Paving The Way: Concrete Pavers

A growing trend in landscape architecture is cutting a path in hardscape installation that more contractors and consumers are choosing to explore. Interlocking concrete pavers are making quite an imprint in residential and commercial landscapes, and those seeking the benefits of this durable, versatile material are boosting paver popularity.

Low-maintenance and high-standard, pavers offer advantages that come with solid construction and open endless avenues for creativity in design. Beyond patios and driveways, pavers are becoming a preferred option in large-scale projects, from container ports to city streets.

PAVER PLUSSES. Like a patchwork quilt, pavers create a blanket of hardscape, each concrete slab compacted over a sturdy base with sand filling the joints. The slabs can be concrete or clay, and their shapes and sizes are as diverse as the projects they complete. Pavers can withstand extreme temperatures, bear excessive weight and allow for proper drainage, explained Bob Smart, president of YardSmart, Olmsted Falls, Ohio.

"They are popular because of their longevity and they can provide lifetime enjoyment because of the lack of possibility of cracking and shifting that you have with concrete slabs," he added. "And, when problems with pavers arise, they are easy to fix."

As easy as removing one piece of the "patchwork," which makes pavers convenient for projects where underground maintenance is an issue, like repairing a sewer underneath a city street. Individual paver units can be pulled up and easily replaced without leaving a spackled, messy finish that many asphalt surfaces wear after repair work is finished.

"The product is definitely a versatile one," Smart pointed out. "Pavers outperform anything else."

This is why contractors are beginning to use pavers for a variety of landscape needs, from residential walkways to municipal projects. Stephen Jones, president of Pave Tech, Prior Lake, Minn., said besides creating aesthetically pleasing accent areas, pavers are a growing market in the industrial sector as more contractors become aware of their sturdy construction.

"Large-dollar projects are happening with pavers in all hard-surface areas," he observed. "They look great, are slip-resistant, the construction is good and pavers are easy to add on to a project without making the project look hodge-podge."

Clearly, their uses are not limited to decorative patios and sidewalks, Jones added. Pavers are ideal for embankments in highway entrances as a way to eliminate unwanted plant growth, in container port areas where the surface must bear the pressure of excessive weight and in cities like New Orleans, where asphalt cannot survive the heat.

"And they allow for drainage," he pointed out. "The concrete patterns allow for drainage holes, so contractors can allow more water to percolate into the soil instead of having a huge amount of run-off."

These benefits along with others are why pavers grow in popularity every year with industry standards claiming paver volume doubles every four years, said Donna Deninno of Uni-Group U.S.A. Awareness has grown among consumers with the availability of pavers in do-it-yourself home centers, and contractors and nurseries are creating a visible market for pavers on a local level, she said.

"Most residential people would not be aware that you could use pavers for so many applications – they just simply look nice," Deninno said.

INSTALLATION IMPORTANCE. Pavers are an option that offers longevity, if they are installed properly. The benefits of these hardscapes, however, begin with the base. Just as they are flexible and easy to maintain, pavers can be no more advantageous than pouring concrete if the base is not prepared correctly, Smart stressed.

First, a contractor must consider the conditions of the ground. Pavers cannot be laid on frozen ground and excavated holes cannot fill with water, otherwise the base "just turns into soup," he explained.

Also, the installation process varies with climate, materials, design methods, soil conditions and traffic loads, and the pavers can be installed either manually or mechanically in rapid succession.

"Pavers are only as good as what is underneath, so installation is important," Deninno added.

This critical component begins with creating a subgrade by excavating unstable materials and compacting the soil – at least 95 percent proctor density for pedestrian and residential areas and 95 percent modified proctor density for heavy traffic areas, Uni-Group U.S.A. suggests.

After soil is compacted, an aggregate base is applied. Similar to the subgrade, the compaction of this base is the key to minimizing the settlement of the pavers that could occur later. The base should be compacted in 4- to 6-inch lifts. Then, a sand bedding can be layered in even thicknesses of 1 to 1½ inches. Mason sand is not used in this process, Uni-Group warned, and bedding sand shouldn’t be used to fill depressions in base material either, as both could negatively affect the pavement surface upon completion.

Finally, a joint sand fills the gaps between pavers. A fine, dry sand is recommended for this task. Pavers are then installed and compacted into the bedding sand with a plate compactor, sand is swept into the joints and the compaction process is repeated until all of the joints are filled.

Edge restraints are also critical, retaining pavers and sand and enabling the system to stay interlocked, Uni-Group added. Typically placed before installing the bedding layer and pavers, plastic edging, troweled concrete, precast concrete or cut stone are popular options.

"There is a push to get people to take courses and develop their installing knowledge because when people see a failure they see failure at the paver surface, but generally the failure is underneath," Deninno explained. "They blame what they can see."

Pitfalls of poor installation include weed growth in between joints, sinking pavers, cracking and even ants, who can interpret the sand-filled joints as "one big anthill," Jones described. Ideal soil for paver installation is sandy, gravel-like soil where moisture can pass through quickly, he added.

