| Pave Stone Installation |
Paving Stone InstallationPaving stone installation may seem like a simple concept, which is why many home owners attempt the installations themselves, most are unsuccessful.... I guess it depends on the expectations of how it will not only look, but hold up against time. Here's a kind of funny story, and a completely true, unexaggerated one to boot. The short version is; we had a customer call in about a year and a half ago and wanted a paving stone estimate as soon as possible. He seemed very eager to expedite the process, so I went out to his house that afternoon. It was in a condominium complex that had front patio's (approximately 10' x 20'). This may have just been some bad luck, but installing pavers is not only an art, but it is extremely laborious. A proper paving stone installation in southern California requires a sub-base preparation of a minimum of 4 inches compacted Class II road base (or more depending on the native soil conditions) and an inch of washed masonry sand. That is only the sub-base. Residential pavers are 60mm thick - so you have a total excavation depth of 7.5 inches, minimum. An average 1,100 square foot paving stone installation would require removing 26 cubic yards of material, which would take about 4 dump trucks. You then would be importing 15 cubic yards of base and another 4 yards of sand. I don't know if you have ever shoveled dirt before, but without a bobcat or other machinery to grade out this material, doing it by hand would be a tall order for anyone assuming to do this as a weekend warrior project. Besides the physical demands of performing a paving stone installation, skill is also a factor. |
As soon as I walked up I was trying to figure out what was going on. There was no concrete or landscaping, just large mounds of dirt. I proceeded and knocked on the door and who answered but a young man with a shiny new leg cast and crutches. When I asked what he did to his leg, he simply pointed to the dirt mounds in his patio and said "this happened". He was doing the demolition on his patio, preparing to install pavers himself, and in the middle of it, he happen to slip and break his leg.
While it takes only modest skill to cut a stone or lay a basic herringbone or random "I" pattern, it takes a master mason to create a flight of paver steps or banding patterns swirling through a driveway, patio or walkway. This is where hiring a company like Panjia, Inc. makes sense. Like I said, your expectations on quality, longevity, and appearance will determine if you should hire a professional paving stone installation company, or take on the task yourself. One thing is for certain, there are many unqualified contractors (some licensed and some unlicensed) out there who will certainly quote you with a too good to be true price and it usually comes with a too bad to be true installation. Make sure that when you're comparing competitive bids, you thoroughly understand their installation process, what their warranty will cover and for how long.
