Brick Pavers Edge Restraint Replacement: Common Paver Repair

Cement Bead versus Plastic Edge Restraint for Brick Pavers

One of the most common brick paver repairs that we perform each week is the resetting or replacement of plastic or aluminum brick pavers edge restraints.  About 12 years ago, brick paver manufacturers and suppliers were touting the use of plastic edge restraints for paver borders. This was a new specification to replace the old tried & true cement bead edge restraint that was widely used on pavers patios, walkways, driveways, etc.. .

About this time I had built a new home in Ann Arbor with a paver driveway, walkways, and multi level patios and I used all plastic edge restraints for my paver borders.  Within 3 years, I completely removed ALL plastic edge restraints and replaced with cement bead.

The plastic edge restraint was properly installed per manufacturer's specifications, but winter frost in Michigan had eventually heaved this edge restraint above the height of the paving stones. This caused an unsightly appearance and was damming water back and from flowing off the brick pavers. Also, I had to pound down  most of the spikes that had raised after the thaw each Spring.  This appearance is much like black landscape edging you see raised above the grass and flops around and gets cut by lawnmowers. It becomes unsightly and nonfunctional.

When properly installed by a brick paver contractor, the cement bead wedge method of a brick pavers edge restraint will perform admirably. See the guidelines below to insure edge restraint success:

• The cement bead needs to be installed on top of the paver base material so it is crucial to remove the 1" bedding course outside of the paving stones. Remember this is why you prep for your pavers patios, walkways, driveways, etc.. a minimum of 4" outside the finished paver edges. This will insure the cement bead wedge grabs below the bottom of the paving stone and has the same drainage below as the brick pavers.

• The cement bead wedge needs to be @4" wide and come withing 1-1.5" of the top of the paving stones.  This allows enough room to cover the cement bead with sod, mulch, or stone mulch.  

• Properly trowel a good consistent and quality mix of concrete. Your concrete bead should not be runny and have a mud consistency.  Trowel your cement bead wedge with a 4" spatula and make smooth.

•  Install your cement bead wedge prior to final plate compactor compaction. This will allow for final adhesion to outside paving stones &  paver joints.

• Finish covering your cement bead with surrounding landscaping (i.e. sod, mulch, or stone mulch).  Preventing erosion around borders is crucial for all paver edge restraints.

I am not claiming that the cement bead method is the perfect brick pavers edge restraint solution. From my experience, it is the better of the 2 most popular and frequently used brick paver edge restraints. Does it crack? sure, but the cracks should not be visible if properly installed and covered. If an area fails, it can be easily removed & replaced. Landscaping is your ultimate paver edge restraint and the cement bead keeps your outside paving stones wedged in and help prevent creeping out of your brick pavers.

After 12 years since the introduction of plastic and aluminum brick paver edge restraints, I have concluded that the cement bead is the better performing of the 2 methods based on appearance, repair & replacement.

Last Reminder for Winterizing your Brick Pavers

Tips to avoid unnecessary Paver Repair from Winter damage

In Ann Arbor, the winter season will be in full force this coming month. I have listed some tips for winterizing your brick paver patio, walkway, driveway, paver porch, etc.. in some earlier posts about paver maintenance requirements for winter.

These simple winter paver maintenance tips will help insure the long term success of your interlocking brick pavers installation. Below are some reminders of additional brick pavers winterizing tips to keep your pavers patio, walkway, driveway, or paver porch in excellent condition through the effects of winter frost and freeze thaw cycles.

• Remove all heavy items from your pavers, such as, portable fire pits, table umbrella bases, flower pots, and wood piles. You can place these items in your landscape beds or lay on sheets of plywood.
• Deter water flow of any kind from your pavers by redirecting gutters with temporary pipes, cleaning out gutters from leaves to avoid water or ice overflow, and lay plywood down wear dripping onto pavers occurs ( from decks, overhangs, or steps). If possible, disconnect any pipes that run under brick pavers from the end of gutters and let water & ice flow into landscape bed for the winter.
• Do not permanently park boats, trailers, or cars throughout the winter on your paver driveway. If you have no choice, place 2ft X 2ft plywood sheets under each tire.
• Remove all leaves & debris from your pavers to reduce any staining. While removing this debris, it would be a good time to touch up on sweeping in any paver joint sand for your paver joints.
• Do not remove snow off your pavers patio or backyard walkway if you are not using during the winter months.  The compacted snow will insulate the paving stones and keep them frozen during the winter and reduce the effects of freeze thaw cycles. Obviously, you will need to keep your paver driveway and front paver walk and brick porch free of snow & ice.  Always use calcium chloride de-icing pellets instead of rock salt to reduce any damage to the paver surface or landscape plants.

Finally, do not let any visible brick paver repair, settling, or loose pavers go into the winter months without attention.  Many clients that I give bids to this time of year decide to wait until Spring. This is usually a big mistake since the areas of despair will usually get bigger and more costly to repair. These simple tips that you can do yourself will help you avoid preventable paver repairs in the future.

