Comparison
Concrete patio vs pavers
The same 20 × 16 ft patio is $4,386 poured and $6,850 in pavers — $13.71 a square foot against $21.41. Concrete cracks because it is one piece and pavers do not because they are already in pieces, and almost everything else follows from that.
Written and edited by Pablo Ruiz Quintero
Last reviewed 2026-09-17 · Nothing you type leaves your browser
On this page — 6 sections
The same patio, poured and laid
The short version
- Concrete $13.71 a square foot, pavers $21.41. The same 20 × 16 ft patio — pavers are 56 per cent more.
- Concrete cracks because it is one piece. Pavers do not, because they are already in pieces.
- The base under both is identical, and it is the job. It is also what a cheap quote thins.
- Pavers can be lifted and relaid. Concrete has one ending.
Both figures come from the calculators that price each one, on the same patio, with the same excavation and the same compacted base underneath.
| Concrete | Pavers | |
|---|---|---|
| This patio, installed | $4,386 | $6,850 |
| Per square foot | $13.71 | $21.41 |
| Surface material of it | $770 | $1,411 |
| The work of it | $3,008 | $4,800 |
| Lifespan | 30–40 yr | 30–40 yr |
| Repairable? | No — patches show forever | Yes — lift, correct, relay |
| Cracks | Yes, by design, at the joints | Cannot — it is already in pieces |
One piece against many pieces
Everything that distinguishes these two comes from a single fact: a concrete patio is one object and a paver patio is nine hundred.
The ground under both moves — it swells with water, shrinks in drought, heaves with frost. A rigid slab has one response available, which is to crack. Control joints are not an admission of poor work; they are the acceptance that cracking is certain, arranged so that it happens along a straight line somebody chose.
Pavers respond by moving relative to each other, a fraction of a millimetre at a time, and the joint sand lets them do it while still transferring load sideways. That is interlock, and it is why a paver field behaves as one surface without being one piece.
| Concrete | Pavers | |
|---|---|---|
| When the ground moves | Cracks | Shifts, and stays flat |
| When it goes wrong | Broken out and repoured | Lifted, base fixed, relaid |
| A utility trench through it | A permanent scar | Invisible afterwards |
| De-icing salt | Spalls the surface | No effect |
| Weeds | Only in the cracks | In the joints, unless polymeric sand |
| Settling at one corner | Nothing to do short of replacing | A Saturday |
| Appearance over 20 years | Cracks widen, surface dulls | Colour fades, shape holds |
| DIY | A skill on a clock | Excavation and patience |
+56%
Pavers cost more
same patio
$1,411
The pavers themselves
of a $6,850 job
70%
Of both bills is work
and the base under it
0
Invisible concrete patches
there is no such thing
Stamped concrete, which is neither
It looks like the compromise: concrete’s price with a paver’s appearance. In practice it collects the disadvantages of both.
It costs about half again on top of plain concrete, which lands it beside pavers rather than below them. It has to be resealed every few years to keep the colour, which removes the one genuine advantage concrete had — that it asks for nothing. And it still cracks, because it is still one piece of concrete; a crack running through a stamped stone pattern draws the eye more than a crack across a plain slab, not less.
It is the right answer in exactly one situation: a large area where the look matters, the budget will not stretch to pavers, and somebody will actually do the resealing. That is a narrower case than the amount it gets sold suggests.
If the base is where the money goes, spend it there
- Four to six inches of compacted crushed stone, placed in lifts of no more than four inches and compacted between each.
- A plate compactor, not a truck driving over it. Wheel loads compact in ruts and leave the space between them loose.
- Fall away from the house — about an eighth of an inch per foot, checked with a level and a straightedge rather than by eye.
- Geotextile between soil and stone on clay, or the stone works its way down into the clay over years and the patio follows it.
- Edge restraint pinned all the way round a paver patio, or the outer course creeps and the field loosens behind it.
- Polymeric joint sand rather than plain, which is a small upgrade that prevents both weeds and washout.
Pavers, the base that actually carries them, bedding sand, edging, and the cubic yards of earth that have to come out first.
Price a paver patioFour ways this decision goes wrong
01Treating a crack in concrete as a failure
Concrete cracks. That is what control joints are for. Expecting an uncracked slab leads to arguments with a contractor who did nothing wrong, and to sealers and fillers that do not help.
Instead — Expect cracks at the joints, specify where the joints go, and judge the work by whether the cracks followed them.
02Buying better pavers with the base money
The compacted stone carries the patio; the pavers only spread the load. Expensive pavers on a thin base are expensive pavers in a wave two winters later.
Instead — Specify the base and compaction first and choose pavers with what is left. The base changes the life; the paver changes the look.
03Choosing stamped concrete to get pavers cheaply
It lands near paver prices, it needs resealing every few years, and it still cracks — through a pattern where the crack is more visible, not less.
Instead — Either accept plain concrete and its honesty, or pay for pavers. Stamped is worth it only where somebody will genuinely maintain it.
04Skipping edge restraint on pavers
It is a cheap plastic strip and it is the only thing stopping the outer course from creeping outward. Once the edge goes, the joints behind it open and the field loosens inward.
Instead — Restraint pinned all the way round, including against the house, before any joint sand goes in.
