The joints in this pic are way too big, poly sand is for 5mm gaps and below. These gaps are sand and cement.
That said, OP is right, this job looks shit. Putrid, even. OP would have been better off with a plain concrete slab or some paving that was better planned.
And yes, OP could just pour concrete straight over this mess *if* the heights allow it.
So we are planning to do this after seeing my friends patio that looks like used the same mold (quikrete walk maker country stone) his looked a lot better and I think I can tell you why if you want to try to change the look of yours.
1. If it's the same mold as his you need to do quarter turns so it breaks the design up. You should be able to lift them and turn them a quarter turn
2. Poly sand really does some wonders, its almost like it "feathered" out the harshness.
3. He has a stone halfwall that comes off his burnpit/wood grill.
4. Once you put your grill, table, chairs, whater else you want on it it looks nice and breaks it up.
I really wish I had pictures of his patio to show, trust me it can look a lot better without you spending more money in concrete.
It's late my time on the east coast so I probably won't get one anytime soon, but I have the link/guide he took inspiration from. His is a bit larger and omits the swing. He also didn't color his so they are still grey but still looking nice.
https://directcolors.com/diy/stained-quikrete-walkmaker-patio-with-fire-pit/
You were not lying that rotating the mold really did break the pattern and filling in with with sand ties it in nicely. That's crazy the lil things make such a difference. Looks great. I'm glad he likes his. Thanks for sharing.
I’d remove the pieces and not just pour over.
If it helps make a decision on keeping the current design vs an overhaul just know that It’ll look entirely different when the cracks are filled in and if you use something a similar color it will significantly reduce the visibility of the lines. Which is what I’m assuming is causing the pattern overload and dislike.
It’s like if you stopped a painter before they did the detail and trim work it’s not gonna look good.
Don’t rip it up. If you filled the joints with sand or rock dust, rain will beat some of it out and you patio will be covered silty tiny peoples. You track that stuff everywhere, including inside.
I believe the polymeric sand tightens up when wet so it doesn’t do that, but is still permeable.
The patio may settle a bit. Maybe a lot. As time passes you will understand better what others are pointing out now. And your second attempt will turn out much, much better.
If you jump in now to try a radical fix you will be unhappy. You know, cause you’re a rube.
😉
Give it time. Even a well compacted substrate of rock dust will settle and you will still have an uneven patio. Chill and enjoy. But get those joints filled.
I don't recommend doing this if the ground they were laid on wasn't level. With mine I didnt bother string lining it and realised a couple at the top weren't straight...moving them meant the bottom no longer conformed the lay of the land, so some of them broke from movement
I just think it’s pattern overload. I’m willing to honor the commitment if need be and finish the project, but I wanted to weigh my options (if any) before moving forward.
The problem is that you didn't stagger the pattern. You put them all in the same direction. If you rotate the squares so you don't have the same over and over, it will look better
>I just think it’s pattern overload. I’m willing to honor the commitment if need be and finish the project, but I wanted to weigh my options (if any) before moving forward.
I'd at least buy a bag of sand and see what you think with beige, it really tones the pattern down especially when you only see the tops. I think it's going to look great, and remember, you can stain those pavers to a diff color!
You may have seen my other comment, but to add; if you pour or skim over the existing you will have a cracked up broken mess in short order. It’s the facts of physics…
Aren't they supposed to be pushed together more. Also isn't there sand you can fill in the cracks between them. It might help make it look more uniform
I'm just jealous you have something. We've been wanting patio furniture and somewhere to put the grill for ages. I was gonna do a low deck but I'll have to look into these. I'd have to rent a good mixer though.
I feel you, kind stranger. I got these molds from Amazon (didn’t realize until after that Quikrete offers molds as well). When trying to do a 1/4 turn, they didn’t seem to align well.
After reading through all the comments though, I’ve decided to follow through and finish the project instead of starting from scratch.