Brick Paver Patio and Steps Restored in Saline

Brick Pavers allow for reinstallation at a minimal cost

In Saline, MI this past week, we restored the original beauty & function of a brick paver patio and paver steps.  After 5 years, this pavers patio needed immediate attention that the customer could not provide.  The original landscape contractor did not provide after market services and the homeowner was at a lost.

This existing brick paver patio was pitching back to the house and the homeowner was experiencing water in the basement.  The brick paver steps were beginning to loosen, settle, and becoming unsafe for foot traffic.  The grass had grown over the outside row of paving stones and the plastic edge restraint had lifted. Both of these conditions was creating a dam for water to flow off the patio, therefore resulting in water stains and moss growth.

The fact that most of this paver patio was pitching back to the house at a consistent level lead me to some possible conclusions.  The original landscape contractor either did not properly screed the pitch out into the yard, or the compaction of the paver base material was not properly executed.  Inexperience brick paver contractors try to "eye ball" the pitch and usually are blurred.  If they lack the proper tools & techniques to install interlocking paving stones, the result will be the same as the status of this brick paver patio.

We approached this brick paver repair and restoration with a complete re-installation of the paving stone patio.   Due to the severe pitch back to the home foundation, it was necessary to completely reinstall the patio.  A "band aid" approach was not feasible since 90% of the patio was below the grade level of the yard. 

 We lifted up all the paving stones, cleaned them off, recompacted the existing base, added additional paver base material, and screeded the bedding course.  While using a builders level (transit), we screeded the paver patio with a 2" slope or pitch away from the house into the yard. We then relaid the brick patio with a similar shape, size, and pattern.  Additional paving stones were needed to complete the cut pieces since most will not fit back in or be usable.

While compacting the newly installed paving stones and finishing with a paver joint sand sweeping, we addressed the brick paver steps that had deteriorated.  The bottom 2 curved paver steps were fine and only needed the block caps re-adhered.  There were some excessive gaps in some of the saw cut caps so we recut in some new caps to close these gaps.

The top landing curved step needed to be completely torn down and rebuilt.  The existing paver landing step had sunk and was tilted forward.  The inset lay of paving stones were below the height of the caps and loose.  We totally reconstructed by removing the caps & blocks, recompacting the the paver base material inside, and reinstalling the blocks, caps, and paving stones.

The homeowner had this brick paver patio & steps installed as a "landscape package" deal  5 years ago. Unfortunately, due to the poor installation by their landscape contractor, this paver patio needed to be unnecessarily repaired and restored.  The contractor did not educate the homeowner on the necessary paver maintenance requirements or signs of distress. To make matters worse, the origingal contractor was not interested in servicing this paver patio. 

This brick paver patio and step repair service was an unexpected cost for the homeowner but was minimized by low materials cost since we were able to reuse 95% of the current products. They indicated that our price was about 1/3rd of the original cost charged by the landscape contractor. Though they may have made a bad choice of selecting a brick paver contractor, they made a great choice of choosing interlocking pavers & paver block steps for their outdoor patio.

History of Brick Paver Raised Patio in Canton: 15 Years Later

Pavers in Canton need Repair, Sanding, & Cleaning

This past week we did a much needed repair of a brick paver raised patio in Canton, Michigan. This raised paver patio was installed 15 years ago during the roaring mid 90's.  Canton was a thriving suburban city that was growing at lightning speed during the 90's.  As new home construction soared, this city was encountering the huge benefits of brick paver patios, walkways, driveways, and modular retaining walls. For me this week, it was a time flashback to the incredible pace that was set installing interlocking paver patios.

But the fast pace of home building and landscaping installations created some inherit problems that are present today.  Now that I am inspecting, repairing, and restoring many brick paver installations in Canton, I have molded some conclusions. 15 Years later and my unprecedented  experience with raised paver patios has formed my opinions below about the reasons for the numerous paver repairs & restorations in Canton.

REASONS FOR PAVER REPAIRS in Canton:

• Pace of New Home Construction:  As the home building during the 90's in Canton, Michigan was feverish, so was the installation of paver patios, retaining walls, and landscaping.  Backfill around the basement foundation of a new home needs time to settle. It is best to wait one freeze thaw cycle in Michigan to allow this natural process to occur.  Canton has an added problem because of the abundance of clay soils. When the builders backfilled with the excavated clay soils, this create open spaces throughout the 5-8ft of backfill along the basement walls therefore insuring years of settling.

• Pace of Landscape Installations:  Like many new communities today, there was strict Homeowner Association Rules or Policies which required a new homeowner to have a completed landscape installation within 90 days of closing on their new home.  Though it was beneficial for my business of installing brick pavers, I was not in favor of this policy. This policy did not only allow for the proper settling of the backfill around new homes, but it forced customers to make fast and uneducated decisions on the contractors and landscape products to use. It was a breeding ground for "fly-by-night" brick paver and landscape contractors.  Many where stealing jobs with low pricing, inferior products, and ridiculous 5 to 10yr warranties.  Most of these landscape contractors where out of business within 2 years. 

