Laying and installing square ribbed decking tiles

Can anyone out there help me as to how i lay these tiles i currently have concrete slabs where i want to lay the tiles. The answers i need to know is firstly

If i have concrete slabs in place already can i just place tiles over the slabs.

or can i remove the paving slabs and just lay tiles over the dirt surface if not what kind of preparation and materials would i need to do this the area i wish to cover is 60 tiles measuring 50cm x 50 cm the tiles have been purchased from Argos and are title square ribbed decking tiles. Would greatly appreciate any help on the matter as i have not actually paid for them yet. Just would like to know if job will be easy or difficult.
Thankin you in anticipation of your help

B

 

Hi Bonita and welcome to GC!

When you say decking, I assume they are wooden decking tiles?

In which case, surely they would have to sit on joists of some sort? A friend of mine laid his decking beams (not tiles) on joists straight onto the ground, but that obviously left him space for drainage (can't say I agreed with his choice to lay them straight onto the soil as a long term solution though).

When dealing with wood rather than concrete you have the maintainence aspect to think of and drainage/damp protection is very important for a long term finish.

 

well i have read that these tiles can be laid straight on to concrete so you dont need a decking frame i assume that is what you are talking about i am new to this so would like to do this the easy way if possible although would be prepare to put sand down to help drainage so what do you suggest i do keept the paving slabs in place and just lay them straight on top or take slabs up and put sand down underneath them apologise if i sound really dumb about this but as i said am a complete novice

 

You don't sound dumb at all! :D It's important to get things right, so there's nothing wrong with seeking opinions!

Well, if the tiles are happy enough sitting on the concrete, then it sounds like you're laughing! It's not usually recommended to lay paving slabs on exisiting slabs, but decking slabs wouldn't have much weight to them, I would have thought! Do you have a link for us to look at them?

 

We spent ages earlier this year laying our decking so know about all the problems. We laid decking planks not the squares - I presume the type you mean are those similar to those shown in Ikea? or maybe they are something different to this?I guess it depends on how big the area is going to be. One of my thoughts would be how you would stop it from moving about if they are laid directly onto concrete. If there is no kind of base to which they are attched to what would stop them going sideways? I havent really seen the tiles and maybe thya have something to stop them. One of the reasons we had our deck laid in the first place wa sthat the old slabs were not exactly flat and in the end hthe base had to be built up quite a way (well ok 7 inhes) to get a level space from front to back. I just hadnt realised that the slabs were so wonky. If they arent perfectly level to start with them maybe the new deck tiles will have a bit of a wobble on them. Cant help more than that with the tiles but my husband could tell you in great detail the problems we encountered (and overcome) with the decking!

 

these tiles apparantly are designed so that you can lay them straight onto concrete well at least i think so not sure yet as i havent received them. i am getting my ones from www.greatuniversal.co.uk under garden accesories apparently they have an anti slip surface as i say i dont want the whole deck thing just patio looking surface i do not have a man around to do all the technical stuff

 

so do you have a better idea now of how i should go about preparing the surface for laying these kind of tiles i still have no proper advice as yet just maybes

 

Hi Bonita - I'm afraid it's not as simple as giving one answer :(

I can see the tiles on the website but no information on how to lay them so I can only offer the advice that would be standard for these things - a good foundation (whether that's paving slabs, I don't know), great attention to levels, adequate drainage etc.

Hope that helps somewhat!

 

Hi bonita, sorry to be the bearer of bad new but decking tiles are a bit misleading as to how easy its going to be to get decking in your garden. Without a proper base, be it frame or leveled and definitely compacted sand base, the finish is going to be poor, possibly dangerous and definitely short lived. This is the picture from the additions website and it looks so easy but as Dave and Lazy say if you installed them like this with no way of unifying them with some sort of fixing, drainage and sinkage can be expected.

If you lay them onto your existing patio this would, in my opinion, be better than onto sand which will move and retain water. Hopefully your patio is already level and as long as the outer ring of tiles are fixed with a side flush fitting piece of timber this will give you a more stable platform. BUT this will never have the quality of longevity af a properly timber framed plank deck. I wish you luck, and I hope I have not disappinted you. :(

It is hard work doing your own decking so I can see how tiles would appeal. I did mine about 3 years ago now.

Preperation, levelled concrete pads



The Frame, landscaping fabric and shingle



Joists



Weather protected and bottomless internal planting holes



Top Planks



Finished Painted

I was so relieved to have finished i never took one, but this is it finished a couple of months on, with the garden still in construction.



Bananaman.

 

BM, I can't see any of your pictures- Have you altered anything? :(

 

I THOUGHT the pics were deleted on purpose.sorry BM.fancy :D

 

lovely pics BM you must have a very big garden I ve just got a patio with 2x2 slabs on.FANCY

 

From your pictures I recon your garden is bigger Fancy. Mine is only 50x25 with a 10x16 chunk of extension taken out. Its all in the planting creating height, hiding boundaries and sectioning off different parts.

BM

 

Ican see you have painstakingly done your garden and a very nice one too. it looks fab.I like your banana groupe the musical ones it looks great.