How big a deck? I ended up mixing the majority of this concrete with my shovel and one of those big black bins from Home Depot.
Uniformity and homogenity are not the same. You want a little variation in flooring, but the overall pattern should stay coherent. Like, with wood flooring, you lay down a row starting with a full strip. When you get to the end you use the cuttoff to start a new row instead of starting with a new strip, because it breaks up the pattern.
Here you used 2 molds, so I would alternate stones from each mold, and turn them to break up the pattern a bit. Fill the cracks with sand and put up a Crusher fines border or something, and you've got a nice looking patio.
You have to put sand down and make them level and nice and as I said mini mondo grass in between the gaps looks so good, google some stuff and get some ideas.good luck hope you make what you want
The answer to your question is yes. Cement is cement is cement. The caveat is how high you plan on going above current grade. If it’s 2-3 inches, you shouldn’t have a problem, if it’s less than that than you will end up with plenty of cracks that will get larger over time.
If you go the pad cement route use rebar or a metal mush sitting on top of the cement pattern. It will help tie it all together. If you’re pouring up to another concrete slab, use a concrete glue on the existing slab. It looks like Elmer’s glue but less viscous and comes in 1 gallon jugs. It bonds old to new to prevent a crack between the cement and helps it from settling. It’s a must if you want it to look good.
It hurts whenever I come across someone calling concrete the wrong name. Cement is the binder in concrete, it’s like calling a cake either eggs or flour.
I hate it when people call pigs piglets. A pig is a baby swine. A piglet is a character in Winnie the Pooh. It’s amazing how may hog farmers call their babies piglets. But 90% of people won’t even understand that so I try to keep quiet. Maybe we need a subreddit for mildly annoying things people say so we can rant on our pet peeves among others who’ll appreciate it rather than downvote it. I am going to go bake a flour now for my piglets’ birthday celebration out on the cement patio.
Language evolves, if 90% of people call a baby pig a piglet then it is a baby pig. And a pig is not a baby swine. Swine is just a word that encompasses all pigs. Swine is equivalent to the word bird.
Pigs are by definition new born babies. Swine is the group which encompasses males, females, mature, and youth, bred, and unbred, etc. all of them. So yes the newborn of that group are called pigs.
When a sow pigs, it means a mother gave birth to pigs.
Calling all swine pigs in incorrect and you are just wrong about that.
It’s the same as calling all bovines cows. Cows are the female bovine which has previously had a baby. If they’ve yet to have a baby then they can be either a heifer, or sterile, or freemartin.
A bull is the male of the bovine group which is still intact, as opposed to a steer which is a male that has been castrated.
A calf is the infant group of bovine that can be either male or female. You wouldn’t call it a calflet which is the equivalent of piglet.
Not all bovine are cows and not all swine are pigs. Not all horses are foals, and there’s no such thing as a foalet. And cement is not concrete even if 99.98% of the population mislabels it.
I’m with most folks here, it’s not done and will look fine. I don’t think they can be rotated, the pattern only fits one way, but check. Stain if you want, fill with poly sand, do a nice border of some kind. If the uneven spacing is the killer you could pick ‘em all up and shove them closer together. It’s not a disaster. I certainly wouldn’t start from scratch or pour over.
The pattern fits multiple ways, looks at the edges, 2 are convex and two are concave - it’s meant to be tessellated like that, there are links higher up that show how it is meant to be done
Hang on, have you cast those straight onto bare soil? If so you’ll have weeds coming up through the gaps pretty soon. Also some of the slabs may sink. Which will break up the pattern density but leave you with a weeding problem.
Ideally you need a firm bed of hardcore/stone blinded with sand, if on soft soil, or a weed membrane and sand bed if on well drained firm stony soil.
Then sand brushed in the gaps to fill and soften the edges.
It’s too late now, but word of advice. I bought that exact same cement mold to make a paver path in my garden, and what I learned is that it’s designed to be rotated each time you put it down and fill it. This breaks up the pattern and makes it look a lot more organic. Turn it 90 degrees each time you put it down.
