# Forum Home Renovation Concreting  Poor man's concrete slab - cement over pavers

## tilopa

Not sure if this should go in the concreting or paving forum. I have a garage with a dirt floor that I would like to turn into concrete, but I need to do it on the cheap as I cannot afford the typical cost right now. I do have about 150 pavers lying around that were giving to me a while ago. The garage floor dimensions are about 18 ft x 14 ft (5.5 m x 4 m) The paver dimensions are 16 in x 16 in x 2 (40 cm x 40 cm x5 cm).  
My idea is to level the dirt, then lay down sand (or would road base be better?), water the sand and compact it. Then lay down the pavers with a little gap between them and then put a thin layer of cement on top to fill in the gaps and give the surface a smooth finish.  
Would this work? Is there a better way to do this utilizing the free pavers that I have? I also have some concrete wire laying around that I could use but I don't see a good use for it in this scenario. 
Newbie says thanks.

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## johnc

Your idea is a sound one except for filling the gaps. The pavers will move and the gaps will crack. Just lay the pavers normally with a small gap and fill with a dry sand cement mix then hose in or just let go off naturally. You will still get a reasonable job just not a concrete look alike.

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## Spelunx

I think it will depend on whether you are parking cars in it, or using as a workshop?  Parking cars I would probably just go with compacted roadbase and then use the concrete pavers down the side so you can get into and out of the car without getting dust everywhere.  when the inevitable car ruts happen, you can top up with more road base and re-compact, rather than having to pull up pavers, etc. 
If it is a workshop, I would just lay them like normal pavers, use road base compacted if you can afford this, as it gives a better surface. 
Then go to your local carpet place (or the tip), and ask about getting old carpet when they pull one up.  Having some heavy duty carpet over the pavers will mean that you dont lose screws, nails etc in the cracks when you drop them! 
Ideally, rubber matting is even better, but this is hard to come by and can be expensive. 
Hope this makes sense.

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## tilopa

Thanks. I will be doing this to have cars parked in the garage and doing auto repair work, which I am doing right now on the dirt floor and it really sucks, so pretty much anything would be an improvement.  
Someone else gave me the idea of using a proper concrete floor just for the tire paths as they said rolling a car on the pavers would cause the pavers to sink over a short period of time. And then use the pavers to cover the rest of the floor. I though this was a cool idea.  
So, I could have two paths (where the tires would travel) like 60cm wide and make them like 15cm thick with concrete and a proper base. Then use the pavers for the rest of the floor. I think this would have a kind of cool look to it as well, but maybe that's just me.  :Smilie:  
Anyway, do you see any downside to this? It would cost a bit more than just using all pavers but much less than concreting the whole floor. And at some point down the road if I wanted to concrete the whole floor I could just pull up the pavers. 
I'm wondering what the best base is for this? road base for the pavers and concrete?

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## Cecile

> using a proper concrete floor just for the tire paths a

  Concrete driveway strips used to be very common here, although not so much any more.  We have them in our 60-year old house, although they are well past their useful life now and need replacing.

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## Random Username

And as soon as you start doing work that involves getting under the car, or jacking the car up, you'll be cursing at the lack of stable floor room to run a creeper over or put stands on.  And nothing's worse than hearing the 'crack' of a paver as the point load from a wobbly jack shatters it. 
You might be able to come up with a 'keep me off the dirt' solution using sheets of yellowtongue.

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## boyracer

why not break up the pavers and use as fill/rubble for a proper slab all over? less concrete but more work....got a sledgey?

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