I have been thinking of replacing my old and deteriated asphalt driveway a section at a time with pavers on top of crusher run and sand. Maybe just st arting with an apron in front of my garage and see how that goes. My questi on is, do these pavers last longer than asphalt? Do they require less maint enance? I live in southern Kentucky, and we do get cold weather but not lik e I would imagine you guys up north do.
Looking for something that looks good and is as maintenance free as possibl e. I thought about concrete, but my wife is against it. She says it gets di rty and is prone to staining. I know pavers can stain but I would think the y would be more easily replaceable than concrete obviously.
As long as you do the pavers right, they're real nice. I did a narrow sidewalk about 15 years ago and didn't prepare the ground. Just cut out the grass basically and leveled it with dirt just using a rake. It's now a bit wavy and I have to use weed killer because the pavers have separated a bit. Still don't regret it. I can rebed them if I want to. I'm in northern Illinois. As far as I can tell the only thing going against pavers is the cost. But if you prepare the ground right they should last a long time, and they look real good to me. You really need a compactor.
The biggest down side to pavers is the weeds that grow up in the joints. Like everything else, preparation is more important than the installation itself. You need a very stable base under pavers or they can get uneven pretty fast.
a section at a time with pavers on top of crusher run and sand. Maybe just starting with an apron in front of my garage and see how that goes. My que stion is, do these pavers last longer than asphalt? Do they require less ma intenance? I live in southern Kentucky, and we do get cold weather but not like I would imagine you guys up north do.
ible. I thought about concrete, but my wife is against it. She says it gets dirty and is prone to staining. I know pavers can stain but I would think they would be more easily replaceable than concrete obviously.
I don't have experience with them in a driveway so can't comment on that part. But agree weeds are an issue. There are week killing products available that will keep weeds from growing for several months. But that can be problematic too as you're not supposed to use them in the drip zone of trees and IDK about the safety if you have pets that might be walking on it, etc.
Most "pavers" nowadays are made of concrete; therefore, they behave like concrete. The color in them can either be on the surface or all the way through (more expensive). Either way, they will eventually weather so that the aggregate shows; if they are surface colored, that eventually goes away too.
If you want something that will look the same after decades, use clay brick. There are probably some streets where you live that were paved with brick more than 100 years ago and - if they haven't been covered up with asphalt - I'll bet they still look good.
Nowadays, most clay brick is cut; i.e., a big extrusion is cut into individual bricks which gives a rougher surface than the old time brick pavers which were individually molded.
You should have no problem finding clay bricks where you live; they may be a bit more expensive than those made of concrete but even if so, they are well worth it.
As far as maintenance goes, clay bricks are maintenance free assuming you don't spill paint or oil on them. If you have a good base and the joints are well sanded in, very little will sprout in the joints. I have roughly
1800 sq.ft. of them in my Florida courtyard; weeds grow all year here but I rarely get any in the courtyard, so few that it is easier to pull a half dozen or so rather than use an herbicide. If I were to use an herbicide, I would have no worries about using it even though the courtyard is around a large oak and there are ornamental plants around the sides; easy enough to not spray those and it won't hurt pets once it dries.
I have a few brick pathways and a patio of pavers.
The bricks in the pathways have been known to crack. Not a lot of them but once a year or so. The bricks I set up as soldiers at the edge of the pathway break a lot more.
I'm in NJ and it's clearly the frost/thaw that breaks the bricks.
The paver patio is around 15 years old and shows no degradation.
Neither of these has a car driving on it. I don't think the bricks would last long under a car.
They will outlast asphalt for sure - likely 2-1 at a minimum. If the driveway settles, pull them up, add some sand, and re-lay. I've re-layed mine once already in 30 years.
Maintenance wize, fill the gaps with poly-sand and seal them with clear acrylic sealer every few years to keep them looking good and keep the weeds from growing i n the cracks.
Keep a dozen or so spare bricks so if you bust one you can pull it out and replace it with a new one. (I broke one with a jack-stand leg).
30 years with concrete bricks on double friveway in Central Ontario. No problems. Parking a truck on the drive regularly caused track-sagging so I lifted those, added and compacted more sand, and re-layed the bricks. 30 years and still going strong
Clay wouldn't stand up to the freeze-thaw cycles up here - they would turn to mush in a few years. - and I've never seen concrete pavers that were not coloured all the way through up here either. - unless someone died / stained them.
Clay bricks more easily chip. The concrete paver sidewalk I laid about 15 years ago hasn't changed color and has coloring all the way through - as you can see when you cut one. I think whether you like one or the other is all personal taste. My wife picked the pavers, and liked the color and interlocking pattern. They say the concrete pavers will erode faster, but mine look just like they did when I laid them, so they are well made. You can get bad manufacturing whether concrete or clay. I believe a good clay tile will last centuries. That's not important to me since the sidewalk wasn't meant to be "for the ages."
Just my experience - clay doesn't stand up as well as pavers, and if water gets into clay bricks on a wall or chimney they "explode" when they freeze, blowing off chunks of brick
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