Will a concrete dry pour work under pavers? Doing a dry pour cement base under a paver sitting area. 

Thank you! It's really coming together well, although very slowly. I'd never seen anyone try it with the pavers on the top and couldn't find anything about building this way, but it seemed like the perfect solution. The biggest thing for me is not getting frost in the ground, if you're in a colder area I'd make the cement thicker and maybe put in a metal mesh or rebar.

I drive over mine all the time, as long as you take your time and do lots of tapping them into place so the mortar can work its way around and into the pavers it works great. still recommend 4+ inches of concrete.

Thank you! We moved here from Minnesota, there's real soil there. Nice for digging and growing stuff. Our soil here is somewhat like concrete, need a pick axe to make a hole. Our pad ends up being a little over 5 inches since the pavers are concrete, plenty strong to drive over but being raised probably never will, the walkway leading to it, our next pavers on dry pour project, will be driven over. I'll be doing multi parts on that since I've gotten a lot of interest in how to make it able to hold up, using patio pavers, not meant to be driven on but with the concrete base should be plenty strong.

Make sure you tamp them into the mix well, I hate to admit it but I had one come loose. It's not going anywhere and doesn't feel loose but I'll have a future video with whatever repair I want to try. Everything else is amazing.

@@JustDoingMyStuff Cool! But if you kinda think about it, it only feels loose because the substrate is stiff. Theoretically, all pavers are loose but they don't feel loose because of the soft bedding.

Very true. The nicest part about doing pavers on dry pour if you tamp them in enough the mortar glues itself to the paver essentially making it part of the underlying cement.

I think you could simply because this isn't affected as much by rain, of course I wouldn't recommend doing it in the rain or if it's going to rain a lot within a couple hours...

Thank you.

It's all about doing it your way.

I built the pad up to level and have a slight slope on the pour and pavers for water run off. Started at about 3.5 inches and ended at about 2 inches. Add the thickness of the pavers and the patio should be strong enough to drive on. Used my long level to get the right grade and a rubber mallet to set the pavers.

The pavers are also concrete so porous. I did a couple light waterings so the water running between the cracks didn't carry all the mortar down leaving the aggregate on the top and the whole assembly loose. Put the pavers on top of the dry concrete, tap with a rubber mallet to work it into the bottom of the pavers, water lightly twice for the mix in the cracks, then water enough that water pools on top twice per inch of dry mix letting it dry for at least an hour between waterings. It was easy to level, scree a bunch to get powder to the top. Don't overwater, the water does go through the pavers and will set up your mix.

That's a common comment amongst people that are in wet concrete fields. Wet is certainly great for a lot of things however dry pours are becoming very common. It's all about the process. The pad I poured looks just like every wet pour I've done and the strength is comparable according to every fair test I've seen and been a part of.

@@JustDoingMyStuff I have no doubt that it will work for you . I was only referring to paying jobs. I've done quite a few pads around my house and for friends and it holds up just fine using the dry pour method. We do mostly brick pavers and stone work on top of concrete and this definitely speeds up the process and less labor...I find no fault in this. Keep crushing

Didn't water until everything was built then watered the whole assembly just enough that it was wet. After an hour I watered it lightly again. An hour later I watered it so there was standing water. Did that 5 more times then let normal rainfall take it from there. Didn't walk on it for a few hours after the last watering and it felt solid. If you do it let me know how it goes. Going to put out a few videos doing the walkway up to it with more information.

@@JustDoingMyStuff I dry poured a set of 7 outdoor steps. Want to do a patio for my tenant, and a walkway this spring. Still have a lil snow here.

Then just water it like a dry pour after the first 4 waterings, I have a small dry pour pad and we'll be doing a large pad on the right side of our patio when facing the back of the house. Only real difference is using a rubber mallet to set the pavers for level instead of screeding and to work the mortar into the pores of the pavers so they lock down. You'll find this is even easier than a dry pour pad... or steps.

Looks like you already do stuff! This was the first experiment, didn't want to be the only person spreading bad ideas on the interwebs if it didn't work out ;)

I agree! We are just about finished with a new job and I took video at each step. I will be putting that video up in a few days just wanted to wait till the job was done. It's a path that leads from our patio to that seating area using the same method.

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