These paved front driveway tiles came with the house when I bought it. Some
of the tiles are cracking and some spliting due to frost damage, (in London,
U.K.).

See photo on Tinypic website:

http://tinypic.com/r/ae1y6b/5


Underneath the tiles is very solid and sound and I have no reason to disturb
it. I would like to do something to improve the appearence, preferably
without incurring any big expense or digging up these glazed tiles.

Laying a coating of cement on top would be difficult for me and I think
would not look so good. I'm looking for a fairly easy method within the
capabilities of a layman if possible. Thanks for any suggestions.

On Sun, 4 Apr 2010 12:57:53 +0100, "john hamilton"
wrote:

These paved front driveway tiles came with the house when I bought it. Some
of the tiles are cracking and some spliting due to frost damage, (in London,
U.K.).

See photo on Tinypic website:

http://tinypic.com/r/ae1y6b/5


Underneath the tiles is very solid and sound and I have no reason to disturb
it. I would like to do something to improve the appearence, preferably
without incurring any big expense or digging up these glazed tiles.

Laying a coating of cement on top would be difficult for me and I think
would not look so good. I'm looking for a fairly easy method within the
capabilities of a layman if possible. Thanks for any suggestions.

IMO, the best part of 'pavers' as we call them on this side of the
pond is that anyone can replace them- and you can replace the broken
ones without making a huge deal of it.

The hardest part might be finding matching tiles-- If I had troubles
I'd just go with a complimentary color. Dig out the old ones- throw
in some fines & pound into place with a 4-5lb rubber mallet until
flush. Grout & pop a brew.

OTOH- I don't know what that material is between your tiles. Looks
like some sore of grout or blacktop.

Jim
[I never noticed the ads on the tinypic site before. I just might
order a hat or mug with that image.g]

john hamilton wrote:
These paved front driveway tiles came with the house when I bought it. Some
of the tiles are cracking and some spliting due to frost damage, (in London,
U.K.).

See photo on Tinypic website:

http://tinypic.com/r/ae1y6b/5


Underneath the tiles is very solid and sound and I have no reason to disturb
it. I would like to do something to improve the appearence, preferably
without incurring any big expense or digging up these glazed tiles.

Laying a coating of cement on top would be difficult for me and I think
would not look so good. I'm looking for a fairly easy method within the
capabilities of a layman if possible. Thanks for any suggestions.


Best fix I can think of would be to take a tile from a less conspicuous
area along an edge and use it to replace the worst ones and, perhaps,
buy new tiles to fill in where you took from. Dyed concrete might work,
but seems it would stick out like a sore thumb. Sure they are glazed?
Sealing might help with the freeze damage in the future.

On Sun, 4 Apr 2010 12:57:53 +0100, "john hamilton"
wrote:

These paved front driveway tiles came with the house when I bought it. Some
of the tiles are cracking and some spliting due to frost damage, (in London,
U.K.).

See photo on Tinypic website:

http://tinypic.com/r/ae1y6b/5


Underneath the tiles is very solid and sound and I have no reason to disturb
it. I would like to do something to improve the appearence, preferably
without incurring any big expense or digging up these glazed tiles.

Laying a coating of cement on top would be difficult for me and I think
would not look so good. I'm looking for a fairly easy method within the
capabilities of a layman if possible. Thanks for any suggestions.


On second look- they might not be what we call pavers, as they are
most commonly put over a porous base of crushed stone and fines. From
the way that crack extends across several courses, I think there must
be concrete underneath the tiles, or it is stamped concrete.

Have you dug one up to see how thick & what your base is?

Jim

"Jim Elbrecht" wrote

On second look- they might not be what we call pavers, as they are
most commonly put over a porous base of crushed stone and fines. From

Hi Jim, educate me? I get the crushed stone but what is 'fines'?

john hamilton wrote:
These paved front driveway tiles came with the house when I bought it. Some
of the tiles are cracking and some spliting due to frost damage, (in London,
U.K.).

See photo on Tinypic website:

http://tinypic.com/r/ae1y6b/5


Underneath the tiles is very solid and sound and I have no reason to disturb
it. I would like to do something to improve the appearence, preferably
without incurring any big expense or digging up these glazed tiles.

Laying a coating of cement on top would be difficult for me and I think
would not look so good. I'm looking for a fairly easy method within the
capabilities of a layman if possible. Thanks for any suggestions.


Looks like typical spalling to me. Likely from salt-laden water getting
below the fired (not glazed) surface and freezing. Let me guess, there
is usually a puddle right there in winter? Prying out the damaged bricks
and replacing them, if you can find matching ones, is the only real spot
repair. Or like another poster said, use a different color, like granite
maybe. If you can pry out one brick to use as a sample, the brickyard
folks would be happy to show you the styles available in that size. I
suspect these are full-depth brick on a crushed stone base, otherwise
the low spot would not have formed. A brick drive like this should
really be sand-bedded, not set in mortar or grout, so the water can
drain through. A well-laid brick street can last a century with few
problems. Old street pavers, even after being buried under tarmac for
fifty years, are still snapped up for people who want them for back patios.

--
aem sends...

On Sun, 4 Apr 2010 13:30:32 -0400, "cshenk" wrote:

"Jim Elbrecht" wrote

On second look- they might not be what we call pavers, as they are
most commonly put over a porous base of crushed stone and fines. From

Hi Jim, educate me? I get the crushed stone but what is 'fines'?

Might be regional, sometimes called screenings, I think.-- It looks
almost like concrete with messy little bits of stone mixed in. I
get mine where I get my pavers. [about $15 for a 1/2ton scoop of it]

It packs to nearly the consistency of concrete, but is still somewhat
porous.

FWIW- Some folks mix the fines and #2 stone. I prefer
a *machine* compacted soil base,
landscape cloth,
4" #2 stone- *machine* compacted,
landscape cloth,
2" fines- machine compacted.
Then I lay my pavers one at a time with a 4-5lb deadblow hammer, using
another 1/2" or so of fines to 'set' them.

*Not* the way to do it if you're trying to make a living at it- but
the patio I built 5 yrs ago is still nearly perfect. And we've had
some weather here in NY over the past 5 years.

Jim

"Jim Elbrecht" wrote in message
...

[I never noticed the ads on the tinypic site before. I just might
order a hat or mug with that image.g]

Great, isn't it. I've just ordered a Doggie Ringer T-shirt. ;-)