Paver Thickness For New Driveway

[Dr.No]

Hello all, we are finally going to contract a great company to replace about 90’ of old asphalt driveway at our house with decoratively colored concrete pavers. These will be 6” X 6” and 6” X 9” arranged in a random pattern. They will meet the full 8” thick, 5000 psi concrete, occasionally used parking area for our H-3, when situated at the house. Xanthe is normally in the garage 500’ away. The question is: should we go with the thicker 80 mm (3-1/8”) vs the thinner 60 mm (2-1/3”) pavers. The 80’s are a special order that will, no doubt, take longer to get and be more expensive. Just wondering if anyone has any direct experience with this.
Cheers, Dr. No

[BadFitter]

My concern with pavers is how they might move and shift around. On a solid surface the weight of a wheel is spread over a large area since the concrete or whatever is held together and usually has wire mesh in the foundation. I have no experience with pavers in this application so it may not be an issue... Hopefully someone knows.

[Gil_J]

Are you placing a hard load bearing surface under the blocks. If so, the blocks are mainly cosmetic. Otherwise, what will keep the subsurface from shifting?

[Joe Camper]

If u r applying them to an exzisting 8 in of concrete u will have to bed them in some type of quickset to fill in the irregegularities between the 2 or they will crack. If u do bed them down i would guess the thinner ones would do just the same. Pure guess. Experinent somewhere on a corner with a patch of them.

I have a spot across the street ive been putting buses on stands for 15 years. Its about 8 in of gravel, road mix, CA6 they call it in Il. This is the product under all roadbeds concrete and asphault. I even laid it directly over the top of a grassy surface. It immidiatly packs down like concrete first time u roll over it. Im still here to talk about it. The base of the stands do not leave ANY indentations apon removal. If u wanted to bed them in roadmix and put some type of perimiter to keep them in place i think some might still crack. If u really compacted the base down maybe not. Go by manufactures suggestion.

[Dr.No]

The whole idea, here, is to let a very experienced commercial contractor remove the remaining existing 1963 asphalt, and slice off a layer of the four foot thick, very hardpacked clay underneath. Then, he can add a layer of crushed granite that gets compacted, then set the pavers. We have not discussed the thickness of the granite layer; I believe that 6" is the norm. The finished level of pavers will be level with the existing concrete. Joe, no pavers will be put on concrete. I, obviously, have my concerns about this, and am hoping that someone may have previously done this, and have some feedback. Cheers!

[georgiapeachinc]

My company has been hauling concrete paving stones and concrete wall for over 25 years. Ten of those years were in Florida. We also worked closely with installers and installed many of my own projects over the years. Dr. No is completely correct about getting your base and sub base installed and having an experienced installer do the job.
If you have a properly compacted base you will not have any movement and the 60MM paver will hold the weight fine. It is important to put a paver edge at the perimeter. This is a plastic rail that is secured with long spikes to keep pavers from shifting. Two things to consider when it comes to anything larger than 6X9. If you don't have a good subbase the larger pavers can crack. The beauty of paving stones are the joints that prevent cracking and help with drainage to a degree and expansion. Smaller is always good! In Florida we delivered paving stones where crews installed miles of roads into large communities and over the years never we saw any signs of shifting or ruts.

A secret that we used in a long wall installation and a small paver walkway installation was, rather than using sand or siftings for the bedding of the paver and the wall we used type s cement (no water added of course). It was a little messier to work with and costly but the natural moisture of the ground and occasional rain hardened the cement and those wall stones and pavers never budged. Ask your installer about it. you could use the cement bedding in the areas where your coach will be parked for prolonged periods. if you have reservations about weight in one place

Here are two hints to increase longevity of your pavers. Once your driveway has had time to rid the dust and excess sand, lay a good paver seal coat down. This will keep the color from seeping out over the years and give your driveway a richer color. If you live in a climate where there is snow and ice, never use salt for deicing. Calcium chloride or magnesium chloride is a proper deicer. Salt takes the color right out and degrades the cement.

Good luck with your project.

[Dr.No]

Thank you Chris! That was the sort of job specific information that I have been looking for. It will help when next discussing this with the contractor. Cheers!