Paver Repair & Re-Sanding in East China Township

Water sits behind much of what goes wrong under pavers. CMHA, the trade association for concrete pavers, lists a saturated base among the causes of a depression, and bedding sand that stays wet can pump out through the joints under traffic. Frost adds a second effect. Heave takes three ingredients at once: ground cold enough to freeze, a soil prone to frost, and a steady source of water, which builds ice lenses as it is drawn up toward the frozen layer. Silts, loams and very fine sands heave worst and clay less, so clay alone is not the culprit; a seasonally high water table can keep the water supply close. The damage comes from uneven lift.

That shapes what a repair can promise. Releveling lifts the pavers, corrects the base under them with compacted base material, rebeds and relays them, which addresses a dip where the base settled or the bedding washed out. CMHA's answer to heave itself is a frost-resistant subbase, and its construction guide recommends drain pipe under vehicle areas on clay or slow-draining soils. We do not install drainage, and where standing water is behind a problem, a reset by itself is not the cure.

Much of the housing sits by water: deep riverfront lots east of M-⁠29 along the St. Clair River, many of them former cottages now lived in year-round, and canal-front plats on Kraft Haven Canal and Baker Canal. On those lots, old joint sand, weeds and rinse water from a repair stay out of the water. Inland, FEMA maps an extensive floodway along the Belle River.