How Do I Fill Large Gaps in My Patio? You may have the question how do I fill large gaps in my patio in your mind at the moment. It is a common thing to find some gaps between patio slabs.
Of course, it is annoying to have this kind of thing on your beautiful patio. So, you need to know the appropriate ways to eliminate this particular issue. If you do it improperly, you may find the problem returns later on.
What Makes the Gap and Where?
Before dealing with the issue, it is best to understand the problem itself. It means you need to understand the reason for the gap to come up in the first place.
Regardless of the surface of your patio, gaps can be there out of nowhere. Either concrete surface or patio slabs can eventually have some gaps you need to fill. So, what makes the gaps in the patio surface?
The so-called gaps are known as an expansion joint in the professional construction or building world. Concrete can react to the direct exposure of sunlight and the changing temperature of the area.
So, you can expect some gaps to be in your patio after a while. On the other hand, newly installed patio slabs may create some gaps.
The base underneath them becomes more settled and shifts the slabs. Those are the common reasons that there are gaps in your patio.
Dealing with the Gaps the Right Way?
So, how do I fill large gaps in my patio? Now, it is a big question to answer correctly. In general, you can use regular sand, polymeric sand, or a mix of sand and concrete to fill the gaps.
They will do the job nicely depending on the actual situation of the gaps. It means you need to assess the situation beforehand. You need to check the dimensions of the gaps before attempting to fill them up.
You can start by incorporating one of the options above. For example, here is how to do it using a mixture of sand and concrete.
You can use fine-grained sand along with cement with the composition of 4 parts sand to 1 parts cement.
It leads to the best mixture you can incorporate to fill the gaps in the patio. There is no need to add water to the mix. It is a dry mixture that will settle appropriately later on.
So, pour the mixture into the gaps and use either a screwdriver or trowel to pack it in. Once the gaps are full, you can sweep and clean the excess of the mixture.
When all the spaces are full of a mixture of cement and sand, you can lightly water the patio. It is the section where the moisture will bind together the mix inside the gaps. It is easier to do it that way than using a wet mixture.
On the other hand, you can rely on the so-called polymeric sand. This type of sand has enough cement in it already. So, it is more straightforward to do the gaps filling procedure. So, it is that way on how do I fill large gaps in my patio.