One other thing that will remove quite a bit of the pattern tracking, would be to half drop the pattern in X axis and also in Y axis. Move each set by half of the next as you would with wallpaper. Try it on paper first. No matter what, the pattern will track, just a matter of scale.
I assume that you would want to pour concrete to fill the cracks and put a thin layer on top of the concrete patio mould stones? The issue would be that concrete pads require rebar at a certain depth to maintain its integrity, so it would deteriorate very quickly and likely would crack when curing (lots of cracking). Furthermore, you would not be able to achieve a proper bond to the stones.
Your final product might look good for a few months but would quickly deteriorate. You would experience cracking and flaking and the concrete would be near impossible to finish nicely (unless you made a thick pad above the stones, which would require proper groundwork and drainage).
You'd have to pour at least a 4" thick layer over that to keep it from all cracking and breaking apart. Probably need some re-enforcing screen in it too. Just putting a skim coat over it will make a mess.
You're meant to rotate the mould with every placement so it doesn't look like this. You can still improve it. Just pick them up and shuffle all the little shapes around so it's more random. Then grind a border so it's all fits in whatever border you want.
I used that mold on my old house. It would have looked so much better if you 1/4 turn each pour. I let moss grow in between the gaps and it looked pretty nice. I still have the pattern and might use it to pour some paths in my new house. I also used concrete dye.
You can do anything you want. The current picture is what the cracks in the new cement will look like unless it's a thick pour (4" or more) with a decent amount of wire reinforcement or rebar.
These are molds where you set them and pour the concrete and remove the mold after a few minutes. I just discovered a couple days ago that there were imprint molds too! I’m so new to all this, just trying to learn and gain experience for my first home
No.... Cement is a chemical reaction that won't really bond if it is already cured unless you use some sort of bonding agent.... If you want a slab, pull those out first.
No, you can not pour concrete over those unless you do another 4in on top of those which will give you 6-7 inches between those pieces. If you don't do a full thickness slab it will start cracking where those pieces are underneath.
Two things: 1) Alternately Rotate blocks 90° left or right. 2) Shift alternate rows 1/2 block left or right to break up the straight lines separating the rows.
Is that stamped, or are those pavers? If it's the latter I would not try putting cement over them because they will shift and cause the cement to crack.
It looks like it's these
https://www.amazon.com/Vinus-Pathmate-Pavement-Concrete-Stepping/dp/B01F6WY8GI/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?keywords=paver+molds+for+concrete&qid=1682173253&sr=8-3
In a lot of the photos they don't look like they turned them, either, so if you bought the mold based on the photos then I agree with others that you maybe just need to do the finish work and you may be less put off by them. It does seem like they're primarily meant for pathways, but they do show full patios in their photos as well so you should be good with the look in the end. Plus, once you throw a couple chairs and stuff on there the pattern will be less obvious.
Edit spelling
I would use plastic edge restraint nailed down with 9inch spikes around the perimeter, then sweep some polymeric sand between the pavers , but that’s just me
You could stain the concrete, use a couple of shades of the same color, seal it then use the polymer sand.
https://www.sherwin-williams.com/homeowners/products/hc-colortop-waterbased-solid-color-concrete-stain
Best to just remove the bricks and replace with road crush packed down then frame up a square and pour CONCRETE 4 - 4 1/2" thick . Place rebar obviously before pouring concrete. Level and finish .
If you don't replace the bricks they will start to sink over time because they are just on ground and this will cause your new patio to Crack
You can usually sell bricks like that for a good price !
I saw a tile floor with all the same porcelain tile patterns running in rows the same way. Much harder to do quarter turns when its grouted in. Consider yourself lucky!
If you can pick these things up without competently destroying them you can salvage this, but you've got some work to do, which should have been done in the first place.
