Anyone replaced a paver drive/walks, etc. ?

[Pairadocs]

What options exist for a paver drive that is relatively good condition, but has deteriorated in places along edge, and has half a dozen pavers with cracks ? Must all pavers be removed and brand new concrete drive be poured ? In general, over the years we've noticed the plain concrete work in this area of Fl does not seem to be high quality...perhaps since the temp extremes are not as great as in the northern states, high quality is not a priority ? Does any know of, had any experience with any kind of topping, or overlay that can be done over a paver drive if in decent condition ? Not talking about just another expensive "sealing", looking for a more permanent solution if one exists. I am guessing the expense of first having an entire paver drive and walks removed, hauled away, and then contracting for a new, poured, drive is prohibitively expensive ? Looking for ideas and ball park costs for a "standard" 2 car drive about 24' and a few feet to walk to front door. If you've replaced, or resurfaced your in some way, very interested in your experience, costs, satisfaction, etc. Thanks so much !

[Two Bills]

Pavers are normally laid on sand, and are quite easy to replace for repair purposes.
If you know what you are doing!

[Laker14]

There are two types of pavers in TV. Thin pavers that are not really made for driving on, have been used often. They don't hold up very well. The advantage of thin pavers is that one can lay them on a thin layer of sand without removing the existing driveway. The disadvantage is that they crack a lot.
The proper way to use pavers for a driveway is to remove the concrete, and then use thicker pavers. Obviously much more of a job to do, and more expensive.
Our pre-owned home, which we bought in February of '21, had the thin pavers, over concrete. About 20% of them were broken. I got an estimate for having it rehabilitated, but it was costly enough that we decided to have the pavers taken out and had a "textured paint" treatment instead.
If you have the thin pavers, and you decide to keep them but replace the broken ones, you can find people to do that. You, most likely, will have a continuing maintenance issue with them, but everything requires some maintenance. BTW, when we looked into having ours done that way, the original pavers could not be replace with identical colors, so there was going to have to be some artistic work done to harvest some unbroken ones, and use new ones strategically, to make some design in the middle. I'm sure it could have been done, but it did add another layer of complexity to the job.

[Michael G.]

Pavers are normally laid on sand, and are quite easy to replace for repair purposes.
If you know what you are doing!

But if replacing with new pavers, will the color match the original ones?

[Nucky]

When it rains and the rain goes between the pavers eventually the pavers become unstable or uneven. It is better to concrete the driveway if you want no future maintenance as you age. I don't know if Florida has Stone Dust at their quarries but if you use that for the base then pavers will NEVER move if it's compacted properly. Sand is not so great. I'm sure people have had success using sand but it's still not so good in my professional opinion.

Repairing the pavers may or may not meet your expectations. Good Luck.

[Tvflguy]

We have thin pavers on our driveway and entry, over original cement. Been installed 8 years. Over those years I’ve replaced 2 due to hairline crack. I would guess that if they are installed properly no issues, at least for us….

[Nucky]

We have thin pavers on our driveway and entry, over original cement. Been installed 8 years. Over those years I’ve replaced 2 due to hairline crack. I would guess that if they are installed properly no issues, at least for us….

That is fantastic that the contractor used concrete as a base. That is the ultimate primo way to go but the cost to do so on a paver job just about :$: doubles. You are very fortunate. I like it.

[Tvflguy]

That is fantastic that the contractor used concrete as a base. That is the ultimate primo way to go but the cost to do so on a paver job just about :$: doubles. You are very fortunate. I like it.

What? Cost doubles…why? Sure didn’t here. They only cut about 4’ of the driveway so the pavers met the curbing height. No other base-work at all. That said much less labor to lay directly onto the cement.

[Nucky]

What? Cost doubles…why? Sure didn’t hear. They only cut about 4’ of the driveway so the pavers met the curbing height. No other base-work at all. That said much less labor to lay directly onto the cement.

If it was a project where a contractor used concrete as his base instead of sand the total cost of the job would be close to double. I envisioned an entire driveway or sidewalk being done. You still got the best job with concrete.

Less labor for pavers into cement or concrete? Cement is an ingredient in concrete.

