Paver Patios & Walkways in Clark County, WA

A typical 400 to 600 square foot residential patio runs three to five working days once we start, assuming reasonable access and no weather delays. Larger builds with walls, steps or an outdoor kitchen run one to three weeks.

Pavers, in most Clark County yards. Our ground moves seasonally as it wets and dries, and a poured slab is one rigid piece that cracks when the ground under it shifts. A paver field is thousands of small pieces that flex with the ground and can be individually lifted and reset. Stamped concrete looks great and costs less up front, but it is far harder to repair.

A ground-level patio usually does not require a building permit, but jurisdictions in Clark County differ, and impervious surface limits, setbacks, easements and HOA rules can all apply. If your project touches any of those we will tell you during the walkthrough so you can confirm with your city or the county before we start.

Not from below, if the base is built right. What people see is windblown seed germinating in the top of the joint sand. Polymeric sand, kept topped up every few years, handles almost all of it.

Sometimes. If the slab is structurally sound, drains properly and the added height does not create a problem at doors or thresholds, an overlay can work and saves demolition cost. If the slab is already cracked or holding water, we take it out.

For a residential patio on decent ground we build on a compacted crushed rock base, typically in the six-inch range, placed and compacted in lifts rather than dumped and rolled once. On soft or poorly drained ground it goes deeper and gets a geotextile separation layer underneath. The base is the patio — the pavers are just the surface you look at.

Nearly always base failure, not paver failure. Either the base was too thin, it was compacted in one thick layer instead of lifts, or it was built over soft subgrade with no geotextile to stop the rock migrating down into it. Our wet season makes all three worse, because saturated ground under an under-built base moves.

A proper edge restraint pinned into the base around the perimeter. Without it the outer courses creep outward every time the patio is loaded, the joints open, and the sand washes out — which is why so many older patios have a ragged, gappy edge. It is a small part of the cost and the first thing we look at on a failing patio.

Far less than a poured slab does. We sit in zone 8b, where winter lows average about 15 to 20°F, so we get freeze-thaw cycles rather than deep sustained frost. A flexible paver surface over a free-draining base absorbs that movement across thousands of joints; one rigid slab has to crack somewhere to relieve it.

It is optional and it is a commitment rather than a one-off. Sealing deepens the colour and makes spills easier to lift, but it needs redoing every few years and a sealed surface can be slicker underfoot in the wet. Plenty of our patios are never sealed and look right a decade on.

Most of what grows here is surface algae and moss from seven months of damp shade, and it comes off with a stiff brush and a suitable cleaner. Go carefully with a pressure washer — too much pressure blasts the jointing sand straight out, which is what opens the door to weeds and ants the following year.

Yes, and it is one of the real advantages over concrete. A stained, chipped or oil-marked unit lifts out and a replacement drops into the same space. We generally leave you a small stock of spares from the same batch, because dye lots shift over the years and an exact match later is not guaranteed.

Yes, but it is a different build. Driveway work carries vehicle loads, so it needs a deeper compacted base, a thicker paver rated for traffic, and a laying pattern such as herringbone that interlocks under turning loads. A patio base under a driveway will rut where the wheels track.

Enough to move water off the surface and away from the house — a slight, consistent pitch you will not notice underfoot but which stops water standing after a downpour. Flat is not level in practice; a patio built dead flat holds sheets of water every November and grows moss along the low edge.

It can meet the house, but it has to sit well below the siding and any weep or vent line, and it has to pitch away. The failure we get called out to fix is a patio built up too high against a wall, which turns a nice sitting area into a route for water into the crawl space.

Often, though you should expect a visible difference. Pavers weather and dye lots change, so a ten-year-old surface will not match new stock exactly. Sometimes the better answer is a deliberate contrast — a different but complementary paver for the extension — rather than a near-match that reads as a mistake.

Any hard surface in a shaded, wet Pacific Northwest yard will pick up algae and moss over the winter. Texture is what matters: a lightly textured paver keeps grip far better than a smooth or heavily sealed surface. Where a patio sits under conifers on the north side of a house, we will say so up front and spec accordingly.

Yes, and it is much cheaper if we know now. Tying a wall or fire feature into an existing patio means cutting the field and building a footing under it. If you tell us at the walkthrough that it is a phase two, we set the base and the layout so the later work drops in cleanly.

Polymeric jointing sand, swept in and set. It locks the units together, keeps the surface stable and resists washout far better than plain sand, which our rainfall moves out of open joints surprisingly fast. It is not permanent — expect to top up joints once in the life of the patio.

The pavers themselves outlast most of the house. What determines whether the patio still looks right in twenty years is the base under it and the edge restraint around it — which is precisely why we spend the money below ground where you cannot see it rather than on a thicker paver.