Pavers with concrete base

Should pavers have a concrete base?

I received an estimate for my pool area which is around 1200 sq feet. I'm getting pavers put down & they want to put a concrete base. Is this necessary? I thought pavers were suppose to go down without cement. Thanks.
Ps great website

ANSWER
You are correct. Pavers have many good features. One, is that they can be dry laid so that a concrete base is totally unnecessary. When you dry lay pavers, it is less expensive, but equally important is that you will never have cracked joints. Also, if anything were ever to happen to the pavers, they can easily be lifted out and replaced.

The most common filler for the joints is sand. However, polymeric sand is now being used too. This material is placed into the joints and then wet down with a hose. Once this happens, or very soon after, the material hardens.

Weeds are kept more to a minimum with polymeric sand. However, occasionally you will see fine line cracks in it. I recently had my brick patio relaid, and I chose to use the regular sand, not the polymeric. I don't get many weeds, and if there are some, I just give them a quick spray and that takes care of the problem for quite awhile. Many people experience no weeds at all. My bricks were old and uneven, which necessitated larger joints. Most pavers are butted up pretty much against each other with very little joint space.

See the following pages on my site.
Paving Costs


Paver Installation


Building A Patio