Pave Stone Repairs

It's unfortunate, but sometimes pave stones need repair. Panjia, Inc. offers paver rejuvenation and repair services for those who have a failed pave stone installation, or just want to cleanup and enhance the look of their seasoned pavers. Typically, these services are requested on older paver installations that either weren't installed correctly the first time or ended up having heavier (in weight) traffic than originally planned for. If you have ever driven through an intersection or shopping center that has pave stones installed, you will often see sunken areas or grungy looking pavers caked with gum, oil, grease or tire marks.  The first step in our assessment of what may have caused a sink spot is to look underneath the pavers. 99% of the time, the issue is related to either base failure or inadequate base material and compaction. Base failure or contamination occurs when the road base has been installed over native soil that was not properly compacted or has high clay content and was not separated by a geotextile fabric. Many areas in San Diego and southern California have high clay contents in their native soils and these soil types when wet become very soft and squishy, allowing the larger aggregates in the road base to mash into and mix with the clay soils. Once the road base material mixes downward into the clay soils, everything above it, including the pavers, will follow course and will ultimately result in a sink spot. Another contributing factor is inadequate base material. This can either be a lack of base or a poor quality base.

Many of the pave stone repairs Panjia has been called to fix are solely because of a lack of base. Time and time again, we meet home owners who contracted with a paver installer because they saved "30%" AND got "free demolition". While these are marketing illusions (demolition is typically 25% of the total project cost, add an additional 30% off of that and the contractor would literally be paying out of his pocket to do your job, unless of course the price was inflated to begin with). These contractors are typically selling the job at a price that does not budget for a proper pave stone installation. So don't be fooled when someone says ‘you don't need 4 inches of base for a walkway, it's a waste of money'. True, walkways are for pedestrian use only and the pavers aren't expected to support heavy loads, but there are other reasons why the ICPI (Interlocking Concrete Paver Institute) recommend a minimum depth of 4 inche no matter if it's a walkway or a driveway. Expansive soils can play a role in walkway pavers being disrupted. Again we go back to the clay soils and how they expand and retract when wet or dry. Removing as much of that clay and replacing it with a sturdy aggregate base is the only way to ensure a long lasting pave stone installation.

Panjia specializes in pave stone rejuvenation, which is a fancy phrase for cleaning up your pavers. For all those shopping centers, building complexes, apartments and areas getting pounded by daily traffic, it is something to consider. A basic pave stone cleaning will consist of a hot water pressure wash, a replenishment of bag dried joint sand and two coats of color enhancing, joint stabilizing paver sealer. The more frequently you wash and attend to your pavers the less you will have to put into cleaning them up later. Many times, issues such as sink spots are not addressed quickly and the pave stones in the sink area do not have the proper load distribution capabilities, putting uneven lateral pressure and eventually degrading, chipping or cracking the pavers. Once you have cracked pavers that need replacing, you will be replacing them with newly manufactured stones with a different, brighter color than the original faded stone. This certainly can be unsightly and will make you think twice about not maintaining your pave stones in the future.