Paver Repair & Re-Sanding in Rochester

The Concrete Masonry & Hardscapes Association (CMHA), the paver industry's technical group, sorts cracks by what they say. A tight hairline crack with little opening generally does not affect how the surface performs, and it can stay. Open cracks, chips and spalls deserve a closer look, because CMHA notes that damage like that can indicate inadequate support underneath. One broken paver where something heavy landed is a simple swap. A band of cracked pavers along a shallow dip points to the base, and new pavers set on the same soft spot face the same strain.

Paint Creek and the Clinton River meet in town, and settling is common near the creek; the older concrete walks there show it, and pavers laid on the same ground can too. CMHA ties depressions to settled soil or base and to a base that stays saturated, and which one applies decides the repair. A missing paver belongs back in promptly, since the gap puts the pavers around it at risk of damage. A hole filled with mortar or asphalt is its own problem: CMHA counts a patch of a different material as a distress that weakens the paving, and the fix is to dig it out and set pavers.

Older pavers also raise the question of looks. Weather and foot traffic slowly wear a paver's face and shift its color, and some colors are no longer made, so a new paver reads as new beside weathered ones. If your walk is clay brick rather than concrete pavers, its joint sand locks the bricks together by friction and keeps their edges from meeting and chipping. Under the full canopy around Rochester Municipal Park and Dinosaur Hill, leaves and seed working into the joints also displace sand.