Hi,
I want to put a small paved patio at the front of my house (see pic) but I’m not sure if I should have a slab poured ( about 2.25 yrds) or just do a compacted base. I will eventually paver the main driveway to the same level. All advice appreciated,
Mike
Replies
Soil stability under a slab would be a consideration. If you did a slab and for whatever reason the slab ever lost pitch away from the house and instead sent water towards the house, You'd end up with a nice swimming pool due to the contained nature of the "U" shape around your front door. With pavers over gravel the pavers could be pulled, the area regraded, and the pavers reset.
You're not in a freeze/thaw environment, so frost heaving of pavers over gravel wouldn't be an issue.
How about ants or burrowers? Ants can take material out from under pavers and deposit sand/etc on the top of the pavers.
I don't know if you have "stone dust" or "granite dust" or "decomposed granite" down there, but for a non-slab patio that's my favorite setting bed for stone or pavers. It compacts well, locks together nicely, and drains well. Ant's don't booger in it like they do with sand. It doesn't wash away as sand sometimes can.
All things being equal, in a perfect world I choose permanance. So I'd go for pavers over a slab.
Hey Mongo,
Sorry about the delay. I was holding back for a few more replies. Since they changed the layout of these forums it seems the volume of replies as really decreased. Your reply was very concise and helped me a lot. Thank you again,
Mike
It really depends what you like better.
I love concrete, and really if you compact it well settling is a non-issue. Especially since it should be formed to slope away from the house.
Concrete would most likely be more expensive, especially if you stamp and color it to make it look nice.
If you compact the sub-soil, and put 6" of compacted gravel it shouldn't settle. You can even pin it to the foundation w/ rebar stubs epoxied in, with an expansion joint. That with some rebar and it's not going anywhere anytime soon.
It depends on your budget and what you like, but I love concrete.
I would just put down simple gravel and cheap concrete block walkway until you are ready to work on the driveway. Chances are when you do the driveway you may want to continue the pavers from driveway to the patio without joints. Waiting now would give you patio and driveway that do not look like they were pieced together.