RANDOM: are pavers in a walkway worth it?

[mustardseed2007]

Just a question, we have literal broken concrete on our walkway so I wanted to replace it with pavers. I've been quoted 3K by two guys so far...

Are pavers as pretty as I think they are? Is that a good use of money? How do you decide that kind of thing. It's around 1800 to fix the concrete walkway with concrete. 

[justcheckingin73]

I think this might depend on a few factors - do you plan to stay forever? Do you have other projects that you could use that extra money for? Do other homes in your area have pavers? In our neighborhood, some people have done pavers and they look nice but it’s a mid-range neighborhood, I’m not sure if they would ever truly recoup the cost if they plan to sell and I’m not sure if it’s a huge selling point for our neighborhood. One of our neighbors just re-did their concrete walkway (with concrete) and it looks really nice if only because it was cracked and uneven before.

I love the look of pavers but for me personally, it would be low on my list of things to invest in but we also have a lot of projects in this house.

[mustardseed2007]

Thank you justcheckingin73!!

I would say that my neighborhood is mid range to upper....like actually many homes are being torn down and mcmansions are being put in their place. I doubt that putting 3K worth of pavers into the house would raise the value 3K. Maybe pavers plus a bunch of landscaping work.

The thing that puts this on the top of the list is that two large sections of the walkway was kind of a shell/pebble composite that has literally disentegrated following a hard freeze last year, so now those sections are rubble. I was thinking the least we could do to get going on the house is to replace things as they literally break. But now...I get what you're saying on what it will do to value or even enjoyment.

Are we going to stay forever? 2 years ago I would definitely say yes to this. Now, I'm not AS sure. The schools here are good, which is why we bought here (it's why EVERYONE buys here). But now my older kid is going to private school so part of me would sell my house to buy a nicer one near a school that wasn't as good.

I think maybe having a really nice, pretty concrete walkway may be the thing to do. No one is going to look at pavers and think "oh this is great, I need to buy this house." Although they might thing "ew, why did they get this ugly color?" Whereas concrete is more neutral maybe?

[twinmomma]

Have you looked into stamped concrete? You can do some really nice patios that way, it might be an option to dress up a concrete walkway.

[186momx]

I would go with concrete and skip the pavers. To me the cost doesn't equal to resale value and pavers are a lot of maintenance at least here. We have to deal with sinking ground or bulging depending on how much rain and how the ground shifts so even really amazing expensive paver patios need TLC by the 3rd year.

[ECB]

I like pavers. I think they add to the overall curb appeal of a house.

i'd do what I want for ME, though. I get worrying about resale value but at the same time, I want to enjoy my house for me. Not for the next owners.

[mommyatty]

Pavers tend to heave in Texas. I would keep in mind the cost to straighten them out again every few years as maintenance or they will look bad.

[sunbutter]

Pavers not put in correctly are a pain in the ass. It really depends on your area and how long you plan on staying but I would lean toward concrete.
We had a similar conundrum last year. We have a concrete front deck and then two brick walkways and a brick patio in the back. The bricks are all messed up right now. He concrete was in bad shape and was causing water damage in our basement. We had quotes to replace all with stone pavers and quotes to replace concrete with pavers and reuse bricks. All over 22K. We left the messed up brick and replaced the concrete front patio. That was 8K.
There was no way we would ever get 22K back in resale. If we were staying, we would have considered it. And here we are, selling. Glad we fixed the concrete, it looks nice. Now trying to touch up brick without actually replacing it.

[erinshelley21]

Jul 31, 2018 12:48:25 GMT -5 twinmomma said:

Have you looked into stamped concrete? You can do some really nice patios that way, it might be an option to dress up a concrete walkway.

Stamped concrete can be super pretty! That's in our plans for the house we keep saying we are building.

[sdlaura]

We have stamped concrete in the back and just did pavers in the front to replace a cracked sidewalk. It was part of a complete front yard overhaul with a huge paver patio and I think it looks amazing. The contractor spent a ton of time setting up for them and doing concrete footers and rebar and all kinds of stuff so that they’ll hopefully stay flat for a long time.