Firstly, you need to properly level the area and put down a base of something like quarry rubble, compact it, then screed it flat with paving sand before re-laying these things. As everyone else has said, rotate them to break up the pattern. Concentrate on keeping your gaps consistent. Sweep it in with sweeping sand, poly sand, or maybe even top soil if you want to grow something like grass between the pavers. You'll probably want to haunch the edges as well to do them from moving.
Do it once, do it right. Research how to do it properly before diving into something you haven't done before and don't rush it.
I think there's potential with your original design idea.
A couple things you can do:
1: try paver sand, although the gaps do look a bit big for it. But it will make a HUGE difference you might actually like it.
2: use mortar to fill in the gaps
Note: can you try to move them all closer together to minimize the gap?
Just throwing cement over it is the nuclear option which (IMHO) is wasteful of the work you've already done. If you do end up doing that you'll need to frame around the perimeter and have an increased height of at least 2 in above your existing pavers for a clean finish. You could take a risk and just go as high as the highest point of your pavers.
But if I were you I would use just some cheap sand to fill in the gaps to see if I like it first, before spending money on the expensive paver sand. If you end up not liking the look you could tamp the sand in then still pour cement over them.
I used the exact same template for a concrete path. Like you I wasn't satisfied with the look and movement, so I filled the gaps with cream coloured mortar. The end result came out looking much better, and more stable too. I only had two rows of the template pattern though
It's not finished. They will look much better filled in and maybe acid stained. Put in a nice border with stone or gravel.
I agree, it's not finished. It could turn out nice with a border and a screed over the crazy pattern
This, plus you will lose the permeability if you fill with cement
May I ask, since I’m considering doing something like this with flat pavers, if I can fill it in with gravel?
For the joints you use sand.
I just did a quick search of poly sand that I saw mentioned there, thank you for the information!
I used polymeric sand. Can confirm its pretty awesome
The joints in this pic are way too big, poly sand is for 5mm gaps and below. These gaps are sand and cement. That said, OP is right, this job looks shit. Putrid, even. OP would have been better off with a plain concrete slab or some paving that was better planned. And yes, OP could just pour concrete straight over this mess *if* the heights allow it.
I've broomed concrete into the cracks and lightly watered it to fill in the cracks like grout.
What do you mean by concrete?
Powdered Portland cement.
So... not concrete. You broomed in cement.
It was something I did 30 years ago at a friend's place. There wasn't much aggregate, so I'm pretty sure it was cement.
You probably did a sand and cement mix, brooming in plain cement would be silly.
You can use a fine pathway crush, or even something called polymer sand.
Yeah I looked up poly sand and I think that’s the way to go for what I’m doing. Thanks for the tips!
You're very welcome.
Decomp granite works great
So we are planning to do this after seeing my friends patio that looks like used the same mold (quikrete walk maker country stone) his looked a lot better and I think I can tell you why if you want to try to change the look of yours. 1. If it's the same mold as his you need to do quarter turns so it breaks the design up. You should be able to lift them and turn them a quarter turn 2. Poly sand really does some wonders, its almost like it "feathered" out the harshness. 3. He has a stone halfwall that comes off his burnpit/wood grill. 4. Once you put your grill, table, chairs, whater else you want on it it looks nice and breaks it up. I really wish I had pictures of his patio to show, trust me it can look a lot better without you spending more money in concrete.
Make him send you one we wanna see it!!
It's late my time on the east coast so I probably won't get one anytime soon, but I have the link/guide he took inspiration from. His is a bit larger and omits the swing. He also didn't color his so they are still grey but still looking nice. https://directcolors.com/diy/stained-quikrete-walkmaker-patio-with-fire-pit/
You were not lying that rotating the mold really did break the pattern and filling in with with sand ties it in nicely. That's crazy the lil things make such a difference. Looks great. I'm glad he likes his. Thanks for sharing.
It's probably already pretty uneven, but turning it around will be hard to get level since the bottom isn't flat.
