Can you put pavers over a french drain?

[Glorz]

Hi all,

Is it possible to put pavers on top of a french drain to make a walkway (probably use the tuscan porcelain pavers) or would it prevent water from draining therefore, wasting my time even doing a french drain?

After I've dug the trench, put blue metal stones at bottom, lay ag pipe and burrito wrap it in geo fab. Do i back fill with the rest of the blue metal stones all the way up to surface level? What can I do in regards to landscaping on top of french drain/dirt surrounding it? 

I hope this is making sense and I appreciate any help. Thank you,  From someone who was out doing some light gardening and spontaneously decided to start a new project and now 1/4 of my yard is dug up 😆

[JacobZ]

Hi @Glorz,

Thank you for your question about placing pavers over a french drain.

The simple answer is yes, go right ahead.

Water will always find the path of least resistance, so having a french drain in place, there is a clear path of least resistance.

As long as there are gaps between the pavers, water will drain between them and find its way down into the french drain.

If you are planning to lay pavers over the top, I would suggest using the blue metal stones to create a compacted base on top of the drain before laying your pavers over the top. 

I'd suggest having a look at How To Prepare And Lay a Base For Pavers for some guidance on this process.

In the areas surrounding the paved pathway, you can do whatever you'd like, as the water will always find its way into the drain. 

You might like to have a look at our Top 10 most popular side yard projects for some inspiration.

Let me know if you have any further questions.

Jacob

[Glorz]

Hi Jacob,

Awesome! thanks so much. I'm doing more of a stepping stone walkway like this bunnings tutorial How To Lay A Stepping Stone Pathway | Bunnings Warehouse (youtube.com) but will probably be using bigger stones rather than pebbles. Is this the correct step after backfilling my trench with blue metal.

1. Do I need to put down another layer of geofab to cover the entire walkway? or is this not necessary?

2. Can I continue using the blue metal or would this road base be better? Ki Carma 20kg Road Base Landscape Stones - Bunnings Australia

3. Compact using the trojan stamper Trojan 205mm Tamper - Bunnings Australia

4. Level and place pavers. Is it necessary to cement the bottom of the paver or can I just skip this step and place it as is?

5. Finally, place add stones around it

Thank you

[JacobZ]

Hi @Glorz,

The order of your steps looks perfect, but I'll offer a little advice on each.

1. If you've got some geo fab left over after installing your french drain, it is definitely worth adding as it will help to keep weeds from growing through the stones. It's not 100% necessary but it's definitely worth doing as it will take very little time and will add a lot of value.

2. The blue metal will be fine as it can be compacted in the same way road base can. If you've already got the materials there, there is no real need to change to a different material.

3. Yep, the tamper is perfect for this, but it may be a lot of work depending on the size of the area. If you had a large area, you might like to consider hiring a plate compactor to speed things up a bit.

4. It is not 100% necessary to use mortar, but it will make it much easier to level each individual paver. If you were concerned about mixing and laying mortar, you can use paver sand instead to achieve the same levelling effect, but it will not lock the pavers in place like mortar will.

5. The stones will help lock everything in place and give it that nice, finished look. There's a wide variety of decorative stones that you can use to finish everything off, so I'd suggest picking something that matches the style you are looking to achieve.

Let me know if you have any further questions and please share some updates as your project commences, it'll be great to see what you come up with.

Jacob

[Glorz]

I think i like the idea of using the paving sand for underneath the pavers. I might go with this one you suggested https://www.bunnings.com.au/brunnings-20kg-landscape-paver-sand_p3460166

Thank you Jacob for your help. Will be sure to upload some photos once im done (hopefully tomorrow) 🤞

[JacobZ]

Hi @Glorz,

Sounds like a good plan.

I look forward to seeing the end product.

Jacob