Browse Forums Paving & Concreting 1 Mar 02, 2011 9:58 am Like someone said before ... an age old dilemma. Would you rather pave or tile your covered outdoor area (which has no walls)? What are the pros and cons of pavers and tiles? So far I've noticed that most of the outdoor tiles don't have a nice bullnose matching tile. We'd prefer to have a thick bullnose pavers as stair goings, but how silly would it be to then have tiles on the slab?? Mixing too many materials?! Also, most tiles are as large as 300x300 only (the nicer ones at least). With pavers, do you prefer a smooth surface or rugged/rustic? How hard is it to achieve a nice small joint with pavers, especially with the rustic ones that have uneven edges (the grout would have to be much thicker to span those little indentations on the edges of the pavers)? Do you need to put screed under the pavers too (to make sure the surface is flat)? My signature is distracting people from my wise posts ... Re: Pavers or tiles? 2Mar 02, 2011 12:13 pm we got a concrete slab down and we will be using same stone tiles as pool coping and surrounding pool area. We were unsure what we wanted to do but becasue we ahve the slab we had a few choices. Re: Pavers or tiles? 3Mar 02, 2011 4:54 pm Natural stone tiles ... that's nice. Also heard that due to the variations in them, they hide the dirt better. Also heard that pavers, even when laid on concrete slab, still have to have a bed of loose sand under! I thought that pavers can be glued direct to slab with some kind of flexible adhesive My signature is distracting people from my wise posts ... Re: Pavers or tiles? 4Mar 04, 2011 7:32 pm also got this dillema but add decking to the mix.. got a small alfresco without any walls and can't decide what to do with it.. isn't it easier to use sand under the paver rather that glue? i mean at least for levelling.. Oxford 22 @ Stage12a Point Cook Site Cut : 05/03/2010 Slab Pour : 24/03/2010 Frame Inspected : 06/04/2010 Pre-plaster Inspection: 22/04/2010 PCI: 16/07/2010 Final Inspection: 30/07/2010 Landscaping: who knows??? MyHomeoneThread Our Oxford22 Blog Re: Pavers or tiles? 5Mar 05, 2011 9:46 pm You can level with screed, like for tiles. If I had a slab underneath, I'd always glue/cement, would not leave loose sand. I'm a bit anxious about loose sand. My signature is distracting people from my wise posts ... Re: Pavers or tiles? 6Mar 07, 2011 6:32 am I have a small concrete area in the backyard (24 sq m) that has a pergola roof... Looking at 3 options: 1. Pavers (was suggested to sue paving sand on top of concrete) 2. Tiles (Trying to find that goes with the brick colour) 3. Decking on top of Concrete (might look a bit odd) I will be very interested to find what Lex does I may not need to use my brain then... Re: Pavers or tiles? 7Mar 07, 2011 8:42 am Just don't look at me for solutions as we are in the same - undecided - shoes!! We are swinging from hot to cold in a millisecond ... or should I say from a concrete to a sand base for pavers. Last night we "decided" to go just with pavers, no concrete under. This morning it just seems wrong!!! OK, to help US decide , I'll start on some PROs and CONs for each option. If anyone can add/change/delete to this, please do so!!! Option A: Pavers/Tiles laid over a concrete base: A - PROs: 1. Solid hard surface. 2. Joints are hard and made either of mortar or some other hard impermeable "grout" 3. No ants drilling thru the mortar joints 4. No weeds sprouting in the mortar joints 5. Able to pressure wash the pavers to your heart's content and the mortar joints will stay put 6. Can use tiles or pavers (but in some cases, have to decide upfront because of finished heights and adjoining to other concreted surfaces) A - CONs: 1. Extra cost 2. Can crack and the cracking can show through tiles or pavers (ie. crack them too, needing replacment) I can't see any other cons, other than in some cases consideration must be given if the concrete pad will also be a base for future structures, eg. pergola, whihc is often the case. All of the following applies to those cases. 3. Difficulty in accessing the site with big machines (drills) if required, eg. for adequate footings or pergola post support and the like (in some cases) 4. In case of sloping sites, especially if one edge of patio is along the hosue, the concrete pad needs to be engineered with footings designed like a dropped edge beam slab (or alike) 5. In some cases, the concrete pad needs to be dowelled into the house slab Option B: Pavers laid over a roadbase and sand: B - PROs: 1. Availability of matching bullnose pavers to use on stair goings (if one needs to build stairs too) 2. Cheaper 3. Simpler to construct since there are no issues with building the slab if the area is not flat 4. Easier to replace individual broken/stained pavers or even partially 'disassemble' if ever need access to fix something else, like a leaking pipe under the hosue etc. B - CONs: 1. Regardless of good workmanship in compaction, pavers can still move up/down down the track 2. Ants drilling thru sand 3. Weeds sprouting in the sand joints 4. NOT able to pressure wash the pavers to your heart's content because the "grout"/joints are not hard and impermeable, even when using the PaveSet or PaveLock sand and similar products 5. Erosion/dissaperance of the jointing sand / PaveSet mix during time and the need to replace it / top up 6. Can only use pavers, not tiles In general also, there is a much greater variety in colours, large sizes and various textures with pavers than with tiles. My signature is distracting people from my wise posts ... Appreciate that Chippy. I won’t do sand under pavers and will connect all up under pavers, however I was going to do: 1) Roadbase compacted with manual hand tamper 2)… 10 19962 Those span tables can be pushed a little for a low deck if you dont mind a little flex. Last deck I did, I pushed it a little and it was still rock solid - no noticeable… 6 14522 Hi, I have had them in the past and the pros are: Versatile, i.e many different colours and styles to choose… 1 7758 |