How to lay paving slabs?

[2Btoo]

Guys,

I've never laid paving slabs before and was planning on just pitching on in, but Sc0tt's 'Patio Woes' thread inspired me to ask some advice on here before getting things wrong. Thanks Sc0tt for the inspiration.

We've had an extension built which has a number of patio doors opening into the garden. It looks like this:





Yours Truly has landed the job of sorting the garden out and part of that will involve laying some paving slabs.

I'd like to build a setp outside each set of patio doors, from blue-grey bricks topped with some crosshatch pattern bricks. I have the bricks, which look like this:





Part of the extension built by the builders is the steps up to the back door, which is the inspiration for the smaller step which I will build. It looks like this:



I'm planning on building some small footings for these (perhaps 9 inches deep) and building up from them with sand-and-cement mortar, putting the crosshatch bricks on top. This doesn't worry me too much although I would be grateful for any suggestions about how to get the steps all to the same level given that they will be separated by a few feet. I guess that if I assume the lower edge of the render is the same height all around the extension then I can use this as a reference point to build the steps too.

The next question is how to lay slabs ... I have a number of slabs leftover from the garden as it was and they look like this:





I'd like to lay these in a single strip around the edges of the extension, between the new steps. The aim is to give an edge to the grass which will go over most of the garden, making it easier to mow to the edges. The question is how to lay these slabs. I've watched a few videos from a guy called Stuart (ProperDIY) on YouTube and he has one about laying slabs using 'cement stabilised soil'. It's here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=teP2f2fmSAk

He gives more detail in another video, here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNoWVPVb6Mo

This looks fairly easy, cheap and logical to me and my plan at the moment is to make some of this cement stabilised soil - perhaps 6 inches of it at a ratio of one part cement to five parts soil, wait for it to go off (a week or so) and then lay some sharp sand on top, tamp it down and put the slabs on top of this.

My question is whether this would work or whether the slabs would move over time and hence whether I'd need to put it on some sand-and-cement and put slurry on the back of the slabs as well? FWIW, the slabs are cast concrete (I think).

All help welcomed. Thanks.

[wolfracesonic]

I’ll post the link before someone else does! PavingExpert. Fifth pic down, try to get the rise on any steps you do equal, unlike there.