Paver Lanai Installation done so it stays flat
Lanai floors laid to work under a cage and drain the right way.
What actually goes wrong
Almost every paver problem we get called out to is a base problem wearing a surface disguise. The pavers themselves are fine. They are concrete or stone, and they will outlast most of us. What moves is what is underneath them.
The ground under most of the region is sand sitting on limestone. It sheds ordinary rain easily. The trouble comes with the heavy afternoon storms, the ones that put down two inches in an hour, when the sand cannot drain fast enough and water starts carrying it out from under the base.
Large trees near a paver surface cause a lot of lifting. Their roots follow moisture, and the base under pavers holds plenty of it. Over the years they push in and raise the surface.
That is why the schedule on our jobs is mostly spent on the part you will never see again. The surface takes a day or two. The ground it sits on takes the rest, and the ground is what you are actually paying for.
How we run this job
We come look at it
Plenty of problems look worse than they are. One of us comes out, walks the property with you, checks the drainage, and gives you a direct answer, even if that answer is a small repair.
You get the plan in writing
Everything in writing up front: what we are doing, what it is made of, how long it takes, and what it costs. Nothing changes without you signing off on it.
We build the base first
We spend the most time on what you will never look at. The dig goes to the depth your job needs, the aggregate gets compacted in lifts, and the bedding is screeded. Whether the surface stays flat in ten years depends on it.
Pavers go down and get cut in
Laying the field is the fast part. The care is in the cuts at the edges and the restraint that locks the whole field in place.
Joints get filled and the site gets cleaned
Joints filled and set, everything washed down, our own debris on our own truck. The site is yours again the same day we finish.
What a proper installation actually involves
Compaction has to happen in lifts. That means putting the aggregate down in layers of a few inches and compacting each one before the next goes on. Dump the whole depth in at once and run a plate over the top and you get a hard crust over loose material, which behaves fine for a year and then starts settling in patches. This is the single most common corner cut in the trade and it is invisible on day one.
A field of loose pavers only works because of what is under it. The pavers spread a load out sideways. The bedding course, a thin layer of sharp sand screeded perfectly flat, gives each one an even seat. Below that the compacted crushed aggregate base takes the weight and passes it down over a wider area, so the subgrade, your own soil, never feels the full point load of a tire. Take out the base and the pavers are just a pile of blocks.
Before we dig, we ask what is going to drive on it. A garden path that only sees feet needs less base under it. A driveway that takes a loaded pickup every day needs more, and a commercial drive with delivery trucks needs more again. The excavation follows the answer. A quote that lists one base depth for every job tells you nobody asked the question.
The pavers are a wearing surface. The base is the building.
Every paver surface we build is pitched away from the building at roughly an eighth to a quarter inch per foot. You will never feel that slope when you walk across it. Water does feel it, and it runs off the edge instead of sitting in puddles or heading back toward your foundation, which are the two ways a bad grade shows itself.
A tight commercial lot with no fall available is a drainage problem before it is a paving problem. The surface can shed water, but something has to receive it. Our usual choices are a channel drain at the low edge, a permeable section that passes water through to a stone reservoir, or a regrade of the adjacent planting bed. We pick one while the site is open, because retrofitting any of them costs more.
The rain that falls on your pavers is the least of it. A well-jointed surface sheds most of that. The water that undermines a base is water delivered to one spot again and again, from a gutter downspout, an irrigation head, or the slope of the property next door. We look for those sources on every walk.
Joint sand
Structural, not cosmetic. It transfers load between units, which is the whole reason a field of loose pavers behaves like a surface.
Separation
Geotextile between subgrade and base stops fine soil migrating up and destroying the aggregate structure.
Base depth
Set by what the surface carries, not by habit. A walkway and a truck-bearing drive are not the same excavation.
More installation work
This service runs across our whole region. Some of the areas where we do the most of it:
What it asks of you afterwards
Sealing is maintenance you sign up for. Once a surface is sealed, it looks best if it gets recoated every few years, and skipping that leaves it patchy. In exchange you get deeper color and stains that lift with less scrubbing. Some owners love that look. Others prefer pavers left natural. Either is a reasonable choice, and we will tell you which suits your surface.
The thing worth acting on quickly is a trip hazard. A lifted edge of more than about a quarter inch is something somebody will catch a toe on, and on a commercial property that is a liability question as well as a maintenance one.
A paver surface that was built properly asks for very little. Keep the joints topped up, keep organic debris from composting in them, and deal with a settled area while it is small. That is genuinely most of it.
Porcelain pavers are dense enough to be close to stain-proof, which makes them easy to keep looking new. They are also the newest option in residential work and the least tolerant of a poor base. Any unevenness in the bed comes through on top, and cutting them well takes patience and the right blade.
Concrete pavers cover the biggest share of what gets installed. They are pigmented through the body of the unit, so the sun fades them gently and evenly over time. New ones look a touch different from how they will look after a year or two, since the color settles as they cure out. Shapes and colors run wider than any other paver.
With clay brick there is no pigment to fade. The color comes from the clay as it is fired, so the paver looks essentially the same for as long as it lasts. The trade is a higher price and a smaller choice of shapes.
Where these jobs go wrong
You cannot see any of these when the crew packs up. They show up later, which is why they keep happening.
Using the wrong sand in the bedding
Sand looks like sand until a truck rolls over it. Sharp, angular concrete sand grips. Rounded sand, the mason or beach kind, rolls under the load and lets pavers slide out of place.
Sealing too early
Everybody wants the new pavers sealed right away. That is the mistake. Concrete pavers need to cure and clear their efflorescence first, and sealing in the first month can lock a white haze under the sealer permanently.
Laying over the old surface
Whatever made the old surface fail is still down there when you pave over it. If the base was the problem, a new layer on top only covers the failure for a season, and then it shows through again.
Skipping the geotextile
Between the native soil and the base, there should be a geotextile fabric. It keeps the two from mixing. Without it, fines migrate into the aggregate until the base weakens, and the settling that follows comes back after every surface repair.
A sunken paver is a symptom. The base under it is the disease.
Common questions
Do I need to be home while you work
You can go to work as usual. We need to be able to reach the work area and use your water. If anything changes the plan, like what we find once the old surface is up, we call you that day.
Will the new pavers match what I already have
New pavers start out looking newer than the ones already down, because concrete pavers change color a little with sun and age. Sometimes the match is exact and sometimes it is close. When a line is discontinued or the difference is too obvious, we walk you through the options before anything gets ordered.
What happens to the old surface
Gone before the new base goes in. We demolish it, haul it, and recycle the concrete and pavers if a recycler is available locally. You will see it listed in the scope from the start.
How do you keep it from settling again
Find the water first. In most cases a settled spot traces back to drainage, like a downspout emptying at the edge, and the base under it has washed or softened. Correct the drainage, rebuild that section of base, and the pavers go back down on something solid.
Do you work with HOAs and property managers
Yes. If your board only meets monthly, we plan the job around that meeting. Submittals and phased work that keeps residents moving are normal for us, so tell us how approvals run.
Do you cover Miami, FL
Yes. Miami is where we are based, so it is about as close to home as our work gets. Give us a call and we will tell you when we can come out.
Tell us what you are looking at
Send a couple of photos or just call. We will tell you what we think is going on, what it would take to fix, and whether it needs doing now or can wait.
Quality you can stand on