Pavers

Have ready

Clear the area of furniture, planters, and anything sitting on the old surface, and mark sprinkler heads or lighting you know about. Point out where the downspouts discharge and where you want water to end up. The technician checks three things first: the pitch of the existing grade away from the house, the soil under the old surface, because organic fill or clay will not compact, and the depth needed for the intended use. A footpath, a patio, and a driveway are three different base builds.

• Excavation
• Compacted base
• Edge restraint
• Polymeric sand

The visit

The base is the paver job. We excavate, compact, edge-restrain, and pitch the surface away from the house. Polymeric sand is the last step, not the thing holding the patio up.

A walk that ponds against a Brick Township foundation was laid on sand over organic soil. Resetting the same pavers on the same mud brings the pond back by spring. The soil leaves. The base goes in.

Permit

A paver patio or walk is flatwork, so there is no building permit and no inspection of the finished surface. Town interest shows up in other places. Work inside a right-of-way or an easement needs the town to agree to it. Where lot coverage is capped, an impervious surface count can apply, and a raised patio with tall steps may be treated as a structure. Those are settled before a shovel is used.

On the Shore

Freeze-thaw is the whole story on a paver surface. Water that gets into the joints and the base freezes, lifts the surface, and leaves a ridge you cannot compact back down. That is why the base is compacted in lifts and why the joint sand matters as much as the stone. Sand and cement bedding over a compacted aggregate base with a concrete edge restraint resists that movement. Rock salt is hard on concrete pavers and stone, so sand or a salt-safe product is a better winter choice.

When we leave

When the work is finished the technician checks that water runs away from the house and that no low spot holds a puddle. The joints are filled and compacted, the polymeric sand is set per the product instructions, and the surface is misted and left to cure. Furniture goes back after the sand sets, and if a sealer was used, after the sealer cures. The care note is to keep the surface dry for the first day and not to wash it hard while the joints are still setting.

Built with

The materials are concrete or clay pavers, a compacted crushed aggregate base, sand and cement or a coarse bedding sand, a concrete or spiked edge restraint, and polymeric joint sand. The base aggregate and the restraint carry the structural load, and the pavers are only the wear surface. Polymeric sand locks the joints and slows weeds, but it supports nothing. Where a contrasting border is wanted, it goes down before the field so the cut pavers along the edge come out even.