Paver Repair & Re-Sanding in Washington Township

Drives, walks and patios here carry extensive stamped and decorative concrete. Where pavers are part of the mix, on the newer homes built on former orchard and farm ground or the rolling, wooded acreage toward Stony Creek Metropark, they meet that concrete as a border, a garage apron or a walk to the front door. Each of those meeting lines is a transition, and the Concrete Masonry and Hardscapes Association (CMHA) requires a restraint wherever paving ends and wherever one paving material gives way to another.

When a restraint lets go, the trouble sits in the outermost one to two feet of paving: joints wider than the rest, edge pavers tipping outward or settling, and sand escaping. CMHA's accepted restraints include precast concrete or cut-stone edging, plastic or aluminum edging made for pavers, and poured concrete curbs. Flat landscape edging from a flower bed is not one, and CMHA advises against timber because it warps and eventually rots. Spikes belong in compacted base, never in soil, and the base should extend beyond the restraint by at least the base's own thickness.

Slope is the next factor. The rolling hills between 26 Mile Rd and Romeo drain faster than southern Macomb's lake-plain clay, but CMHA advises stabilizing the joint sand wherever a paved slope tops 7 percent and wherever water concentrates, such as a downspout outlet or an eave drip line.

Where a paver apron carries cars, turning tires add one more distress: horizontal creep, a slow wave in the pattern. CMHA's repair is to lift the pavers and relay them in the original pattern. On well-drained soil, CMHA's minimum is 6 inches of compacted base under a driveway and 4 under a patio, more in cold climates, so a sinking apron gets its base checked first.