Arghhh....my tiny area of loose brick paver needed another attempt. During the recent rain, the sand washed away from underneath (sort of suspected it would happen).

Bought Paver base, leveling sand, and jointing compound from Home Depot (they sell these in the outdoor and garden section). The paver base is an aggregate that forms a semi-concrete base. Mine required a good 7 inches of the base material. I poured about 2 inches, used a brick to compact the layer, then poured another 2 to 3 inches, and so on. The leveling sand is placed for an inch or less on top of this layer.

I laid the 6 or seven pavers back, poured jointing compound in the gaps, used a shovel butt to hammer the pavers gently to let the compound settle in, poured more, and so on. Finally, misted with water and let the compound harden.

This should work, since I did everything per instructions. Keeping my fingers crossed.

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Dimple2001

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Originally posted by dimple2001

This should work, since I did everything per instructions. Keeping my fingers crossed.

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Are you there?

We do paving on a commercial basis and I have also watched how the govt. lays the pavers.

Govt laying pavers :
They compact the earth. Over the compact earth, they lay fine river sand and place the paver blocks over it.

Result : In most cases it is fine even after 3 years (where there is loose pedestrian traffic. However, when the park some cars over it (partilally- like I do mine), it does get depressed after a year.

Commercial :

We level the ground and pit at gravel cement mix for 4" (10 cm). This is known as plain cement concrete.

Over this, you can either do the river sand thing or put a cement based to stick the pavers / bricks. Joints to be again cemented and pointed.

The key here is to maintain drainage levels, so that there are no pools of water stagnating. Water is the biggest threat.

Murali

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I am a Gents and not a Ladies.