Evacuating surface water is important in a mortar set installation, so proper drainage is important. Can You Use Sand For a Paver Base? Yes, you can use sand for a paver base.
A sand paver base is one of the most popular options due to sand's accessibility and spreadability. However, sand is not an ideal base on its own. Over time, sand shifts and can create an uneven foundation. If your foundation is anything but level, your pavers will show it.
What Happens If You Don't Put Gravel Under Pavers? Drainage can really make or break an area where pavers are installed. If you have a paver patio, for example, without gravel or an alternative drainage system in place, water can roll back on it, causing damaging erosion.
Paving sand acts as a bed for the pavers to rest comfortably on for a flat, unmessy surface. It also protects the joints of the pavers from slowly crushing and eroding. Paving sand is durable enough to stabilise your pavers for years to come, and without it, they will shift or eventually sink as time goes on.
It distributes evenly for use as the paver foundation for the patio or walkway. Regular sand is a perfect alternative for polymeric sand when the design requires some adjustments. Unlike polymeric sand, natural sand is not permanent and is easy to remove, leaving room for further adjustments.
The paver bed is usually made of sand, 1/4″-10 crushed gravel, or synthetic material, and is the topmost paver support layer keeping pavers in place.
Believe it or not, properly installed pavers are more structurally sound than concrete, and they can withstand much more weight and wear than blacktop. The traditional base for a paver patio is 4–6” of compacted gravel above your dirt.
So in short, installing a paver base is crucial to get an even, flat surface that is easy to walk on and will last for years. There are several ways to install a paver. Depending on the soil conditions and terrain, you can choose the base.
Prepare Ground
Ensure you have a root and rubble free compatible sand sub-base of at least 50mm thick. The sub-base should be roughly levelled and damped down before tamping down firmly with a hand or mechanical compactor. Hand compaction is usually enough for most domestic applications when laying pavers.
Pro Tip: It's very important that you lay no more than 1” of bedding sand. Any more will promote settling or wobbling—two things you don't want pavers to do. Once your sand is in place, you'll use a 10'–12' strike board to “screed” the sand.
Whilst it is technically possible to lay pavers on bare, unprepared ground, this practice is not recommended as the ground will shift over time, causing the pavers to develop a sunken look, or even crack.
Since there is no gravel base, it's important to use a plate compactor to tamp down the soil before covering it with landscape fabric and a layer of sand. The sand layer must be screeded to provide a flat, properly sloped surface for the paver base panels. Lay the paver base panels over the sand bed.
Sand Bedding
Before laying the pavers, a layer of bedding sand is placed over the compacted base material. This layer provides a bed into which the pavers are set.
Estimating the Paver Sand
The final paver sand depth needs to be 1 inch and you need to account for sand filtering into the paver base and into the joints between the pavers. Make your calculations using a sand depth of 2 inches or 0.1667 feet.
Durable and attractive, pavers make a great choice for outdoor flooring. Sustaining their beauty requires little work. However, since pavers are exposed to various elements such as rain and wind, the joint sand between pavers may get washed out overtime. Occasional washing can also cause the joint sand to corrode.
Once the silica joint sand has been activated by the urethane in our Ure Seal h2o brick paver sealant, the 4 grain silica sand will become extremely hard, comparable to the consistency of concrete.
Laying pavers on sand base follows the same steps as laying them on soil base, but you'll be adding a layer of coarse sand, road base, or polymeric sand first. Rake the sand to even it out and use a plate compactor to make your sand base solid so you have a firm, stable base.
Dry laying allows porcelain pavers to be laid directly on grass and sand, but also on gravel, thanks to their reduced thickness of 20 millimeters that avoids the use of adhesives.
Concrete sand is the proper sand for laying a foundational base for a concrete paver installation. It is extremely coarse sand so it can be compacted uniformly and allows for adequate water drainage. Concrete sand will lift slightly into the joints of the pavers when they are being leveled, locking them into place.
To achieve a firm base from the beginning, you need to make sure you have the correct depth of sand under pavers. We recommend allowing for a depth of at least 30mm loose sand. This will pack down to about 20-25mm depending on the method you use for packing and will allow for drainage without your pavers shifting.
Their recommendation for using stone dust under pavers? Don't. They, and many others, recommend what's commonly referred to as washed concrete sand, a coarse-grained sand that complies with CSA A23. 1 and ASTM C33 standards.
Set up the guides so that your pavers will be 3/8" (1 cm) above the finished level (this allows for your final compaction). Level the sand evenly by pulling a board along the pipes (see photo).
Why You Need Drainage Under Pavers. Water can be a home's worst enemy. A build-up of moisture around your home can damage your foundation and your landscaping, cause mold and mildew, put you, your family, and your pets at risk of slipping and falling, and much more.
Start with the gravel that's sitting atop the soil. It must be compressed down so it's laid on the soil in a stable and neat manner. Add a thin sand layer on the gravel – it serves as the paver's base. Also, compress it to make sure that it's level with the surrounding pavers' base and stays fully flat.