If you are happy that's all that counts. :throwtomatoes:

[Stu from NYC]

Makes me very happy the original owner of our house used regular concrete with a very nice design so all we have to do is seal every couple of years

[Pairadocs]

There are two types of pavers in TV. Thin pavers that are not really made for driving on, have been used often. They don't hold up very well. The advantage of thin pavers is that one can lay them on a thin layer of sand without removing the existing driveway. The disadvantage is that they crack a lot.
The proper way to use pavers for a driveway is to remove the concrete, and then use thicker pavers. Obviously much more of a job to do, and more expensive.
Our pre-owned home, which we bought in February of '21, had the thin pavers, over concrete. About 20% of them were broken. I got an estimate for having it rehabilitated, but it was costly enough that we decided to have the pavers taken out and had a "textured paint" treatment instead.
If you have the thin pavers, and you decide to keep them but replace the broken ones, you can find people to do that. You, most likely, will have a continuing maintenance issue with them, but everything requires some maintenance. BTW, when we looked into having ours done that way, the original pavers could not be replace with identical colors, so there was going to have to be some artistic work done to harvest some unbroken ones, and use new ones strategically, to make some design in the middle. I'm sure it could have been done, but it did add another layer of complexity to the job.

Thank you SO MUCH for your detailed answer. Right on target, the "pavers" here are nothing like the "pavers" we had at a former home, which were more what most of us would call "bricks". Ours here are much different, they are very porous, thin like "slices" of "brick", exactly as you described. I you could share, would very much like to know exactly what you had done for your remedy ? I take it you had someone remove all the of thin pavers ? Clean up all the sand, level it, etc. etc. and pour a traditional concrete drive ? Again, thank you so much if you can give more details. Sounds as if your answer was the only one that actually proposed an alternative to the pavers (which we would like to do away with, but not sure of the alternatives, so hope to get help on here. I do know the house had a concrete drive when built, and then later had the pavers added to it. But, would like to eliminate the pavers. Are there people who will remove them for the material, or who will pay for the truck load(s) of used ones ?

[Oneiric]

We had thin pavers put in by Paradise Pavers in a herringbone pattern over concrete. When initially put in, they gave us 15-20 extra spare pavers which we keep in the garage. Zero cracks or replacements over 8 years with two cars, normal usage. We have them re-sand in-between and re-seal every 3 years.

[meachemjs]

We had same problem. Yes you can have damaged pavers replaced if you can find them. But I you have loose pavers that are fine, they are very easily damaged. We had Paradise Pavers put in our medallion and take those pavers out and use them to replace old broken ones. We had about 100! They also fixed all loose ones then cleaned and sealed the whole driveway. It made a huge difference in the existing ones and looks great! We have 2 car garage plus gol cart and up to front door, Very pleased. Cost: $2500

QUOTE=Pairadocs;2152633]What options exist for a paver drive that is relatively good condition, but has deteriorated in places along edge, and has half a dozen pavers with cracks ? Must all pavers be removed and brand new concrete drive be poured ? In general, over the years we've noticed the plain concrete work in this area of Fl does not seem to be high quality...perhaps since the temp extremes are not as great as in the northern states, high quality is not a priority ? Does any know of, had any experience with any kind of topping, or overlay that can be done over a paver drive if in decent condition ? Not talking about just another expensive "sealing", looking for a more permanent solution if one exists. I am guessing the expense of first having an entire paver drive and walks removed, hauled away, and then contracting for a new, poured, drive is prohibitively expensive ? Looking for ideas and ball park costs for a "standard" 2 car drive about 24' and a few feet to walk to front door. If you've replaced, or resurfaced your in some way, very interested in your experience, costs, satisfaction, etc. Thanks so much ![/QUOTE]

[Bridget Staunton]

Good luck, my friends thin pavers cracked

[Villages Kahuna]

There is excellent information in the answers to this post. After 15 years we had used all the “spares” provided in the original installation of thin pavers, and probably a dozen more were cracked. The original colors were not available, but I had not yet begun to make calls on what to do. I had no idea that there were thick and thin pavers, and the certainty that over time the thin ones I had installed would crack.

The answers to this post provides excellent—although probably expensive—information. I suppose the only way to look at the problem is, if you didn’t have the original concrete driveway broken up, removed and replaced with thick pavers on a sand base, you’d be left just amortizing the original cost of the thin pavers and deciding how much you’d have to spend to “re-do” your driveway.

[jjombrello]

We had pavers installed over our original concrete driveway. Have had a few crack but replaced them with some spares we had. Two friends had the same thing done but could not find replacements of the same size. Had the center removed, a nice design of a different color installed, and used any good pavers to replace others that may have been cracked. Both driveways look very nice and I would do the same if my pavers crack or are no longer available.

