HELP please. Despite leveling ground, pavers have cracked.

[lastevns]

The pavers you found that are the reddish color-go look at them before you commit to them. I seem to remember them being a bit "crumbly" and if you drop them they break very easy. See how many are broken on the pallet.

GURRRRRRR on them only letting you buy 2 of the ones we know will work! WHY only 2?? gurrrrr

2 are all they had in stock for more than 100 miles from my home. I can check again to see if stock comes back in. But, I have "notify me" alerts for Lowes, Home Depot and other smaller hardware stores. Local masonry companies, by and large, don't deal with the public (ORCO, etc). Angeles will sell to home owners but they wouldn't tell me if they had them in stock. They said I could come look or "send my contractor by as they get a discount that consumers do not." So, they were pretty ***** at the thought of having to deal with some chick looking for a few blocks.

Pouring your own=could be done. The hard part of that would be having the holes all ready to fill and making sure it is at least 4" deep. BUT you would need it that deep if you were using the pavers so..............

I have my gardener ready to dig in the blocks (he did the tilling and leveling (no way was my yard level - it had a bout a 2' drop from one end of my wall to the other). But, I'm not bringing him in until I know I have a solution. He could dig holes and pour cement but then I wouldn't have a pool until July and I'm not certain I want to wait that long.

If you go with the mixing of your own make sure to let us know so we can give you some tips on how to mix.

Now that pillar @Dirk found............those are VERY interesting. Lets get a couple of math minded people on that idea. @JoyfulNoise @ajw22 since Dirk already pinged some others I would have also.

From Dirk's post above:

"OK, all that said, while sniffing around at Lowes, I saw this, and it looks promising. It's called a TuffBlock. Though I'm not quite sure how well the pool leg would fit:

https://www.lowes.com/pd/BuildTuff-TuffBlock-1/1001436780

When I last looked, they didn't have them for pick up locally anyway and none of the local stores had them for
delivery. Without being able to buy one and test it against the width and curve of the leg, I wasn't willing to go almost $9 a piece for them. And I see someone else says they're a "no" for lack of weight distribution.

From the same page:

$8.95

• An individual TuffBlock deck block has been designed to support over 1,700 lbs and has successfully been tested to support over 11,000 lbs yet weighs only 11/2 lbs
• Designed to accept 2 In. x 4 In., 2 In. x 6 In., 2 In. x 8 In. joists and 4 In. x 4 In. posts
• TuffBlocks are made of high strength closed-loop recycled polyolefin material with an ultra-high UV rating

Overall I think I'm stuck behind the supply chain issue that has come with COVID. I've talked to plenty of people in my neighborhood who have retaining walls, decorative sitting walls, bricked driveways, even, and none had trouble getting blocks/brick. But, they all did their work pre-2020.

By the way, thanks for the response! I had the semi in-laws in town over the weekend so was unable to check messages.

 

[lastevns]

I'm not a concrete professional.

Yeah, sorry about that. I asked without first thinking, "Go look it up yourself!"

But house foundation walls are typically built on top of poured footings in much less than 28 days waiting. Sometimes they start in 2 days.

From what I can tell, typically you could expect about 75% strength in 7 days and what is considered 100% in 28 days. Try to keep the exposed concrete damp for that week. Something like wet burlap (or wet old towels etc) would work. Add water periodically.

I made some blocks (with rebar) last month and used some "plastic grass" cuz that was handy and it kept the concrete wet. One time when I peeled back the plastic grass covering to look at the concrete underneath there was a small frog sitting there looking at me! I guess it was wet enough.

Awww... poor froggy lost his home. Well, this might be the way to go that is most secure. But being without a pool until July is testing my adulting abilities. I want it NOW *lol*. But, I also want it not to break my heart again. So, I'm somewhere between pouring my own and finding something that will work. Thanks again for the info!!!

 

[lastevns]

If I had an AGP, these are what I would use: https://www.menards.com/main/buildi...148-c-5647.htm?tid=4517422468075098985&ipos=1

Yep. Looks perfect. Sadly I'd have to drive quite a few states East to get to a Menards. They are NOT in So Cal. But, I might look for something like this elsewhere. Thank you for the idea.

 

[lastevns]

How about this guy? Though finding stock, on a lot of these types of products, is going to be tough:

https://www.lowes.com/pd/Bullnose-Concrete-Block-Common-16-in-x-4-in-x-16-in-Actual-15-625-in-x-3-625-in-x-15-625-in/3471599

Along with its 8 x 8 x 4 counterpart, it would be PERFECT but - again - not in stock anywhere near me. Probably going to try Angeles as someone else claimed but it means going down and trying to see if they have what I need. My "job" is too small to get someone to "pick" it for me. Or so I was in one phone call. Maybe I will have my BF call. He might get further with them.

 

[lastevns]

Or give these guys a call. They're 2 hours from you. If they don't have what you need, maybe they'll know who does:

Home - Angelus Paving Stones

Or these guys, they're only 20 mins away:

Pavers, Freeway Building Materials, Riverside, California, CA

Freeway Building Materials, provides a wide range of landscaping materials including pavers, retaining walls, concrete blocks, masonry and stone veneer.

www.freewaybuildingmaterials.com

Well, the BF may kill me because it will mean returning blocks to Lowes... but... Freeway has a 16"long by 10" wide by 4" deep cement cap block that 'SHANE' thinks will work. $3-$4 a piece. About what we paid for the Lowes blocks. Now I have to measure if this will be too big. But, thank you for the find. I looked at local masonry places and most wouldn't deal with the public. Those that would, not so nice. Shane was nice. So, I MIGHT have found a solution. Thank you, again!

 

[kimkats]

OH my what a chore this has been for you! We will keep helping and coming up with ideas for you until we find the purrfect ones for you!

GUrrrrrrrrrrr on them not even wanting to help by letting you know if they even have them in stock! REALLY??? GURRRR

 

[lastevns]

OH my what a chore this has been for you! We will keep helping and coming up with ideas for you until we find the purrfect ones for you!

GUrrrrrrrrrrr on them not even wanting to help by letting you know if they even have them in stock! REALLY??? GURRRR

Exactly... making that long a drive just to get there and find they didn't have them... nuh uh... not cool. But may have found a better solution within 20 mins. drive.

 

[4xWTub]

Yeah, sorry about that. I asked without first thinking, "Go look it up yourself!"

I didn't mean my comment to imply that. I simply meant that while I believed my comments were reasonably accurate, I don't / didn't do concrete for a living so my concrete experience is rather limited compared to someone in the concrete industry.