What to do with my patio?!

[OneDayIWillHaveAGreatUsername]

We have a large patio area which is paved but uneven in places. We've also got two small children who have been known to trip over thin air (so uneven paving is not great!).

We can't afford to replace the patio in the near future so I was wondering if anyone had suggestions of what we could do as a temporary measure to level it more (and make it look more attractive)?

Would it be worth getting a quote for a builder to lift the slabs and level / refill the sand underneath them ?

I repointed my large patio with the help of DF. It was fairly hard physical work mixing the sand and cement, but it looks brand new now and probably has 10 years life left in it as a result. It's not technically difficult if you have some time to throw at it. You can do it in sections to make it more manageable.

It looks like it needs repointing. You can do it yourself. Once you put the mortar back in it will be fine and folks won't trip over.

Thank you all. I'll look into that!

Looks a lot like the paving I had around my house. As pp suggested, I’d lift and re-level them, then point in between them. Kept them down another 10 years after doing that. Pointing would help stop them being a trip hazard for little folk!

Pointing won't help at all, as people mentioned above you need to lift and relay them. Presumably the base isn't great and they moved because the ground moved. But even a weak sand layer should let you level them out better.

I'm curious how it ended up like that though. Was it ever pointed? It looks like no mortar at all between the slabs. Like someone's just shoved a load of slabs down and called it a patio.

Thanks everyone. Pointing is something I could do but it's a big patio and relaying each slab might be beyond me (with work and childcare). The patio is 16m x 6m!

@Bluntness100 It has been pointed but I assume when it was originally laid which was 36 years ago now! I can see evidence of it between a few but the majority don't have any left now.

Ah ok , it's probably the age then. I'd prob have a crack at repointing it. It may help some of it.