Brick paver patterns

Here's one with a radiating circular pattern (DAGS).

I'm getting ready to do about 2,000 sf of pavers. On some of the fields, I want unique designs rather than the herringbone or basket weave that is so common. Does anyone know of sites where unusual paver patterns are shown?

Steve

e fields, I

gee yesterday I walked over a LOT of paver sidewalks, most having problems from heaving, low spots, and pavers moving apart. I thought it how sad people spent big bucks putting them in, just to have them look bad some years later.

I was door knocking for a candidate in a nice neighborhood, geez lots of homes are needing repairs.

there were enough trip hazard sidewalks to keep a army of lawyers busy for a lifetime:(

I sold a home a few years ago, and remember well the hassles with home inspectors, most of these homes wouldnt be insurable if their homeowners were aware of the conditions.

many of the worst were pavers. enjoy what you choose, but I wouldnt choose pavers.

Totally outside the building trades . . .

1. Scientists call filling space with uniform shapes "tiling." The current world expert is a Brit. called Roger Penrose.
2. The world expert on architectural and printing layour is Edward Tufte, see
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   may find unusual ideas at either source.

Beautiful pattern! I used 6, 8, and 12 inch tiles for a pattern on a sidewalk. Pattern from a photo on vacation.

On 8/17/2008 12:27 PM Don Phillipson spake thus:

I have both his /The Visual Display of Quantitative Information/ and /Envisioning Information/. Both essential, seminal, fundamental and necessary books for anyone dealing with graphic design, information dissemination, or even, as you suggest, architectural design.

Use them in the desert. No serious heave. or any! I'm about to put down 300 sf of flag stone (limestone) by the pool. Given my desert soiled/packed for years I can get by.

As in everything else in construction it's all in the preparation and details. The DIY shows are the worst - throw down an inch of sand and start laying pavers. Yeah, right.

Same here in the desert. We had quite a bit installed in Las Vegas about three years ago. Looks exactly the same. BUT, those guys were out there with a water filled roller packing the heck out of the sand before they laid the first brick. I think that's the trick. If you live in a place that has frost heave, all bets are off. A lot of it is doing it right the first time.

Steve

Up North we use crushed rock as the setting bed and use a plate compactor to consolidate the substrate, then lay a thin layer of sand for setting the pavers.

uys were out there

e in a place that has

yeah and they still move around, no matter how well you try:(

yeah and they still move around, no matter how well you try:(

Well, not really, or not necessarily. As long as the project is properly designed and constructed they should last about as long as anything else with little or no maintenance. As others have said the problem generally is people trying to cheap out on the job, Some good info on installation can be found here;

a nearby neighbor spent 15 grand on his driveway, everyone watched the week project with tons of base work. about 10 years ago

today his driveway looks bad, he is talking of having it redone....

in the old days brick streets were laid on concrete with a good base.

nothing holds up forever

walls are the same way, the best wall is one you never built

Yep, most of it. The pavers go down pretty quickly.

It doesn't matter how much is spent, it matters what is done. If the contractor chooses what he thinks is the "best" way of doing it, and the contractor doesn't understand soils and drainage, then it's doomed anyway.

The correct method in a particular situation may require a lot of work and expense that will be buried. It might not make sense to use pavers if it requires going to extraordinary lengths to make the installation last.

Not always. Cobbles and bricks were often laid the same way they are often set today. Remove topsoil and organics, add and compact graded gravel and sand, set the brick/cobble.

If you've ever seen the miles of fan-pattern cobbles in European streets that are still in use you'll understand that they can hold up to traffic. They're also easy, but not necessarily cheap, to repair. Labor intensive to repair, but when they repair is complete it's virtually invisible, doesn't leave additional seams (points of weakness) like repairs in asphalt and concrete, and can immediately be opened for traffic.

Should it?

I have no idea what you mean by that.

Up North we use crushed rock as the setting bed and use a plate compactor to consolidate the substrate, then lay a thin layer of sand for setting the pavers.

Again, a lot of it is in the prep work.

Steve

In this area of the north, we do the same thing, except we skip the thin layer of sand because the ants insist on mining it from under the bricks and dumping it on the top. Instead we use limestone screenings, the fine dust and grit that results when they sift it out of washed crushed limestone. It doesn't stop the ants but deters their activity because the screenings pack solid and set into a soft "concrete" layer that is hard to dig into.

Wouldn't granite dust compact better? Just something I read. Wet it and pack it, repeat, so it becomes almost like a cement. Prevents pest and weeds...

Possibly, but we don't have granite dust probably because we don't have much granite available in this area, the local rock is limestone, so we use limestone screenings which is mostly dust and it does compact almost like cement.