Sep 11, 2010

Paver Patio under Deck restored to original beauty!

Pavers Patio rejuvenated in Ann Arbor

Early this past week, we restored a brick paver patio in Ann Arbor that the past homeowner neglected and installed themselves.  The new homeowner was renovating the house and wanted to restore the current pavers patio to its original beauty and function.

The existing pavers patio had settled in several spots and the outside soldier course had creeped out and sunk.  The brick paver joints where full of dirt, moss, grass, and soot from water puddling areas.  This paving stone patio also pitched back towards the house and did not have any paver edge restraint.  The new homeowner was finishing their walk out basement and the pavers patio was a necessary part of their entertaining and enjoyment.

To save the customer some money, I suggested we reuse the current tumble pavers named Old World Vintage which is produced by Fendt in Michigan.  The homeowner wanted to expand the size of the pavers patio to accommodate a newly purchased hot tub.  We did inspect the current paver base material and found it to be sufficient for reinstalling. This also saved the customer a considerable cost.

We lifted up the current paving stones, power washed them off, excavated the additional areas to be paved, install the proper base material in the new areas, and recompacted the existing base.  We added additional base material to properly pitch the pavers patio out into the yard and away from the house.

Because the homeowner had increased the size of the existing pavers patio design, I suggested that we purchase some more Old World Vintage and use the new paving stones as the soldier course border for framing.  This paver design approach would give us enough square feet of paving stone to complete the pavers patio new dimensions and give the overall appearance some consistency.

We reinstalled the existing paving stones with the new pavers for the soldier course border and the end result was spectacular! The pavers patio was properly pitched out from the house to the yard and a cement bead edge restraint was installed.  The new paver soldier course border gave a fresh new look and texture that improved the overall appearance of this patio.

We finished off the project with paver joint sand after using the plate compactor to create lock up of the paving stones.  We left the homeowner an extra bag of paver joint sand for any future touch ups this Fall.  We instructed the customer to wait until next Spring to either seal their pavers patio or re-sweep in regular joint sand or polymeric sand.  

We spent about a half hour after the pavers patio was completed educating the homeowner on future brick paver maintenance requirements, sealing or polymeric sand options, and the landscape needs around the outside of the patio borders.  After receiving a hearty handshake and hug from the homeowners, we reminded them we enjoy outdoor parties and hot tubs too!