready mixed mortars, concretes etc which one would be the best to use for this purpose?

[buildersmate]

I think you need to consider whether you can get enough depth of your cement-based 'glue' to make this work. I've seen this done where a complete path is laid in concrete and attractive gravel put into the top surface - but this has at least 50mm of depth beneath it. I imagine this isn't what you envisage. Trouble is, your binder might crack if not deep enough. What does work is to use a bitumen-based 'glue' which can be laid thinner and then bind it with the gravel. I've seen this done at a local park. Bitumen-based materials stick together. Trouble is, I'm not sure if you can get cold-setting bitumen - its usually heated and hence not a DIY process. If you do choose cement-based idea, best to buy bags of sharp sand (not soft sand) and bags of cement powder separately, and mix in say 4 to 1 ration by volume with water. Far cheaper than redy-mixed products. Mortar is made from soft sand, concret has sharp sand but also stones.

[gucciman]

thanks buildersmate. nothings ever as easy as you think its going to be is it.

the plan was to skim over with the cement, perhaps half an inch or so. i have got a small path running between the borders at the end of the garden so i may test it out on that first and see how it goes.

when you say a thin layer may crack, how long would it take for any cracks to appear so i know if my idea has worked or not?

[trouble@top]

hi gucciman, i did this at my old house using a sharp sand and cement mix,i then threw the stone son top.

to my suprise it worked,not only revamping a shabby driveway but also it stoped the cats using the stones as a toilet.

i put it in about 1and a half inch bed?