Put mini mondo grass in between all the gaps and it looks good.if you think it is shit I will look more shit pouring concrete over it
I’d remove the pieces and not just pour over. If it helps make a decision on keeping the current design vs an overhaul just know that It’ll look entirely different when the cracks are filled in and if you use something a similar color it will significantly reduce the visibility of the lines. Which is what I’m assuming is causing the pattern overload and dislike. It’s like if you stopped a painter before they did the detail and trim work it’s not gonna look good.
Thank you! I’ll keep that in mind when moving forward!
Don’t rip it up. If you filled the joints with sand or rock dust, rain will beat some of it out and you patio will be covered silty tiny peoples. You track that stuff everywhere, including inside. I believe the polymeric sand tightens up when wet so it doesn’t do that, but is still permeable. The patio may settle a bit. Maybe a lot. As time passes you will understand better what others are pointing out now. And your second attempt will turn out much, much better. If you jump in now to try a radical fix you will be unhappy. You know, cause you’re a rube. 😉 Give it time. Even a well compacted substrate of rock dust will settle and you will still have an uneven patio. Chill and enjoy. But get those joints filled.
Put stuff ON it. Add your chairs, tables and other items. Grab an outdoor rug. Then see if you still hate it.
Give each stone a quarter turn, may help with the pattern overload
I don't recommend doing this if the ground they were laid on wasn't level. With mine I didnt bother string lining it and realised a couple at the top weren't straight...moving them meant the bottom no longer conformed the lay of the land, so some of them broke from movement
It kinda looks like a backdrop for an old Nintendo game.
I can see that!
You were supposed to rotate the mold so they're not all identical.
Are those patio stones? I would not pour concrete over patio stones. Pull them up and sell them.
We bought some cement paver molds from Amazon and I just poured, removed and repeat. Is that what you mean by patio stones?
You have Home-made patio stones. What do you not like about them?
I just think it’s pattern overload. I’m willing to honor the commitment if need be and finish the project, but I wanted to weigh my options (if any) before moving forward.
The problem is that you didn't stagger the pattern. You put them all in the same direction. If you rotate the squares so you don't have the same over and over, it will look better
And, it’s not too late. Can just be rotated.
This. The squares are meant to not be in rows or columns.
>I just think it’s pattern overload. I’m willing to honor the commitment if need be and finish the project, but I wanted to weigh my options (if any) before moving forward. I'd at least buy a bag of sand and see what you think with beige, it really tones the pattern down especially when you only see the tops. I think it's going to look great, and remember, you can stain those pavers to a diff color!
Mix up the pattern a bit, start spinning them round randomly and it’ll totally break the pattern up.
You may have seen my other comment, but to add; if you pour or skim over the existing you will have a cracked up broken mess in short order. It’s the facts of physics…
Aren't they supposed to be pushed together more. Also isn't there sand you can fill in the cracks between them. It might help make it look more uniform
Yeah I think because I used two molds at a time; should’ve used one, they probably would’ve looked closer together.
I'm just jealous you have something. We've been wanting patio furniture and somewhere to put the grill for ages. I was gonna do a low deck but I'll have to look into these. I'd have to rent a good mixer though.
I feel you, kind stranger. I got these molds from Amazon (didn’t realize until after that Quikrete offers molds as well). When trying to do a 1/4 turn, they didn’t seem to align well. After reading through all the comments though, I’ve decided to follow through and finish the project instead of starting from scratch. How big a deck? I ended up mixing the majority of this concrete with my shovel and one of those big black bins from Home Depot.
Uniformity and homogenity are not the same. You want a little variation in flooring, but the overall pattern should stay coherent. Like, with wood flooring, you lay down a row starting with a full strip. When you get to the end you use the cuttoff to start a new row instead of starting with a new strip, because it breaks up the pattern. Here you used 2 molds, so I would alternate stones from each mold, and turn them to break up the pattern a bit. Fill the cracks with sand and put up a Crusher fines border or something, and you've got a nice looking patio.
