Should I use membrane under pebbles

I have an area of about 30 sqm covered in pebbles. The pebbles were laid on a membrane, presumably to suppress weeds and to stop the pebbles sinking into the soil. Over the years, soil has built up over the membrane, under the pebbles, and it has become very weedy. I have removed all of the pebbles and washed them.

I have some questions before relaying them:

Should I use a membrane under the pebbles?

If so, what type of membrane should I use/ avoid?

Is the problem of soil build up likely to recur?

 

You can just lay a new membrane over the old one I would think, it could possibly be worm action that is bringing the soil through the old membrane, but not much you can do about that.
I've recently created a gravel area but I used type 1 road stone under the membrane first,

 

Were there road works outside your house Pete

 

I've got quite a few gravelled areas and after 14 years there are bits where leaves, flowers and fruits have fallen, creating humus. The best way to prevent this happening is to rake or blow or even wash leaves and other debris off the gravel before they rot. I'd definitely put geotextile under the gravel, though, to stop it sinking into the underlying soil. The most heavy-duty that you can afford.

 

My approach has been to lay the gravel directly onto the soil, no membrane. Hardly any weeds and those that do appear are weed killed straight away. But then my soil is heavy clay so it compacts down when walked on. Perhaps this is why no membrane was necessary in my case? I have also put down a fairly thick layer of gravel.

Much depends on the size of the pebbles, the type of soil you have, how much you are willing to spend and how much effort you want to put into laying down a weed membrane.

 

Agree. There are 2 types of membrane, non woven and the more heavy duty woven type.
The membrane comes in different weights per sqm, non woven that you see in retailers tends to be 50g sqm where as woven tends to be 100g sqm. Lightweight non woven membrane tends to tare very easy. The membrane that tends to be used on embankments or under road construction and is very heavy duty, tends to be 300g sqm plus, which is also very hard to tare.

A 100gram woven membrane should be more than sufficient, not all retailers will stock it but a good builders merchant will.

 

Thanks all - given me some ideas for the way to progress

I'll let you know in a couple of years