play sand?

I have read on other posts that you should not use play sand for concrete pavers. I was wondering what the reason for this is. Also if you use mason or paver sand to fill in the joints, when it rains, doesn't the sand get everywhere? Do you just have to live with this? Is polymeric sand or a sealer usually used or do people usually just brush off the sand everytime after it rains? Thanks for any information.

 

Play sand can be anything that is cheap and readily available to anyone that puts stuff in a bag.

It has been shown thousands of times and trough the years that a sand meeting specifications for concrete sand is the what should be used for the 1" uncompacted sand setting bed.

For the sand filling for sweeping and vibrating into a joints, a fine concrete sand or a masons sand is best.

This is based on thousands of installations ranging from a patio through the progression of sidewalk, driveway, street, airport taxiway or heavy duty indistrial apllications.

The interlocking concrete pavers should be butted tightly together (there are molded spacers on the sides) and there should be an edge restraint around the area before the sand is vibrated.

Very rarely is a polymeric sand used on an important installation because of the cost, vibration/filing problems and the haze that is possible.

If you have sand coming out when it rains, your patio has not been vibrated properly, the edge restaint is not sufficient or the pavers were not laid tight enough.

If you have a pation, you can be a little lax and get away with it.

 

How should you go about vibrating the sand into the patio?

 

First, do you have interlocking concrete pavers (maximum dimension less than 9" and 2-3/8" or more thick) or do you have the larger concrete stepping stones 12" to 24" square?

If you have the interlocking pavers, you can rent a vibratory plate vibrator (gas powered) at a rental shop or at a good paving stone supplier.

If you have the larger stepping stones, there is no standard, so they may not have a close enough tolerence to vibrate.

Dick

 

doh I have the stepping stones that you describe they are about 1ft x 1ft. Is there any other way to prevent the sand from coming up? Thanks for all your help