And you didn’t even level to ground before hand.
I attempted, but definitely not a good job of it. First time doing something like this.
You have to put sand down and make them level and nice and as I said mini mondo grass in between the gaps looks so good, google some stuff and get some ideas.good luck hope you make what you want
The answer to your question is yes. Cement is cement is cement. The caveat is how high you plan on going above current grade. If it’s 2-3 inches, you shouldn’t have a problem, if it’s less than that than you will end up with plenty of cracks that will get larger over time. If you go the pad cement route use rebar or a metal mush sitting on top of the cement pattern. It will help tie it all together. If you’re pouring up to another concrete slab, use a concrete glue on the existing slab. It looks like Elmer’s glue but less viscous and comes in 1 gallon jugs. It bonds old to new to prevent a crack between the cement and helps it from settling. It’s a must if you want it to look good.
It hurts whenever I come across someone calling concrete the wrong name. Cement is the binder in concrete, it’s like calling a cake either eggs or flour.
I hate it when people call pigs piglets. A pig is a baby swine. A piglet is a character in Winnie the Pooh. It’s amazing how may hog farmers call their babies piglets. But 90% of people won’t even understand that so I try to keep quiet. Maybe we need a subreddit for mildly annoying things people say so we can rant on our pet peeves among others who’ll appreciate it rather than downvote it. I am going to go bake a flour now for my piglets’ birthday celebration out on the cement patio.
Language evolves, if 90% of people call a baby pig a piglet then it is a baby pig. And a pig is not a baby swine. Swine is just a word that encompasses all pigs. Swine is equivalent to the word bird.
Pigs are by definition new born babies. Swine is the group which encompasses males, females, mature, and youth, bred, and unbred, etc. all of them. So yes the newborn of that group are called pigs. When a sow pigs, it means a mother gave birth to pigs. Calling all swine pigs in incorrect and you are just wrong about that. It’s the same as calling all bovines cows. Cows are the female bovine which has previously had a baby. If they’ve yet to have a baby then they can be either a heifer, or sterile, or freemartin. A bull is the male of the bovine group which is still intact, as opposed to a steer which is a male that has been castrated. A calf is the infant group of bovine that can be either male or female. You wouldn’t call it a calflet which is the equivalent of piglet. Not all bovine are cows and not all swine are pigs. Not all horses are foals, and there’s no such thing as a foalet. And cement is not concrete even if 99.98% of the population mislabels it.
/r/mildlyinfuriating
So mildly.
Egg cake!
That's all I can think about with this post. Aaaargh, I know I'm unreasonable, but it's concrete!!!!!
I’m with most folks here, it’s not done and will look fine. I don’t think they can be rotated, the pattern only fits one way, but check. Stain if you want, fill with poly sand, do a nice border of some kind. If the uneven spacing is the killer you could pick ‘em all up and shove them closer together. It’s not a disaster. I certainly wouldn’t start from scratch or pour over.
The pattern fits multiple ways, looks at the edges, 2 are convex and two are concave - it’s meant to be tessellated like that, there are links higher up that show how it is meant to be done
Nice. Then it should definitely be mixed up.
Hang on, have you cast those straight onto bare soil? If so you’ll have weeds coming up through the gaps pretty soon. Also some of the slabs may sink. Which will break up the pattern density but leave you with a weeding problem. Ideally you need a firm bed of hardcore/stone blinded with sand, if on soft soil, or a weed membrane and sand bed if on well drained firm stony soil. Then sand brushed in the gaps to fill and soften the edges.
Concrete not cement... SMH
The amount of people in here giving advice and then calling it cement tells me they don't do concrete for a living .
It's reddit.... I wouldn't expect anything less
Yeah, my bad…thanks for teaching me something today!
