Pavers in a wintery climate?

[mrojec]

I have a house in the Colorado rockies I'm trying to sell, and thought about putting in a brick paver driveway to bring up the "curb appeal." Asphalt driveways are prevalent in the area and aren't very attractive, IMO. There's snow on the ground from October to May and I clear it with a snowblower. Does anybody have experience with this surface in these conditions?

[mleichtle]

My dad did a small side walk in pavers, he compacted the base by hand, and did the whole thing by the book. This is in Wisconsin, 8 years ago, and not one brick has moved. This area was also prone to puddling.

[HarmsWay]

I love the look of pavers and will probably go that route when my raised aggregate starts to fail. I've never used a snow blower but pavers are more difficult to shovel snow off of.

[DaveS]

I have a friend here in Minnesota with a 15 year old paver driveway - and I gotta say - it looks way better than his neighbor's 15 year old concrete driveway. He uses a snowblower that is on the front of his yard tractor.

It's all about the sub-base. Good sub-base, good driveway, bad sub-base, bad driveway.

He told me that the biggest problems he has had are:
(1) the great ant infestation of 1997 (had to pull up about 2 square feet of bricks, re-level the sand underneath, and replace bricks

(2) the daughter's boyfriend with a 76 Nova that leaked oil (pulled up a few bricks and replaced them with some spares he wisely kept behind his shed)

(3) sand replacement, year after year after year

If you do plan to do it yourself - think about having a pro put in the sub-base (excavate, grade, compact,etc). And then make sure you choose a paver pattern that looks "random" - they are way easier for a DIYer to lay and have look good.

[isddarms]

Some thoughts for your: (1) the paver driveway will definitely add to the curb appeal. However, you really need to give serious consideration to whether that will help sell the house and whether the cost will be worth it.
(2) You'll need about a 12" well-packed base for a driveway. As DaveS mentioned the base is the key to a good paver project.
(3) Snow removal will be somewhat more difficult, but if you pay careful attention to leveling the pavers during installation it should not be a problem.
(4) A paver driveway is a big project for a DIYer. It's certainly doable, but you're going to be running into snow and freezing weather real soon now. You really don't want do be working on it with frost in the ground.

[mrojec]

Thanks for all the tips. The 12" base pretty much nixes the notion since I can't really build up any more, and excavating that far down to improve the base would add to the cost and complexity. I hadn't planned on doing it this winter, but next year. Maybe patterned concrete would be cheaper and quicker.