Guide to installing concrete paver

Before your pavers are delivered

When you order your pavers, delivery will usually occur within a day or two of ordering. However, it’s a wise idea to check exactly what date delivery will occur, before preparing your site.

Prepare the paving site

Follow these steps to professionally prepare your paving site:

· Excavate the area to be paved. You’ll need to excavate to a depth to allow for:

• The base layer of 75 – 150mm thick road base
• 20mm – 30mm of paver bedding sand
• The thickness of the paver – usually between 40 and 50mm thick
• Use a spirit level to establish the falls and level
• Spread the road base evenly and compact it using a vibrating plate compactor
• Fill any uneven or low spots with extra road base to achieve a flat, level base
• Allow a clear path for water drainage by sloping away from the house
• Rectify any soft spots or drainage issues
• Use PVC piping or something similar to create 20 – 30mm thick screed rails. Place these parallel to each other and around a metre apart on the road base.
• Spread paver bedding sand roughly over and between the screed rails. Never use crusher dust or cracker dust, as these can cause staining.
• Using a concrete screed or similar, use a zig zag left to right motion to scrape away excess sand
• Without disturbing the sand, slide the screed rails out
• Fill the voids with paver bedding sand and smooth the surface with a trowel

Establish paving lines

Use string lines at right angles to establish paving lines. This will give your paving a professional look by keeping the joints straight.

As well, don’t leave your pavers stacked in “star-stacks” for more than a few hours. When stacked in this way, any paver corners exposed to the air will go lighter than the covered parts of the paver after a day or two. The pavers need to be evenly exposed to oxygen once the wrapping comes off.

Allow some extra

Always save some pavers to allow for mishaps. You never know when you might need a few spares in case you need to replace pavers in the future. Store these away carefully and make sure they are well wrapped.

Lay your pavers

Using your stringlines as a guide, start laying your pavers along the longest straight edge of the area. Lay whole pavers first. Keep visually checking to make sure they’re straight as you go. Leave 3 – 5mm between each paver to allow for jointing sand. You should never butt-joint pavers, as this will lead to crooked lines. Always leave a bit of space.

If you’ve ordered multiple pallets of concrete pavers, use a blending technique to ensure uniformity of colour, pattern and texture. As you lay the pavers, blend them from a number of pallets, as the colours will usually vary a little from pallet to pallet. They may also vary from batch to batch, due to weather conditions and variations in natural materials during manufacturing and curing.

Modify your pavers

If your area requires pavers to be cut, use an angle-grinder for small jobs or a brick saw for bigger jobs, to re-size pavers to fit. Mark the cuts first on the paver before cutting. Always use appropriate safety equipment.

Fill the joints

Use a jointing sand over the paving area to fill the joints. Use a clean, fine, silica-based product rather than a dry sand/cement mix. Polymeric sand can be used to reduce weeds, ants and wash outs in small joints. Wider joints can be grouted with an air curing mortar jointing compound.

Add the finishing touches

Use a light vibrating plate compactor to compact the pavers into the bedding sand and settle the jointing sand. This will lock the pavers in. Use a piece of soft carpet on the base of the compacter to protect the pavers. If pavers do break during this process, just replace them.

Finish with a good sweep to remove all the excess jointing sand. You may need to top this sand up over the next few weeks, so keep some handy.

For maximum protection, seal the pavers after installation with a penetrating sealer.