•  Poor choice of Brick Paver Installers:  During this fast paced time, there was a transformation from homeowners using brick paver specialist to install their paver patios, walkways, porches, and driveways.  Landscapers where now becoming brick paver installers without the experience, education & training, or expertise to execute a quality product. Landscapers offered "landscape packages" that included raised paver patios. Most had never installed one before, but that did not stop them from taking advantage of uninformed new homeowners.  They pressured new homeowners with "if we do not install the brick pavers, we can not guarantee any completion time of the other landscape services (sprinklers,sod, & plants)". Due to the aforementioned Homeowners Assoc. policies, this put added stress and poor decision making on the new homeowners. This tactic worked more times than not, and it amazed me how homeowners, who had all the leverage ($$$), would get bullied by this unethical business practice. 

• Homeowner Do-It-Yourself Paver Installations:  If you inherited a brick paver raised patio that is in distress, do not assume it was installed by a landscaper or qualified brick paver contractor.  During the 90's, there was a huge market for do-it-yourself homeowners installing brick paver patios and walkways. In Canton, most customer's were on a tight budget. So instead of waiting to have a properly installed paver patio installation, they saved some money by installing their patio themselves. Even more than landscapers, homeowners lacked the experience & expertise to execute a quality paver installation. To this day, I rarely see a good brick paver installation by a homeowner.  When it is flat work (ground level) there is some success, but when it comes to modular raised patio walls and steps, there is alot of failure in design and execution.

• Lack of Educating the Homeowner:   When I am performing brick paver repairs in Canton, I am amazed how homeowners are not aware they need to periodically sweep joint sand in  their paver patios, walkways, porches, etc... Some homeowners have not swept in paver joint sand for over 10years!  This is the #1 basic paver maintenance service that is needed each year.  As a brick paver specialist, I spent at least a half hour after we installed a paver installation educating the homeowner on periodic maintenance requirements, landscaping needs, signs of possible repairs, and options for cleaning & sealing paving stones. These neophyte brick paver installing landscapers would tell homeowners that their brick pavers were "no maintenance" and nothing needed to be done over time.  Pavers are a low maintenance option but do require attention to avoid costly paver and retaining wall repair.

•  Lack of Proper Landscaping around Brick Pavers:  Nothing infuriated me more than returning to an installed paver patio weeks or months later, and proper landscaping around the installation was not performed.  It is essential for pavers to have proper landscaping around the edges to insure long term success. Erosion and washout will cause irreparable damage to a paver installation. This will result in unnecessary costly paver repairs. The most important landscape need for a raised paver patio is to cover up about half of the bottom block face with landscape soil, sod, or mulch.  Also, it is important for the installing brick paver contractor to bury atleast half a block below grade if already existing.  If the retaining wall blocks shift due to washout or flush out, your raised paver patio has been compromised and you will experience future repairs.  A good brick paver contractor will temporarily cover all edges with on-site soils, customer tarps, or fabric until the homeowner can properly landscape.

• Poor Design & Execution of Paver Installations: Due to their inexperience and lack of knowledge, landscapers in Canton installed inferior and unstable paver installations. One large landscaper in Canton used garden blocks as the raised brick paver patio walls.  Because these garden blocks are designed for small landscape walls , they can not bear the weight and hydro-static pressure of raised paver patios.  These same "wanna-be" brick paver contractors failed in execution because of the lack of properly cutting pavers, blocks, & caps with diamond blade saws. Most of these landscape contractors would leave gaps that not only left an inferior aesthetic look but also promoted erosion and washout.

• Homeowner Neglect of Pavers :  I want to say that the occurrence of paver patio repairs is not just the result of a poor paver installation by a contractor.  Even the best raised paver patio installation can fail due the drastic effects of the elements and more importantly homeowner neglect. Homeowners are required to keep the paver joints filled with the proper joint sand, especially the joint on the inside of the wall cap. Homeowners are required to make sure that any signs of erosion, washout, or settling are addressed.  When caught early on, homeowners can perform this repair service, or pay an experienced paver contractor a nominal fee.  Letting your brick paver patio, walkway, driveway, or porch fill up with dirt, grass, weeds, moss, and loose bricks, blocks, & caps, is unnecessary neglect. This will contribute to an accelerated deterioration of your paver project.

Canton, Michigan is a perfect microcosm of the success and failure of interlocking brick pavers and modular retaining wall systems in the Midweat. I listed above the variables that I believe have contributed to the avoidable failures that have occurred over the last 15 years or more. The information gathered and the observance of the 1000's of raised paver patios in Canton has guided me and my crew to better paver design & installation techniques.

Daily we are performing paver patio repairs, observing and studying the reasons for failure so we can educate homeowners and contractors alike with articles like this. Brick pavers and modular retaining walls are proven pavement and wall systems that have tremendous benefits if properly designed, installed, and maintained.

 Raised paver patios that are properly installed or repaired will give endless years of beauty and performance.  Multi-level patios with structurally sound steps, firepits, sitting walls & pillars, will create functional and aesthetically pleasing outdoor living spaces. If your paver patio is in distress, all is not lost, it can be restored and enjoyed again.