Hi, in the middle of installing an interlocking paver driveway. Very confused after reading many sites about the best sand to use between the payers. Polymeric vs mason sand. The installer used course sand the same as under the pavers and now wants to put a different sand I believe finer sand on top because he is having trouble getting the current sand to go between the pavers. What is the best sand and can you mix the sands? Thanks in advance.

Thanks for all of the above. Sophie, I don't doubt the described requirements generally, but--per my post--I think our job is a lot smaller than that described in the posted video (for example). I realize I don't have a good photo to share (it's dark now, I'll see if I can do something about that tomorrow). Let me see if I can come at this a different way... This is a remedial project. I could leave things as they are and have a half mud/half stone/half weed (yes, I know) driveway, and keep spraying things left and right. There's adequate manual labor locally to excavate the area in question to a certain depth at a modest cost. Removal of excavated material is a different issue, but I'd deal with it. This is a section of driveway that almost never gets "driven on"; cars occasionally park on it, but almost always briefly, when guests come and we want to clear the 'upper semicircle'. My plan would be to excavate as much as minimally necessary to lay a reasonable foundation (stone and sand with vibration, which I can rent), lay a weed barrier (Costco?), then lay the pavers (per the original post), and fill with stones. This would all be better than what I have now. Is it pro? no. Is it perfect? no. Is it better than what I have now? Maybe. Could it be closer with your suggestions on squaring the circle? That's up to the assembled masses! Thanks for your help!

It is a bit difficult to follow your story because of terminology. What is "hard packed dirt" ... undisturbed soil? That alone is not sufficient to restrain the edge of a paver field. There has got to be a restraint edge installed ... like what I see at the fore edge of the paving in the picture. What you're calling "concrete sand" is probably what we refer to as "paver base" or "limestone screenings" (which could be made of another type of stone in another part of the country.) If there is a gravel base, it is compacted, and then a paver base layer is compacted over it. (In many cases only paver base is used if the traffic is residential or pedestrian.) All whatever compacted layers bring the base to the setting bed level, which is comprised of screeded, but not compacted, paver base sand (One does not carve channels in the compacted base in which to place the screed poles, for which you are using the PVC pipe. One merely lays the poles on the compacted base and their thickness equals the screeded setting bed layer. Then the pavers are placed and once they are in place and restraint is installed, the pavers are machine compacted. (Or in a small job it could be hand compacted with a steel compactor -- which almost everyone calls a "whomper" on account of the sound it makes. But the machine compaction is superior and easier.) One sort of tricky bit is matching existing levels, such as where the paver surface must meet an existing driveway. The pavers have to be set high so that when they are compacted, they meet the drive. Once the pavers are set and compacted and if there are depressions, the only way to get them out is to lift the affected paver field and "trowel in" some sand and reset the pavers. But this is tricky to get it all smoothed out unless lifting and resetting the whole field and using a screeding method. It's another subject really, that could be detailed and harder to explain.

Details of how the path approaches the entrance depends on the entrance, which we can't see. Submit a picture of the porch. It would be good for you to show picture examples of the pavers right here in the thread. Is this a walk parallel to the drive that ends up at the street? That could work but the redundancy is not necessarily guaranteed to make a better impression than a sensibly widened drive. Sometimes, unconventional ways of doing things make people question why someone would take the hard road.