Sunken, Heaved or Loose Pavers, Fixed From the Base Up

We don't publish a price for paver repair, because two repairs rarely involve the same work. The estimate depends on how many pavers come up, what the base needs, how much joint sand has to be cleared and replaced, and how many feet of edge or restraint need resetting. Send photos with your estimate request (a wide shot of the area and close-ups of the problem spots) or have us look in person, and you get a written estimate within 24 hours. Brick paver restoration, the clean, re-sand and seal package, is priced on its own page.

Yes. One sunken spot by the steps, a single cracked paver or a short run of loose edge can be repaired on its own. The pavers around the patch are compacted along with it, so the repair ties back into the field. If the joints across the rest of the surface are low, re-sanding them can be added to the same estimate.

Not exactly, and we won't promise that they will. Traffic and weather wear the surface of pavers in service and shift their color, so a new paver from the same product line looks different from ones that have been outside for years. Even spares saved from the original install look different from the weathered ones, and some colors are discontinued. When we relevel, we reset your original pavers wherever they come up whole. When several pavers need replacing, spreading the new ones out instead of grouping them helps them blend in.

Only if you want the sealed look. Sealer doesn't hold pavers in place or fix a failed base, so repairs and re-sanding always come first. The joint sand's label then sets how long to wait before sealing, from a day or two to several weeks depending on the product. After we seal, foot traffic stays off for 48 hours and vehicles for 72 hours, longer if the label or cold, damp weather calls for it. Sealing is part of our brick paver restoration package.

A dip where you park or where water collects usually means the base or the soil under it settled, often because it wasn't compacted well when it was built. A base that stays wet, bedding sand laid too thick, or bedding that washed out from below can do the same, and a loose edge restraint lets the pavers spread so the edge rows tip and settle. The repair starts the same way each time: lift the section, correct the base with compacted base material and reset the pavers on fresh bedding, repairing or replacing a failed restraint at the same time. If water from a downspout keeps washing the area out, we'll point that out, since drainage work is outside what we do.

Weeds in paver joints grow from windblown seed caught in the joint sand; they don't come up through the base. CMHA's maintenance guide lists weeds and ants in the joints as a problem that stabilized joint sand helps with. When we re-sand, the old sand comes out to at least 1½ inches and polymeric sand fills the full depth. We don't promise it keeps out every weed or ant.

Any time the ground isn't frozen, with re-sanding saved for dry days. Base work and releveling need thawed ground, and polymeric sand needs dry pavers and 48 hours above freezing, so late-fall re-sanding depends on the forecast. Pavers standing more than 1/8 inch above their neighbors are worth fixing before snow season, since shovels and plows catch raised edges. Heaved areas are best judged after the thaw, because frost-lifted ground can settle back as it thaws. A walk around the surface each spring, during or after a rain, and again in late summer shows what needs attention.

Not over old sand. Techniseal, Alliance Gator and SEK-Surebond all call for joints cleared to at least 1½ inches and filled to full depth. Techniseal and SEK-Surebond say never to mix polymeric sand with other sand, and Alliance Gator warns that polymeric sand laid over partly filled joints peels and flakes. CMHA's maintenance guide doesn't recommend polymeric sand for topping up; it tops up plain-sand joints with dry masonry sand once the sand drops more than 1/2 inch below the paver tops. So it's one material at full depth: plain sand topped up, or polymeric sand from the bottom of a cleared joint.