How are you installing? Thinset? Sand bed?

Well thats the big question. I would love to use sand as the surface prep of the existing concrete deck is a lot cheaper and easier than bonding straight to it with thinset. But at what thickness do the pavers become to shallow to hold themselves in place with just sand? When does a paver become a tile, is another way to look at it?

If I were setting on a sand bed I wouldn't go any thinner than the standard one inch (3 cm) travertine pavers. Anything thinner is asking for cracks, especially the bigger (16x16, 16x24) pieces.

When doing a pool deck your coping sets your finished surface height. You're better off removing the concrete around the pool and working up to the coping w/ new base at the correct height. We're working on a project with a client in a similar position. They have about 2,000 sq ft of exposed agg pool decking and they wanted to see about just doing an overlay. It just doesn't make sense to do it that way.

Well we have a “negative edge” concrete coping with about a 1” overhanging the pool edge tile. Can we surface prep this edge and thin set some Bull nose coping right on the edge?