[Laker14]

Thank you SO MUCH for your detailed answer. Right on target, the "pavers" here are nothing like the "pavers" we had at a former home, which were more what most of us would call "bricks". Ours here are much different, they are very porous, thin like "slices" of "brick", exactly as you described. I you could share, would very much like to know exactly what you had done for your remedy ? I take it you had someone remove all the of thin pavers ? Clean up all the sand, level it, etc. etc. and pour a traditional concrete drive ? Again, thank you so much if you can give more details. Sounds as if your answer was the only one that actually proposed an alternative to the pavers (which we would like to do away with, but not sure of the alternatives, so hope to get help on here. I do know the house had a concrete drive when built, and then later had the pavers added to it. But, would like to eliminate the pavers. Are there people who will remove them for the material, or who will pay for the truck load(s) of used ones ?

Most of your original driveway is still there, I'd bet. The think pavers were laid right over the existing concrete except at the curb.
As another poster described, in order to have the thin pavers meet flush with the curb, a bit of original concrete drive was removed. I can't remember the exact width that was removed, maybe a foot or so? I thought maybe the same process had to be done for the garage junction but that wasn't the case.
So the process was:

Pavers removed. That was done by Lawn Services LTD. (Juan Santiago proprietor). He also did some landscaping for us, and he poured concrete to replace the concrete that was removed, at the curb.

It took a month, as I recall, maybe 5 or 6 weeks, my memory is fuzzy, before the new concrete was ready for the textured paint treatment. We used DesignStar for this. The owner is Aldo Bersani. He has a FaceBook page, under DesignStar, if you want to see pictures of his finished work. We were very happy. He did some prep work on the new and old concrete and then did the textured work.

If you are interested, you should contact DesignStar and have Aldo come and look and give you an estimate on price and when he could do the work. We found that these driveway texture treatment companies were pretty busy.

Design Star | Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/villagesconcrete)

Good Luck

[Vernon Hud]

I would guess that 99.9999 percent of the driveways in The Villages are thin pavers laid over the original concrete driveway. If you would want to check that out, the only pavers that are cemented down are usually a 8 inch ribbon on the very outer edge of the driveway or sidewalk. Then the pavers are laid in with very thin joints with absolutely no sand beneath. When I did mine, I used a shop vac to make sure nothing was on the concrete, very essential. Once all the pavers are laid, the joints are filled with a fine sand that has a mortar mixture in it. This is then wet down with a fine spray of water, and it will eventually get hard. So if you would like to check to see if you have thin pavers, you can do so by taking maybe a broken one out. These thin pavers are about 5/8 of an inch thick. I put in my own driveway with thin pavers about 10 years ago, and have only had to replace a few. Still looks very nice, but have to reseal every 3-4 yrs.

[BunnyA]

We had pavers that were discontinued and were able to incorporate a diamond shape with new ones that were similar. Seemed to work well but after several years, many more of the old bricks are breaking, so not sure how many diamonds we can put in.

[Laker14]

I would guess that 99.9999 percent of the driveways in The Villages are thin pavers laid over the original concrete driveway. If you would want to check that out, the only pavers that are cemented down are usually a 8 inch ribbon on the very outer edge of the driveway or sidewalk. Then the pavers are laid in with very thin joints with absolutely no sand beneath. When I did mine, I used a shop vac to make sure nothing was on the concrete, very essential. Once all the pavers are laid, the joints are filled with a fine sand that has a mortar mixture in it. This is then wet down with a fine spray of water, and it will eventually get hard. So if you would like to check to see if you have thin pavers, you can do so by taking maybe a broken one out. These thin pavers are about 5/8 of an inch thick. I put in my own driveway with thin pavers about 10 years ago, and have only had to replace a few. Still looks very nice, but have to reseal every 3-4 yrs.

I think you mean 99.9999% of the "paver laid driveways" are "thin" pavers. Certainly not that high a percentage of all of the driveways in TV are thin pavers.
Your comment that the pavers are laid directly on the concrete without a layer of sand between concrete and paver is interesting. I believe you 100% since you actually did yours yourself. By the time we bought our place the pavers were in bad enough shape that it looked to me upon inspection of a few broken pavers that I removed, that a very thin amount of sand was used under the paver. However that sand may have just seeped under the broken paver, or may have been dirt and grime from over the years.

