How to Turn a Slab Patio Into Pavers

Tear up the patio slab. You can do this with a sledgehammer, but that can be extremely labor-intensive, especially for larger patios, so you may want to rent a jackhammer. Start at the edges of the patio and work in toward the house, then use a hammer and chisel when you get close to the house so you don't accidentally tear into your foundation.

Remove the chunks of broken concrete from the ground. Contact your local government or paving companies to see if you can recycle the old concrete, rather than have it sent to the dump.

Measure the depth of the gravel inside the hole where the concrete slab was. You need a gravel base at least 4 inches deep for the pavers, so add more gravel to the hole if necessary. Rake the gravel smooth, and slope it slightly away from the house to improve drainage.

Tamp the gravel down to firm up the base.

Cover the gravel with a layer of sand 1 inch deep. Smooth the sand with a two-by-four board.

Install edge restraints around the perimeter of the patio by setting the restraints on the sand along the edge of the hole and driving the metal pins or stakes through the holes in the restraints. The edge restraints maintain the edging around the patio and prevents the pavers from shifting.

Begin laying the pavers into the hole against the edge restraints. Cut a paver with a wet saw to fit at the end of the row if needed.

Install the second row of pavers into the hole. Cut a paver in half and use that as the first paver in the row. This offsets the pavers in the second row so that they'll be staggered from the pavers in the first row, which makes the patio look better and strengthens it.

Keep laying pavers until the patio is finished, continually alternating the pavers in each row.

Walk over the patio with a mechanical plate compactor to set the pavers into the sand.

Toss fine-grain sand onto the pavers, then brush them into the joints between the pavers. This prevents weeds from growing through the joints.

Sweep debris like leaves off of the patio, then apply a sand-binding sealant, following the manufacturer's instructions.