First time pave questions

[Hawaii04]

Hi there. New member long time lurker here. Awesome site! Anyway I've been planning my drive in my mind for a while and will probably start soon as I've just acquired 60 sq m of quality used block pavers. Result! At present I've got approx 20m x 3m concrete driveway which slopes from the road to my garage at the bottom. The drive slopes down for the first 5 metres, levels out for about 10 metres and then again slopes for the final 5 metres up to the garage. The drive has the house walls along one side and fencing with concrete bottom panels along the other. Now the questions begin sorry, firstly as the drive is slope - level - slope, will the blocks follow this profile or will there be big gaps when it goes from slope to level or is this sorted in the whacking of the sub base? Also, can you use the same blocks for the edge restraints or do you need the special kerb stones. I'm up against the house on one side and concrete fence boards the other so should be good. I'm def putting in restraints to assist with screeding. Hope this makes sense. Thanks. John.

[Hawaii04]

Sorry me again with another question. Was planning to break up old concrete drive myself with a breaker & then hire man and excavator to dig out rest of drive. Is this the way to go or would the mini excavator also take up the concrete. Thanks.

[r896neo]

Personally i find a digger and sledge hammer the fastest combo for breaking up a drive. The digger lifts the leading edges slightly and then a few cracks with a heavy sledge crack it into large chunks. It also helps at the digger can move large chunks as you go.

If your paying for him to be there though perhaps hiring a good hydraulic breaker might be more cost effective, but slower and harder work.

I would always advise using kerbs (of some sort, can be blocks if they are laid and haunched well like a kerb) on a drive, even at the fence side.

The areas where is change from sloped to flat should be dealt with by slightly rounding off the transition. I would do this with a float and eye but a straigh-edge will help a diyer. Be CAREFUL here as where you screed the two flat sectionsand they meet you will have a very deep area of sand, make sure your sub base follows your proposed rounded off area and you get a consistant bedding sand thickness

[dig dug dan]

Is there no way of making tne drive as one continuous slope rather than what it does now?

[Hawaii04]

Ok thanks, I guessed it wouldn't be a straight forward job. Also it isn't really possible to make it one long slope. Thanks for the tips tho.