carpet?

Hello all,
My disabled mum has a part of her back garden that she wants to use to put a little table and chair on. I have dug out the weeds ( the previous tenant used it as a veg plot ) and as money is tight she was wondering if she could use carpet on top of the soil then put slabs on top of that.She is concerned that over time it will start to smell though.
I know lottie owners do this as a temporary measure but we dont know if it is viable as a permanant solution. :cnfs:

Any advice will be most welcome, thanks :thmb:

 

I also think that carpet would be a right mess after the first rain, with all sort of creatures crawling under it. As Marley Farley suggests, it is probably the best solution.

 

Cheaper solution (i.e. free) would be the 1 tonne dumpy bags that sand comes in from builders merchants. pity you're all the way down plymouth, i got some you could have had. Just have a look round the local building sites & ask the site managers if you could have any spares. The material will let water thru but its a tight enough weave to stop weeds.

 

Thanks guys :thmb:
I thought it would probably be a no no.:dh: Off to break the bad news lol

 

Like everyone else, I'd steer well clear of carpet.

Might I suggest something like a layer, or even 2, of weed supressing membrane (it really is dirt cheap - no pun intended), and then, depending on the size of the area you're talking about, what about putting down some pea shingle? Wickes - amongst others - sell it at £1.82 a bag. In an ideal world you'd use a 'wacker plate' compactor but, in truth, I've got a 30' path and a small seating area approx. 8' x 8' both of which are gravel and neither of which have seen anything approaching heavy machinery (unless you count Mr. F'smum walking up and down it!).

Can I just add one thought - and this depends on your Mum's disability and how she plans to use the garden - but I found that gravel was actually safer for my disabled parents. They both enjoyed a 'potter' around even during the winter months when paving slabs can become very slippery, not a problem so much with the gravel, although granted with the wheelchair, it was an entirely different matter.

 

Just to add if you don't place the slabs on a properly compacted surface over time they will begin to rock and become uneven. As Fidgetsmum says gravel might be a better option.