Pavers over concrete-thin vs thick pavers

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eledaswerdna

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Oct 30, 2016
12
Maitland
Has anyone had pavers put over concrete slab? If so, have you had any problems? Is anyone aware of any downsides to thin pavers?

We have a concrete slab border against the house and the pool company wants to go over it and I think they'll have to use thin pavers on top of it, otherwise it will make a doorway too short.

TIA!
 
I have not done it but paver companies make pavers for such an application. The key, like with anything of this nature, is proper installation (according to mfg guidelines). If it's just foot traffic it won't be an issue when properly installed. Just know the brand they will use and get the info so you can make sure they follow the instructions. Also have in the contract that they will install according to mfg instructions/specs.
 
We put thin pavers over our concrete slab to match the thicker pavers and have no issues at all, every once in a while I will get a paver that mooves too much and I pull it up and relevel the sand under it. . In fact the people who laid it said that it was a breeze because they did not have to compact it.
 
We just installed pavers over concrete (newly poured) as multiple contractors had recommended that approach for our project to avoid settling issues. Ours is new so we went with regular thickness pavers (2.5 inches) but the paver overlays (1.5) would have worked as well. An advantage with overlay is they ca be more easily replaced with stone in the future if you ever decide to change. New Line makes overlays.

Installing pavers over concrete worked very well for us. The installation was a lot easier for the crew and it came out very well.
 

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Just this week, we installed thin pavers over concrete in the pool area -- they look great. We had problems with the existing concrete and the expert we brought in said the only way to fix was pavers which he doesn't do.

In our Massachusetts home, we also have thin pavers but on a walkway where we removed the concrete. We used thin because the walkway is heated (snowmelt) which was installed several years ago and no problems so far.
 
Has anyone done this in climates that freeze? I'm in Ohio, I can picture water getting in between the paver and concrete, expanding and heaving.

I guess the key would be to have adequate drain holes drilled through the concrete deck.
 

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We are in an area that has significant freezing for at least 4 weeks a year, sometimes much more. Our pavers are set on 4 inches of concrete and the concrete is on a base of compacted bluestone. It's not going to heave. The reason we opted for the concrete base is that it is more stable than the compacted stone, which is itself pretty stable. Our patio is sloped 3 degrees so that water sheds off all 4 sides away from the deck, and we have drainage around the perimeter.
 
it isn't but that's why you should have slopes anyway to shed water. any driveway, sidewalk, anything should never be completely flat. water runs at practically 0 degrees so the littlest of slope will take care of that. i have never seen any of the jobs i have been on have freeze issues between the pavers and concrete scratch coat. you really only even need choke if ur scratch coat isn't perfect. you can pretty much go right on the concrete. so easy for install.

it really comes down to slope. your decking should be sloped away from the pool and the house anyway. again water runs at practically nothing to begin with. very easy to keep water off and not see the slope.
jim
 
I installed them over a cracked up concrete patio here in freezing cold NH. I figured the concrete was about 30 years old and it's settled about as much as it's going to settle. Been a few brutal winters and no issues at all. No heaving despite the thin layer of sand between the pavers and the concrete and no polymeric sand in the grout lines to prevent water from getting in there. Parts are over concrete from 3' to 6' wide and also over 3/4" crushed stone where I extended the decking after building a retaining wall.



 
jimim said:
it isn't but that's why you should have slopes anyway to shed water. any driveway, sidewalk, anything should never be completely flat. water runs at practically 0 degrees so the littlest of slope will take care of that. i have never seen any of the jobs i have been on have freeze issues between the pavers and concrete scratch coat. you really only even need choke if ur scratch coat isn't perfect. you can pretty much go right on the concrete. so easy for install.

it really comes down to slope. your decking should be sloped away from the pool and the house anyway. again water runs at practically nothing to begin with. very easy to keep water off and not see the slope.
jim
Click to expand...

What's "choke"?

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tcrote5516 said:
I installed them over a cracked up concrete patio here in freezing cold NH. I figured the concrete was about 30 years old and it's settled about as much as it's going to settle. Been a few brutal winters and no issues at all. No heaving despite the thin layer of sand between the pavers and the concrete and no polymeric sand in the grout lines to prevent water from getting in there. Parts are over concrete from 3' to 6' wide and also over 3/4" crushed stone where I extended the decking after building a retaining wall.



Click to expand...

Beautiful!
 
a_fan said:
What's "choke"?

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Beautiful!
Click to expand...


Just a term my dad's buddies who are masons always used on job for when they needed to level out the scratch coat for the pavers.

Choke Course: A layer of aggregate placed or compactedinto the surface of another layer to provide stability and asmoother surface. The particle sizes of the choke course aregenerally smaller.
 
We have an existing concrete patio that is going to meet our soon to be built pool deck. I wanted a continuous look of pavers for the whole area, existing and new patio, and they will be doing regular pavers on new area and what are called remodeling pavers over the concrete as they are thinner. We are using Tremron and most of their pavers have remodeling ones to match but not all of them (like Blue Stone and Templehurst). My concern was the space from the concrete to the door trim as well and was actually my first question to all the PB's we had out for quotes. But yes, remodeling pavers go over concrete.
 
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