After a granular base is tightly compacted, it should be solid like a rock. In the case of the gravel shown in the picture, after compacting, no matter how much, it will be full of small air pockets. If you were to blend smaller chip-shape gravel, including all the way down to sand and dust, with it, it would work fine. But it might be a lot of bother finding the right gravel to mix.

Thanks for the reply. I guess I'll have to go find some other gravel to use.

Do you know if the Step 1 Paver Base that they sell at Lowe's is a good product to use? It seems like the right thing for the job.

Here is a link that might be useful: Paver Base

If you're doing a small area, a bagged product will work fine, but if it's of any size, it would be better to buy in bulk from a sand & gravel/landscape supply type place. Where I live, one only needs to ask for "paver base" to get the right product. You should have a 3" min. tamped base and a 1" min. setting bed below the pavers. You can use common driveway gravel (contains all sizes down to sand and dust) for a base, but not for the setting bed.

I was going to do 4'' of gravel for the base and 2'' of sand for the setting bed. The area will not be that big - about 52'' x 16''. I'm still finalizing the actual layout, just trying to make sure I do my homework first since I've never tackled a project even remotely close to this. Would you recommend a polymeric sand or regular sand application after the pavers are layed?

Thanks again.

This post was edited by thapranksta on Wed, Jun 4, 14 at 15:49