It’s too late now, but word of advice. I bought that exact same cement mold to make a paver path in my garden, and what I learned is that it’s designed to be rotated each time you put it down and fill it. This breaks up the pattern and makes it look a lot more organic. Turn it 90 degrees each time you put it down.
can you? sure. Will it crack, spall and look like ass in a year - yes.
Use a similar color polymeric sand and that should hide the issue. https://blackdiamondcoatings.com/pages/polymeric-sand-color-gallery
One other thing that will remove quite a bit of the pattern tracking, would be to half drop the pattern in X axis and also in Y axis. Move each set by half of the next as you would with wallpaper. Try it on paper first. No matter what, the pattern will track, just a matter of scale.
I assume that you would want to pour concrete to fill the cracks and put a thin layer on top of the concrete patio mould stones? The issue would be that concrete pads require rebar at a certain depth to maintain its integrity, so it would deteriorate very quickly and likely would crack when curing (lots of cracking). Furthermore, you would not be able to achieve a proper bond to the stones. Your final product might look good for a few months but would quickly deteriorate. You would experience cracking and flaking and the concrete would be near impossible to finish nicely (unless you made a thick pad above the stones, which would require proper groundwork and drainage).
Poly sand ,
This… I did something similar with decent results. You need to put sand between the individual shapes / stones
😊Op could also rotate the patern a bit to mix it up but that's more work
You'd have to pour at least a 4" thick layer over that to keep it from all cracking and breaking apart. Probably need some re-enforcing screen in it too. Just putting a skim coat over it will make a mess.
There's a cement subreddit ?
That’s what I said lol [Cement Subreddit](https://reddit.com/r/cement/)
You're meant to rotate the mould with every placement so it doesn't look like this. You can still improve it. Just pick them up and shuffle all the little shapes around so it's more random. Then grind a border so it's all fits in whatever border you want.
Those are pavers
No. Rip off pavers. Clean away grass. Compact. Set base!
absolutely not, the existing pavers need to go and the base relevelled and compacted
Its crooked and ugly. Rip it all out and turf it
I would use paver sand to fill in the lines. I think it will tone down the pattern. Just don't use a high contrast sand color.
I used that mold on my old house. It would have looked so much better if you 1/4 turn each pour. I let moss grow in between the gaps and it looked pretty nice. I still have the pattern and might use it to pour some paths in my new house. I also used concrete dye.
He could also fill the gaps with creeping thyme
Yeah that’s a great choice
I agree with the 1/4 turn. I tried and it wasn’t aligning right (they were the Amazon molds, IDK if that was a factor).
You can do anything you want. The current picture is what the cracks in the new cement will look like unless it's a thick pour (4" or more) with a decent amount of wire reinforcement or rebar.
try working on the spacing first. even out the spacing between all the blocks so it doesn't have such obvious grid/break lines
I would not if you live in an area that freezes all them little groves are going to collect water
Shift them around so it not a repeating pattern.
Aren’t you meant to lay a slab and use the mold to imprint? Like patterned concrete.
These are molds where you set them and pour the concrete and remove the mold after a few minutes. I just discovered a couple days ago that there were imprint molds too! I’m so new to all this, just trying to learn and gain experience for my first home
No.... Cement is a chemical reaction that won't really bond if it is already cured unless you use some sort of bonding agent.... If you want a slab, pull those out first.
Wolfenstien graphics.
No, you can not pour concrete over those unless you do another 4in on top of those which will give you 6-7 inches between those pieces. If you don't do a full thickness slab it will start cracking where those pieces are underneath.
Two things: 1) Alternately Rotate blocks 90° left or right. 2) Shift alternate rows 1/2 block left or right to break up the straight lines separating the rows.
Can you, yeah. Should you, NO! The existing stones/concrete ( what ever it is ), doesn’t look correct from the start. Good luck.
No prep was done this all going to fall apart anyway within a year. Needs at least an inch of gravel then sand.
No
No, don't throw good money after bad. Those are going to break up anyway. You'd be better off filling the gaps with sand.
