Paver Patio Concrete wall Connection?
I’m a DIYer putting in a 10×10 paver patio and have a couple of questions. The patio will be up against the house foundation on 2 adjacent sides. The house has veneer fieldstone on the walls from ground level up.
First question: I was going to use that tarred fiber board they use for concrete expansion joints between the pavers and concrete foundation walls. The top of the pavers will be just under the lowest course of veneer fieldstone against the concrete wall. I am worried about frost heave from the patio knocking off the veneer over time. So should I use multiple layers of the fiber board or something else to move the patio out 3 or 4 inches from the house so it will miss the veneer if it does heave? I’m in central Iowa, so we get a nice mix of temperture extremes.
Second Question: Do I need to be worried about the clay soil I am building this on? Other posts here said to make sure the paver base is drained to daylight, but that may not be possible where I am building since the site is very level. I am right at getting a 1/4″ drop per foot as it is without building the whole thing up several inches. And that make the connection to the house even trickier.
Would a picture help visualize this?
Replies
I think you are right to be concerned about frost heave damaging the veneer. Rather than the fiberboard, though, how about leaving the pavers a couple of inches away from the face of the veneer and filling the edge with something like pea gravel? It would have a nice, trim look and be able to respond to any movement without showing.
Clay is really bad to lay pavers on. It moves around a lot when it wets and dries out. And it holds moisture so well that it frost heaves something awful. You need at least 6" or so of compacted crushed stone for a base, topped with 1" of stone dust to set the pavers on. I would not be afraid of building the patio up higher than the surrounding ground unless you are really constrained for height. Then you could bring in some sandy top soil to build up around the patio, tapering smoothly down to the rest of the yard. Drainage per se is not as critical as having a solid base that won't soften when it gets wet.
I used what I think was some form of expansion joint. It's a grey strip of plastic foam stuff about 1" wide. Looks sort of like the foam weatherstripping. I usedsed that against the house between the brick veneer and pavers and then topped it with the elastomeric sand.
We have very clay soil here. I built the patio using crushed rock, tamped mechanically, weed block, then about 1" of sand.
It worked out well, though there are slight dips where the gutters run-off due to settling over time. I went a bit extreme with my slope and probably have 6" over the 12' or so of patio.
Edited 6/3/2009 10:34 pm ET by darrel