How to crazy pave front porch?

Question

Hi all,

I have  a very old paved porch and am wanting to replace it with crazy paving. I'm getting mixed advice regarding the prep layers and hoping to seek clarification here.

Will be of course removing the current pavers that are approx 50mm height. Assuming the base is decently compact, my understanding is that a road base of at least 50mm can go down, then about 20mm mortar to each paver to stick down on?

I'm hoping to avoid having to dig deeper and use the existing base.

Thanks heaps!

Wei24 · Answer

Thanks @MitchellMc - you've explained it far better than anyone else I've spoken to, AI included!

Cheers - will re-evaluate the effort now!

Wei

MitchellMc · Answer

Welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community @Wei24. It's marvellous to have you join us and many thanks for your question about crazy paving.

Crazy paving is a bit of a misleading term, because it’s not really paving in the same way as brick or concrete pavers. In most cases, it’s actually more like tiling. The stone or tile is broken into irregular pieces and then fixed to a solid, rigid substrate, typically a concrete slab, using tile adhesive or a mortar bed. Once laid, the joints are filled with a wide-joint grout to suit the large and uneven gaps between the pieces.

Because of the way it’s constructed, crazy paving relies on having a completely stable base. I haven’t personally come across any installations where crazy paving has been successfully laid using thick pavers over a compacted road base. Even if the existing base feels solid, compacted bases still experience minor movement over time, especially outdoors. Grout and rigid mortar beds can’t cope with that movement and will crack, which is why crazy paving is almost always installed over concrete rather than directly on a flexible base.

In your case, removing the existing 50 mm pavers and laying road base with mortar on top may work for standard paving, but it’s not suitable for true crazy paving. To do it properly and avoid ongoing cracking issues, you’d be looking pouring a concrete slab and then installing the crazy paving on top.

Here's a couple of helpful guides: How to lay crazy paving and How to pour a concrete slab.

Let me tag @EleventhCoastal for their thoughts.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Mitchell