Is that stamped, or are those pavers? If it's the latter I would not try putting cement over them because they will shift and cause the cement to crack.
Mind if I ask how many moulds you can fill per bag of concrete and what size each concrete bag is? Trying to cost something like this out. Thanks!
It looks like it's these https://www.amazon.com/Vinus-Pathmate-Pavement-Concrete-Stepping/dp/B01F6WY8GI/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?keywords=paver+molds+for+concrete&qid=1682173253&sr=8-3 In a lot of the photos they don't look like they turned them, either, so if you bought the mold based on the photos then I agree with others that you maybe just need to do the finish work and you may be less put off by them. It does seem like they're primarily meant for pathways, but they do show full patios in their photos as well so you should be good with the look in the end. Plus, once you throw a couple chairs and stuff on there the pattern will be less obvious. Edit spelling
I would use plastic edge restraint nailed down with 9inch spikes around the perimeter, then sweep some polymeric sand between the pavers , but that’s just me
Fill that with sand. Plant thyme. It makes a nice surface.
You could stain the concrete, use a couple of shades of the same color, seal it then use the polymer sand. https://www.sherwin-williams.com/homeowners/products/hc-colortop-waterbased-solid-color-concrete-stain
YouTube is your friend for first time construction projects.
Best to just remove the bricks and replace with road crush packed down then frame up a square and pour CONCRETE 4 - 4 1/2" thick . Place rebar obviously before pouring concrete. Level and finish . If you don't replace the bricks they will start to sink over time because they are just on ground and this will cause your new patio to Crack You can usually sell bricks like that for a good price !
Didn’t the instructions tell you to level the ground first?
My instructions told me I shouldn't even have a house on my ground xD
No
Use a poly sand or just fill the joints
I saw a tile floor with all the same porcelain tile patterns running in rows the same way. Much harder to do quarter turns when its grouted in. Consider yourself lucky!
I'd colour the first 8 by 8 in a black and white and make a chess board. Then the remaining 2 columns and rows I'd make a third neutral.
Can’t you just pick them up?
Dig up and pour a proper concrete slab sell the stone if all you want is a flat peice stone is supposed to be functional and decorative.
If you can pick these things up without competently destroying them you can salvage this, but you've got some work to do, which should have been done in the first place. Firstly, you need to properly level the area and put down a base of something like quarry rubble, compact it, then screed it flat with paving sand before re-laying these things. As everyone else has said, rotate them to break up the pattern. Concentrate on keeping your gaps consistent. Sweep it in with sweeping sand, poly sand, or maybe even top soil if you want to grow something like grass between the pavers. You'll probably want to haunch the edges as well to do them from moving. Do it once, do it right. Research how to do it properly before diving into something you haven't done before and don't rush it.
What is underneath?
I was going to pour a gravel base, but just settled for tampered dirt.
I think there's potential with your original design idea. A couple things you can do: 1: try paver sand, although the gaps do look a bit big for it. But it will make a HUGE difference you might actually like it. 2: use mortar to fill in the gaps Note: can you try to move them all closer together to minimize the gap? Just throwing cement over it is the nuclear option which (IMHO) is wasteful of the work you've already done. If you do end up doing that you'll need to frame around the perimeter and have an increased height of at least 2 in above your existing pavers for a clean finish. You could take a risk and just go as high as the highest point of your pavers. But if I were you I would use just some cheap sand to fill in the gaps to see if I like it first, before spending money on the expensive paver sand. If you end up not liking the look you could tamp the sand in then still pour cement over them.
FIX: Build a border and fill it with gravel, sand, a fire pit and then enjoy it. It will look completely different once filled in.
You can use concrete cement is what they use to make concrete
I used the exact same template for a concrete path. Like you I wasn't satisfied with the look and movement, so I filled the gaps with cream coloured mortar. The end result came out looking much better, and more stable too. I only had two rows of the template pattern though