Plastering Sand

Broche07

I'm laying a new path and using concrete slabs and I was planning on putting a mortar base underneath (my Dad says you just need sand) so I ask a builder for a quote on sand, he says I'll need 5 tonnes (the path is 14m long) and that I need plastering sand.

I'm failry new to this and for a start 5 tonnes seems like an awful lot of sand and secondly what is plastering sand?

Any help would be appreciated.

Thx

yop

I wud not say that 5 ton is too much, you need to make a decent base so that will be used up fast.
Need platering sand, I would not have thought so, but what you can do is ring Roadstone or a quarry and ask them what you need. Ring 2 different ones just in case.

sesswhat

You can find some good information on this site.

When they say 'plastering' sand they are referring to a coarser variety than 'soft' or 'building' sand used for building mortar.

ircoha

sand is c 1700 kg/cum
http://www.simetric.co.uk/si_materials.htm

so
5 tonne is c 3 cubic metres so
if 14m long and say 1.5 meter wide then a depth of 140 mm is required
so u can do the math