DEAR TIM: Pavers are top on my mind. I'm planning a paver patio and want to be ready to go when the weather is favorable. Because of the harsh economy, I can't afford to hire a contractor. Will brick pavers make a durable patio, or should I lean towards concrete pavers? What's the difference? Patio pavers look great because of the seams and texture, are they difficult to install? Shelly V., Lebanon, NH

DEAR SHELLY: My wife and I have had a paver patio at the last two homes we have owned, and I have one at the home I just purchased in New Hampshire. Our brick-paver patio in our old home has been in place for over 20 years and it looks as good as the day I installed it. Mother Nature has coated it with thick ice, the sun bakes it in the summer and the brick and mortar are wearing like iron.

If you want to work with pavers, pick a small project like brick paver stepping stones. PHOTO CREDIT: Tim Carter

A concrete paver is not too much different than a brick paver. The common concrete pavers that have been used to construct walkways, steps and patios are made from smaller stones, coarse sand, Portland cement and colored pigments. The colored pigments are what create the earth tones you see in these products. However, the color eventually dulls over a period of a few years. Over time, the colored cement paste wears off the top surface of the concrete pavers, and they usually develop a faded look when you start to see the actual color of the small stones and coarse sand.

You don't have this color issue when you use brick pavers. The clay that's mined and formed to make the pavers is the same color all the way through. So as the brick wear, the color always remains uniform. You just have to be very careful to purchase the correct pavers as some are not rated or certified to be used in a horizontal manner in climates like yours where you get frigid weather. Purchase the pavers from a real brick yard, and make sure they carry the severe-weathering rating.

The pavers that resist ice and snow for decades are fired longer in the kilns and sometimes at a hotter temperature. This heating process actually transforms the soft clay into an artificial stone. If you fire brick long enough, you can make them so hard and strong they'll resist heavy truck and car traffic when used in roadways. Visit downtown Athens, Ohio and you can see brick streets that have been in use and exposed to the weather for over 100 years.

When you go to install the pavers, you need to make a choice. You can set them in sand, a sand and Portland cement mix or you can mortar them directly to a concrete slab. My paver walkways and patios are all mortared to steel-reinforced concrete slabs. This is by far the hardest and most labor-intensive method, but I did so for a reason.

My first experience with pavers was a patio I built for my future mother-in-law. She had some instructions where you set the uniform pavers in a checkerboard pattern on top of compacted damp sand that was blended with Portland cement. The sand bed was 4-inches thick and it was easy to get it level after compacting it. I did that by dragging a straight 2x4 across the sand/cement mixture. The brick were set directly on the sand and then fine sand was swept into the cracks between the brick.

Those patio pavers have been down for 37 years, and they look fantastic. Over time, a few high and low spots have developed, but they add character to the patio.

A few years after this job, I tried to set thin pavers just on sand. It was a disaster. The brick drifted around on the sand, ants brought the sand to the surface, weeds grew in between the brick and we constantly tracked sand into the house.

To get pavers to stay put, have no humps and look good, I decided to mortar them to a concrete slab. As you can imagine, this requires more excavation depth, expensive concrete, lots of help to place the concrete and then countless hours of mixing mortar and carefully laying the brick pavers so they are in the same plane and shed water. If you have the desire and the time, it makes for a stunning look. I strongly advise you to experiment perhaps with a garden-pavers project so you can see how much work is involved.

Paver installation is going to be hard work no matter which method you choose. I can tell you how to install pavers, but the truth is you just need to start and see how much work you can accomplish in a weekend. Excavating earth is going to be your first hard task, and mechanical tools may be your best bet. You can rent miniature excavators or backhoes that allow you to scrape the earth, and they have a front bucket that you use to transport the dirt to a truck or low spot in your yard.

Paver patios are a popular project because they are do-it-yourself friendly and look positively stunning when the job is done. Your challenges are many, but they all can be overcome if you're determined to get this job done. The best way to get a taste of laying pavers is to just do a small area in another part of your yard. Get a feel for how much work and skill it requires to get the results you'll be proud of.

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I had the good fortune to grow up surrounded by limestone. In fact, the limestone rock in Cincinnati, Ohio, is world famous. The interbedded layers of limestone and shale that are seen in road cuts in and around Cincinnati make up a series of rock formations that were created in the upper Ordovician period of geologic time. This was a very long time ago, and for those keeping time it was a little over 440-million years ago.

The fossils in this limestone are of such great quality and diversity, that these formations are the world-type section of rock for this period of time. In layman's terms, this means they are the best rocks of their time. That's first place, best-in-class, or the winner.

The limestone around my childhood home had many uses. Not only was it of great interest to paleontologists, the geologists who study fossils, but it was also was/is used heavily by builders and landscapers. The rock is very dense and hard and served as a foundation material for tens of thousands of businesses and homes in the area. It also was the material used for miles of limestone retaining walls.

There are many different types of limestone. The texture of the stone in Cincinnati is very coarse. The fossils in the limestone are abundant, and it was formed in an environment similar to what you would see if you visited the Great Barrier Reef on the northeast coast of Australia.

But just 125-miles west of Cincinnati in Bedford, Indiana, you can inspect the famous Indiana limestone. This limestone is extremely fine-grained an is called an oolitic limestone. This limestone is strong, durable and easily carved. Many of the buildings in Washington, DC, use Indiana limestone on their facades. Tens of thousands of commercial and residential buildings use this magnificent and gorgeous limestone. If you look closely at it, you can see tiny fossil remains in the stone.

Crushed limestone is used by contractors and builders everyday. It makes a fantastic base for asphalt driveways and roads. This crushed stone also can serve as an excellent gravel drive or roadway by itself. The angular shapes of the stone that result as the rock is crushed allow each piece to interlock to make a very stable roadbed.

Some primary limestone uses are:

• limestone tile
• limestone flooring
• primary ingredient in Portland cement
• limestone countertops
• stone walls
• building foundations
• decorative building facades including columns, balusters, railings, etc.

Suffice it to say that limestone is used as a building material simply because of its hardness and long-term durability. Limestone is not as hard as granite, but it's hard enough that it can easily last centuries when exposed to weather.

In different parts of the Midwestern USA, you can readily see a limestone quarry or two as you drive along several interstate highways. There is a massive one southwest of downtown Chicago, several limestone quarries can be seen in northern Ohio, and there are the famous ones in Indiana. These surface mines are very distinctive as you can see the sheer faces of the limestone rock as well as active trucks, cranes and other machinery.

One other interesting characteristic of limestone is that it is the rock of choice that Mother Nature prefers to use when she constructs limestone caves. Limestone is alkaline, as it is primarily calcium carbonate. Rainwater itself can sometimes be slightly acidic and become more acidic after it falls to the ground. This acidic water seeps into the bedrock and dissolves away limestone creating massive underground caverns.

Just southeast of Cincinnati,in western Kentucky, you can visit Mammoth Cave National Park to see limestone caves that extend for miles. It's a humbling experience indeed to see how solid rock can be slowly melted away over time.

The next time you see limestone rocks, don't just brush them off. When you stop and think about it, limestone is one of the natural materials that has made America great. It's an abundant resource that's close to the surface of the earth, and we use millions of pounds of it each day in our homes, our roads and even on our roofs! Yes, limestone dust is often used to add weight to regular asphalt shingles. Can you believe that?

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