I can tell you that the previous owner told me that the company that installed the pavers was long gone.
The person who gave me one estimate for rehabilitating the thin paver set up warned me that since I was on a corner, heavy trucks would tend to use my driveway to turn around, and he suggested that if I were to keep the thin paver system, I have about 10 feet of concrete removed so he could set the thick pavers down for that first 10 feet. Although there were broken pavers here and there throughout the length of the driveway, the largest percentage of broken pavers was close to the curb, so his analysis made sense, although I've never seen a big truck use my driveway to turn around. But his analysis and suggestion made it easier for me to abandon the thin pavers and go another route.

I could be wrong, but I would be surprised if there are still any companies around that install thin pavers over concrete, other than a few folks who will attempt to repair old failing efforts. I suspect the number of problems, and the availability of other driveway treatments have lead to the disappearance of this technique .

[lawgolfer]

What options exist for a paver drive that is relatively good condition, but has deteriorated in places along edge, and has half a dozen pavers with cracks ? Must all pavers be removed and brand new concrete drive be poured ? In general, over the years we've noticed the plain concrete work in this area of Fl does not seem to be high quality...perhaps since the temp extremes are not as great as in the northern states, high quality is not a priority ? Does any know of, had any experience with any kind of topping, or overlay that can be done over a paver drive if in decent condition ? Not talking about just another expensive "sealing", looking for a more permanent solution if one exists. I am guessing the expense of first having an entire paver drive and walks removed, hauled away, and then contracting for a new, poured, drive is prohibitively expensive ? Looking for ideas and ball park costs for a "standard" 2 car drive about 24' and a few feet to walk to front door. If you've replaced, or resurfaced your in some way, very interested in your experience, costs, satisfaction, etc. Thanks so much !

Thin pavers over concrete are fine. If there is a problem with them, it will be a result of poor installation.

When we bought our 15 year old house, there were several cracked pavers on each side of the driveway. This resulted from the pavers overhanging the edge of the concrete because the installer didn't take the time to trim the edges of the pavers flush with the edge of the concrete. The pavers then cracked from being run over by the giant riding mower used by the lawn service.

To my great fortune and surprise, the installer had left a number of pavers stacked behind the air conditioner compressor. I removed the cracked pavers, scraped the old mortar and dirt out, fit replacements, and glued them in place with waterproof construction adhesive.

There were a few cracked pavers that were not at the edges. These cracked because the installer did not apply enough mortar when installing the pavers. There should be a dab of mortar at the four corners of the paver and a fifth at the center (you apply the construction adhesive the same way). To replace those, I used a masonry blade in a circular saw to score an X in the paver and then used a chisel and hammer to break up the paver. After scraping out the old mortar and dirt, I fit a replacement and glued it in place.

Hopefully, your installer left a supply of pavers somewhere around your property. The air conditioner compressor is a good place to start. The attic is the next place to look. If you're lucky and find some extra pavers, the replacement of the cracked pavers is reasonably easy whether it is DIY or by a handyman (this is not a job requiring great skills). If the installer didn't leave you replacement pavers, you can search all the construction supply houses for replacements. This may prove frustrating as the sizes, shapes, and colors are often changed.

If you don't want pavers or can't find enough replacements that will allow you to repair the existing ones to your satisfaction, you will need to remove them and have the driveway painted. This can be a hell of a job. It can be DIY, but be prepared for a lot of hard work.

You will need a heavy-weight scraper from Home Depot, Lowe's, or Ace Hardware.These sell for $40-$60. You could also rent an electric jackhammer at HD with a scraper blade. You start at one side of the driveway and scrape and pry the pavers free from the concrete. You then sand or, more properly, grind the old mortar from the concrete. You can do this with an industrial floor sander/polisher with the proper disk, or, if you are a glutton for punishment, on your hands and knees with a hand-held angle grinder and a carborundum disk. I did this with an angle grinder at our last house in the Southwest. I was young and foolish and, likely, took years off my life.

You then have to paint the concrete. If you choose this route, I'd first contact the company which will do the painting to see if they will grind away the old mortar as they, usually, have to sand, etch, and fill any cracks with epoxy before painting.

[HORNET]

Have thinner pavers that was installed in 2011, no cracks. Seal every other year ( myself) . Depends on the installer. Laid on existing concrete driveway, no sand under, only in between pavers. To maintain, spread silica sand when sealing.only draw back is having to power wash yearly, especially before sealing.

[Laker14]

Have thinner pavers that was installed in 2011, no cracks. Seal every other year ( myself) . Depends on the installer. Laid on existing concrete driveway, no sand under, only in between pavers. To maintain, spread silica sand when sealing.only draw back is having to power wash yearly, especially before sealing.

Who did the work?