I have seen patios laid on type 1 without screed, just dots of mortar, didy sink but nightmare to point.

I always laid on 100mm minimum solid base well sometimes 75mm in the old days when no one was looking

50mm too thin.

Compact well with a heavy wacker.

My best and fastest ones were laid on full bed of dry leanmix. Easy to point too

Reliable numbers seem hard to find, but I suspect that a 1:4 mix of Portland cement would have less embodied carbon impacts than a 1:2 mix of NHL lime.

Not big on carbon accounting but lime will absorb CO2 continuously for decades.

Posted By: djhOur patio has a sandstone paving layer on top of a sand blinding layer, with some hardcore underneath. No screed. The only wet bit was watering the pavoirs before putting the Easyjoint on. The only downside is that the ants like the patio just as much as we do.

I'm tempted by this idea as it's a lot of work to lay a screed, and a lot more work if it cracks. At least a 'floating' layer could be relaid relatively simply. What did you do around the edges though?

Posted By: ComeOnPilgrimI'm tempted by this idea as it's a lot of work to lay a screed, and a lot more work if it cracks. At least a 'floating' layer could be relaid relatively simply. What did you do around the edges though?

Three of the edges were higher than the patio and laid to lawn, so we didn't do anything special. I've since built a raised bed on one of those edges. The fourth edge is alongside the house, albeit there is a 600 mm wide French drain around the house that the patio crosses. So nothing special there either. The patio itself slopes away from the house, in contrast to the general lay of the land. We haven't seem any problems, apart from the need to put down ant powder each year. Oh, it's all on clay so there is a bit of movement sometimes.

And yes, pavingexpert is an excellent site.