Pavers as opposed to what? Plain concrete? Gravel? Are we talking about pavers to edge the driveway, or pavers making up the whole driveway?

In other words, what options do you have, and what does each option run?

pavers vs black top. Yes, pavers for the whole driveway which is roughly 50 x 25.

They are nice on a driveway. We saw them in a neighborhood before we had the guy install them in our backyard. In our area it is not that common to use pavers on a drive. A friend did his driveway in pavers but his house is the highest priced house in the neighborhood. He is not looking at resale since he has added so many dollars to his house that he will never recoup.

I love the look of paver driveways but check into the maintenance. Several of my neighbors have them, and even with maintenance they get weeds or grass growing up between the pavers. One neighbor just had his driveway maintained (weeds removed, polymeric sand put down) and now about a month later weeds are back between some of the pavers. So the cost is more for maintenance as well as installation. (I have a paver walkway and patio, and they require ongoing attention.)

I do think pavers are prettier than concrete or black top, and concrete IMO looks nicer than blacktop (but that's personal preference.)

We get compliments on our bluestone-chip (GRAVEL) driveway. LOL The apron is blacktop. It is hard to find someone who knows how to plow gravel, but I wanted something permeable.

Pavers are a nuisance to maintain. We've even had to pull and re-lay portions of our Brussels Block terraces. If you want pavers, you don't have to do the whole driveway, just sides.

If you're in an expensive neighborhood, then yes go with pavers. If not, it really doesn't matter.

Grass and weeds grow between the pavers (after a couple of years), also if they get uneven some stick up more than others, snow removal can be a PITA.

I would get a concrete driveway, have it colored and stamped. Looks just like pavers. I have this as a border for my driveway. People think they're real pavers.

We had the option. I said no. This is not something I felt was worth the expense. To me it said....look at me, I can afford to spend money on my driveway. Plus my kids love sidewalk chalk. It doesn't work we on a paver.

We did stamped concrete on our driveway and pavers on the patio and terraces. Our pavers are laid on concrete so no weed problems. They do look more high end than the stamped concrete, but the stamped concrete looks better than the plain. I think that a good compromise for you, if everyone seems to be doing good full pavers, is to do a section in pavers and a section in concrete. In other words, use pavers as a border. I have seen entire new subdivisions done like that. It is very attractive.

Pavers are beautiful. I love them on sidewalks and patios. But I'm going to second (or third) what others have said about the maintenance. Stuff grows in the cracks. If you're the sort that is ok with spraying Round Up, that does keep the growth down but you still have work to do and you're still spraying pesticides all over the place. Mostly I just figure weed pulling is part of my weekly landscape chores...but I'm also really glad I don't have to weed my entire driveway too!

How are you planning to use your driveway?

Perhaps that question sounds odd, but we have a forecourt garage so the driveway doubles as a path to the front door. The forecourt gets used for play/gathering, much like a patio. For us the downside of blacktop is that it gets hot and probably requires more maintenance in our area (no weeds here as we go months without rain and folks do not water driveways). So in our case the architect strongly recommended pavers.

Good luck!

They are beautiful, but I would never want to shovel snow or even use a snow blower with them.... I'm going to with broom finished concrete (as opposed to stamped) for the same reason.

We see a lot of homes where the driveway is blacktop or concrete, with pavers defining areas: perhaps the space above the apron is paver, then across the driveway in front of the front door, and so on, as well as edging it with pavers. I think it's a nice look, and breaks up the expanse of solid surface.

Pavers look nice especially in perpetually warm climates. However, they move a lot with freeze and thaw cycles. So you get high an low spots/puddling/weeds and a PITA to snow blow. In NJ I would never do pavers.

Pavers look cool, but in northern NJ, they'll pop up over heavily frosting winters, and just be a PITA to work with. A good solid asphalt is equally as nice. Personally, given a choice between two equal high-end homes -- I'd pick the one WITHOUT pavers, if buying in New Jersey. However, it would be great as an edging, or for your walkway to the front door.

Thanks everyone for really helpful comments. I will go with asphalt :)

Only the 'new people' in our neighborhood do pavers. The fourth-generation owners of the big historic homes do not.

We're grandfathered in with an asphalt driveway, but new homes in our area are required to be concrete. Better check with your local AHJ first before finalizing arrangements.

Concrete is still better than pavers, at least in snow country, if it comes down to that.

One of our projects after we bought our house was removing the asphalt and replacing with pavers. It made an amazing difference in the look and curb appeal of the house, specially since we have a large circular drive, 2-car front load garage and side driveway to 3-car garage in rear of the property. We are in a year round sunny climate and the pavers stay much cooler than asphalt. No maintenance issues at all.

The best part is that when we needed to repair a pipe that ran under the driveway it was easy to pick up the pavers to access the broken pipe. The pavers were put back in and you can not tell were the broken pipe was ... if it had been asphalt or cement we would have an ugly patch in a very prominent part of our driveway. If you have any issues with tree roots, again an easy fix to pick up pavers, cut back roots and replace pavers as if nothing had happened. For this reason alone, I would always choose pavers.