Gravelling over patio

[PhoebeMcPeePee]

Our patio is in a shocking state (old crazy paving) and we've investigated all the obvious solutions ie new paving, relaying existing, decking but simply can't afford any of them anytime soon.
So, we've decided to gravel over it has anyone ever done this or lived with a gravel patio? Aside from potential cat/fox poo issues and not using tiny pea gravel shingle is there anything else we need to consider?

We appreciate it's not an ideal surface but frankly the current area is depressing & dangerous do something needs to be done.

Do you need to push wheelbarrows or a lawnmower over the area? You might find it awkward if so.
A potential solution is to gravel, but with a path running through it.

You'll have to remove the crazy paving, level it and put down a weed suppressing membrane, quite a lot of work I remember from experience, before a layer of at least an inch of gravel. It's frightening how much you will need. You may have to put some sort of edging to stop it 'walking'.

I don't find foxes or cats a problem at all, mainly because we've used a reasonable sized gravel - I think finer gravel would be more of a problem.

I used slate chipping. We only needed 2 inches depth. I'd bought more so had lots left over. We didn't bother with membrane and have only had weeds around the edge where the membrane wouldn't have covered anyway.

We don't need to push lawn mover or similar over it and our garden is stepped with the patio being the lower than rest of the garden & house so completely contained by either the house or 2 ft stone wall.

Do we really need to remove the old patio ? We assumed we could just add membrane & then a decent layer of gravel and that would be it naive DIYer alert

I like the look of slate chippings but have young children and wondered about safety issues - is this a valid concern?

I don't see any safety issues with slate.

No need to remove patio! In a day you can completely alter our outdoor area.

Depends on what type of floors you have and where your dpc is I think. (We had damp and the levels really needed lowering in the first place. Same in previous house.

Broke up the crazy paving pretty easily with a concrete breaker. Easily did about 50m2 in a day. Trouble is getting rid of it. That bit took me a couple of weeks with at least a couple of trips a day. (Limits on how much you can get rid of each time.)

Assuming you're not going to disturb the base to the crazy paving / discover what it's hiding. (That was a whole other story.)

I was going to ask if you have young DCs and see you do. I wouldn't do it. We have gullies of little stones running through our patio and they are a nightmare. The DCs fling them about, trip on them, can't wheel their wheeled toys through them and the youngest has even tried to eat them. I despise them after having to live with it for 18 months.

We are having a new patio put down next month and I cannot wait. That said it's costing a fortune. At our last house we put a deck down for the same money as a load of shale and membrane as we couldn't afford a new patio and were planning to move quickly anyway.

What is your budget? We used the B&Q value boards and did it ourselves.