These variables and the importance of the installation method make proper training for contractors vital, said Todd Pugh, president of Todd’s Enviroscapes, Louisville, Ohio. He facilitates a paver seminar in Columbus, Ohio, and said attendance has mushroomed, doubling every year.

"There are so many adverse situations you can get into," he said. "Wet soil, no hard sub-base, poor drainage, what happens if settling occurs – there are all these factors that come into play. And when poor installation occurs, people get a bad taste of pavers and the market trend will slow down."

For now, however, the paver market is thriving, making this hardscape a popular option for reasons besides their practicality.

CREATIVE COVER. An undeniable fact is that clients are attracted to the design possibilities of pavers and their aesthetic appeal.

Quilting, tumbling, weaving and layering – sounds like the components of an intricate arts and crafts project. In reality, these terms are part of a vocabulary of design options that pavers boast. Units are available that let contractors work with a wide variety of colors, textures and patterns.

"Imagination is what defines the final look of pavers," quipped Joe Porter, president of Tip Top Tree and Landscaping Service, Miami, Fla.

And a little imagination has created projects like a basketball court constructed out of pavers with lines marked with tiles in contrasting colors, Pugh said. Deninno described a project where the customer had a Mercedes symbol positioned in front of his garage in his paver driveway. Flowers, patterns and soldier coursing are some of the more common effects customers use to personalize their paver hardscapes.

Different treatments are also popular on paver units. Some examples are tumbling, where the surface is scraped to produce a rough finish and an old-world, worn look or alternating different colored or textured tiles to create a woven appearance that is also popular with consumers, Deninno said.

Other potential applications include traffic markings that can be made permanent with pavers instead of paint on concrete and various textured pavers on streets that can distinguish areas where motorists should be alert or decrease their speed.

Pugh echoed these advantages, adding that besides notifying automobiles of various conditions, pavers can manipulate the movement of people.

"You can use pavers to tell people a lot of things indiscreetly," he said. "You can make people walk certain ways by the pattern you lay – circle patterns create a gathering space."

Pugh uses a combination of pavers and retaining walls to achieve a variety of landscape designs.

"Just like when you design a house and you want to create different steps and floors, we like to create the same things outside – different outdoor living spaces," he related.

The attractive qualities of pavers is part of the reason for their growing popularity, Jones added. Pavers spruce up drab landscapes and add spice to properties, both residential and commercial. And, as the use of this hardscape becomes more mainstream, people are becoming more experimental with design possibilities, Jones said.

"We’ve been involved in paver installation for a long time, and we remember when using different color borders was a wild and crazy thing to do," Jones said. "I think there is a lot more available to contractors today to allow them to really make pavers interesting. Also, the product lends itself to design flexibility. With concrete, there’s only so much a contractor can do."

ADDING IT UP. With the laundry list of benefits contractors and consumers find with pavers, one might be skeptical about the cost of these advantages. Indeed, pavers are more expensive than asphalt or concrete, but they are comparable to deck installation and provide value for the dollar, Smart said.

"Pavers are not necessarily more expensive than the alternatives if you compare the cost of the material and the length of installation time needed." he noted.

Pugh said he charges per square foot for paver installation, but the bulk of the price lies in labor and materials like base, sand and edging. The cost of the actual paver is only 12 to 15 percent of the installation cost, he said.

And clay pavers are generally more expensive than concrete pavers, he added, noting that their prices run roughly 25 percent higher than those of concrete, which is also more readily available and comes in a wider range of sizes. But clay pavers are appealing for their glossy finish, brighter, more vibrant colors and concrete pavers are advantageous because of their sturdy, heavy-duty construction and resistance to cracking.

However, no matter the type of paver, the value justifies the cost, Jones said.

"People are still looking for value – if you were to want the best of something, would you expect it to be less expensive than something else?" he asked. "I’ve known customers that had paver driveways and after they moved had to get paver driveways installed again at their new address."

Customers are willing to lay down the dollars for long-lasting landscapes, Jones said. And some are even seeking this value on their own, turning to do-it-yourself kits available in home centers. Sidewalks and patios can be weekend projects, he said, and homeowners are willing to make an investment on their home.

But, again, installation is key to paver life expectancy, and sloppy home projects can give the materials a bad name, Jones said.

"We see a great failure in distribution houses that don’t have the technical resources for people to go to and learn from, so they end up spreading sand, throwing down pavers and wondering why it looks like hell," Jones lamented.

Just as contractors need to consider crucial installation steps, customers must do the same. And contractors willing to invest time in training will see the financial benefits that pavers also offer.

"Contractors see that pavers can be a profit center and they’re adding it to their service mix," Pugh noted.

And the more familiar consumers become with the material, the more they demand pavers instead of alternatives. Those who work with the hardscapes are loyal users of the material, Jones added.

"People experience a good feeling when they step out of the house onto a paver," he described.