Where these numbers come from
The concrete figure comes from the concrete slab calculator on its patio setting — 4 in over a compacted base, reinforced, formed, with the control joint grid. The paver figure comes from the paver calculator — pavers, base stone, bedding sand, edge restraint and the excavation. Both on the same 20 × 16 ft, same bare ground, same national labour rate.
One thing worth stating: the excavation and base are computed separately in each engine and come out close but not identical, because a paver patio is excavated slightly deeper to accommodate the bedding sand. That difference is inside the figures rather than added on top of them.
Every figure traces to a dated source.
The words on a patio quote
Two worth knowing: the sub-base, because it carries the patio and is the first thing a cheap quote thins, and interlock, because it is the reason a paver field behaves as one surface without being one piece.
- Sub-base
- Compacted crushed stone under either surface. It carries the patio; the surface only spreads the load. Identical requirement for both, and the place a cheap quote saves money.
- Bedding sand
- About an inch of coarse sand screeded flat over the base, under pavers only. It is what lets each paver settle individually and it must never be thick enough to rut.
- Control joint
- A groove cut or tooled into concrete so that when it cracks it cracks along a line you chose. Concrete does not crack because something went wrong; it cracks because it is concrete.
- Joint sand
- Fine sand swept into the gaps between pavers to lock them together. Polymeric versions harden and resist weeds and washout, and they are worth the difference.
- Edge restraint
- The plastic or metal edging pinned around a paver patio. Without it the outer course creeps outward over years and the whole field loosens behind it.
- Interlock
- Pavers transferring load sideways to their neighbours through the joint sand. It is why a paver patio behaves as one surface without being one piece.
- Spalling
- Concrete flaking at the surface, usually from de-icing salt or from being finished while bleed water was still on it. It cannot be repaired invisibly.
- Stamped concrete
- Concrete pressed with a pattern and coloured to look like pavers or stone. It costs roughly half again on top of plain concrete and it needs resealing — which removes concrete's main advantage over pavers.
- Efflorescence
- A white haze that appears on new pavers as salts migrate out. It looks like a defect, it is normal, and it weathers off within a year or two.
- Screed
- To strike a surface flat with a straightedge — the sand for pavers, the wet concrete for a slab. Both stand or fall on how well it is done.
Common questions
- Are pavers more expensive than a concrete patio?
- Yes, by about 56 per cent. The same 20 × 16 ft patio is $4,386 poured and $6,850 in pavers — $13.71 a square foot against $21.41. The material gap is smaller than that; most of it is labour, because pavers are placed one at a time.
- Which one cracks?
- Concrete, and it is not a defect — it is why control joints exist. Concrete is one rigid piece and the ground under it moves, so it cracks and the joints decide where. Pavers cannot crack as a field because they are already in pieces; they move relative to each other instead.
- Which lasts longer?
- Both are thirty to forty years, and they fail differently. A concrete patio degrades visually — cracks widen, the surface spalls — and at some point it is broken out. A paver patio goes out of level, and it is lifted, the base corrected, and relaid. One has an ending; the other has maintenance.
- Can pavers be repaired?
- Yes, and it is their real advantage. A sunken corner is lifted, the base under it corrected and the same pavers put back — invisible when done properly. A utility trench through a paver patio closes the same way. Concrete has no equivalent: a patch is visible forever.
- Is stamped concrete a good middle ground?
- It costs about half again on top of plain concrete, so it lands near pavers, and it needs resealing every few years — which removes the one thing concrete had over pavers. It also still cracks, and a crack through a stamped pattern is more obvious than one through a plain slab, not less.
- What is under both of them?
- The same thing, and it matters more than the surface: four to six inches of compacted crushed stone, placed in lifts and compacted between them. Both patios are only as good as that layer, and it is invisible when finished, which is why it is the first thing a cheap quote thins.
- Do pavers get weeds between them?
- They can, and polymeric joint sand largely solves it — it hardens in the joints and resists both weeds and washout. Ordinary sand needs topping up every few years and lets seeds in. It is a small upgrade with a disproportionate effect.
- Which is better in a cold climate?
- Pavers, for the same reason asphalt beats concrete on driveways: the ground heaves and a flexible surface moves with it and settles back. A concrete patio gets one chance, and de-icing salt spalls it on top of that.
- Which is hotter underfoot?
- Both get hot in sun, and concrete generally less so because it is lighter in colour. Dark pavers around a pool are genuinely uncomfortable in midsummer, which is why pale ones are specified there.
- Can I lay pavers over an existing concrete patio?
- Yes, and it is a legitimate way to rescue a cracked slab if it is structurally sound and drains away from the house. The pavers go on a bedding layer over the concrete, the patio rises about three inches, and door thresholds have to be checked before anything starts.
- Which adds more value?
- Pavers, generally, and the gap is mostly about appearance. But it is the smallest difference on this page and it is local: in a neighbourhood where every patio is concrete, pavers read as a nice extra rather than as an expectation.
- Can I lay pavers myself?
- Plausibly, and more plausibly than pouring concrete. The work is excavation, compaction, screeding and patience, and the mistakes are reversible while the sand is loose. Concrete is a skill on a clock that starts when the truck arrives and does not stop.
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About the author
Pablo Ruiz Quintero — Editor
Editor of MaterialsEstimator. Decides which documents count as a source, what every default value is, and where the line sits between what the reader parses and what the engines compute.
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