Permeable paving techniques

The winter rain breached the bag of lime.  I let the bag sat for months and I was ready to throw it away.  But it was the best ~$10 bag of stuff I have ever brought.  Yes the paper bag was wet.  Water got to the lime.  But the lime absorbs all the water, and didn't dry out. 

So the lime was even better to use.  There's no fine dust, which probably is the reason for the cancer causing warning label.  Add water to the clay like paste and you have lime like before.

Squeezing pure lime paste into the gaps still isn't fast enough.  The tip of the application cone still blocks from time to time.  So even if it works, adding sand on top of the pure lime make sense.

Then I came up with the best method.  Use masking tape for painting.  You will use a lot of tape (unless you use it a few times each).  But it only cost a few dollars.  The one inch width type is more convenient.  Taping it on the stones is pretty fast.  It's the fastest and cleanest way to apply lime and sand mix.  But your stone need to be straight and smooth.

When I used up an old tape I thought of making a stencil out of a plastic sheet.  It worked pretty good.  Not as nice as masking tapes but probably more convenient.

One tip is to fill the voids with sand or soil first.  If you wet everything afterward, then the lime mixture will dry slowly and won't crack that easily.  If the lime mix did not touch the sand or soil below, it will dry quick and crack.

The other tip is to cover the stone with sand afterward.  Wet the whole thing.  The covering sand will protect the work if the surface is not even.  It's a easier way to keep the mixture wet after application, compared with a wet cloth.  The sand will go into the mixture and give it color and texture, instead of brilliant white.