Paver Patios, Walkways & Driveways in Rhodesdale, MD

When You Need This

Most paver calls start with a back yard that does not get used. There is a door, a step down into the grass, and that is it. No place to set a table. No place to put chairs where they do not sink in. Half the year that strip behind the house stays wet, so the grass is thin and the dirt tracks inside.

A paver patio fixes that, and it does it with a hard surface that drains and does not look like a parking pad. Steve builds paver patios off the back of a house, walkways from the drive to the front door, garden paths through a yard, paver driveways and aprons, pool surrounds, steps and landings, and fire pit and seating areas.

The walkway calls are usually about safety. An old path that has heaved is a trip hazard, and it gets worse every winter. An apron at the top of a gravel drive is about the mess. Gravel works its way to the garage door and you shovel it back twice a year. Pool surrounds are about the surface being flat, even, and not slick under bare feet. Fire pit and seating areas are about having one spot in the yard that is finished, so the rest of it can stay yard.

People also call because a paver job someone else built has gone bad. It dips in the middle. A row along the edge has crept out and spread. There is grass growing in every joint. That is not a paver problem. That is a base problem, and it is the reason to read the next part before you hire anybody.

How Steve Does It

With pavers the base is the whole job. The stones on top are the part you look at, but they do not hold anything up. What holds the patio flat is the stone and the dirt under it. On the Eastern Shore that matters more than most places. The ground here is soft, it holds water, and the water table comes up close to the surface for months at a time. Lay pavers on a thin base over that and you get heaving, dips and weeds inside two seasons.

Steve is a dirt man first. He runs the excavator and the skid steer himself. The part that fails on most paver jobs is the part he does for a living, which is why he starts there and not with a pattern book.

First he digs it out, and he digs deeper than people expect. A patio comes out well below the finished height, because the finished height is pavers plus bedding sand plus a full stone base. Cutting the dig short is the cheapest way to make a job fail, so it does not get cut short.

If the subgrade is soft or holding water, geotextile fabric goes down on the dirt before any stone. The fabric keeps the mud from pumping up into the stone and keeps the stone from sinking down into the mud. Without it the base and the subgrade mix together over a few wet winters and you lose the base you paid for.

Then crushed stone goes in, in lifts, and each lift gets packed with a plate compactor before the next one goes on top. Lifts are the part people skip. Dumping the whole depth at once and running a compactor over the top only packs the top few inches. The rest stays loose and it settles later. He also sets the fall while he builds the base, so water runs away from the house and off the patio instead of sitting on it.

On top of the packed base goes a thin layer of bedding sand, screeded flat with a straight edge and rails so the depth is the same everywhere. The pavers get set on that sand, cut in at the edges and around anything they run into.

Edge restraint goes all the way around and gets pinned into the base with spikes. This is the second thing that fails on cheap jobs. Without a restraint, the outside rows have nothing holding them, so they spread, the joints open, and the spreading works its way in from the edge. Then polymeric sand gets swept into the joints, the field gets compacted, and the sand gets wetted so it sets up and locks the joints together.

For a paver driveway or an apron, everything gets heavier. The dig is deeper, the base is thicker, and the pavers are a thickness rated to be driven on. Trucks and trailers put loads on a drive that a patio never sees, and a base built for chairs will rut.

Pavers or Poured Concrete

Steve pours concrete too, so he has no reason to talk you out of either one.

Pavers flex. On ground that moves, that is a real advantage. Concrete is one solid piece, so when the ground under a corner moves, the slab cracks. Pavers have a joint every few inches, so small movement spreads out across all those joints instead of showing up as one crack. If a paver gets stained or chipped, or a utility line has to come through, that paver lifts out and a new one goes back in. You cannot patch a slab invisibly. You cut it out.

Poured concrete has its own case. It is usually less money per square foot, it is one clean surface with nothing to sweep sand into, and for a big shop pad or a long sidewalk it is the right answer. Read the concrete patios and sidewalks page and the concrete driveways page and compare them honestly against this one.

What It Costs in Rhodesdale

Square footage first, then how much dirt work is under it. A flat back yard with firm ground and easy access is the cheap version. The same size patio on a low wet spot needs a deeper dig, fabric, and more stone, and that stone is real money.

After that it is the details. How many cuts the pattern needs, since curves and angles mean cutting almost every stone along the edge. Steps and landings, which are slow work. Whether it is a patio base or a driveway base. Whether the excavator can reach the yard or everything has to come through a gate in the skid steer. How far the spoil dirt has to move and whether it can stay on your ground. Then travel to the site.

Estimates are free. Call 443-439-1019 any time, day or night, and you hear back the same day or the next one.

Common Questions

Why do paver patios sink or go wavy?
Almost always the base. If the stone under the pavers is thin, or it was never packed in lifts, or it was laid straight on soft wet dirt, the ground moves and the pavers follow it. Weeds in the joints are the same story. Fix the base and the top stays flat.

Pavers or poured concrete, which should I pick?
Pavers flex with ground that moves and a damaged one lifts out and gets replaced. Poured concrete is one clean surface and usually costs less per square foot. Steve does both, so tell him what the space is for and he will tell you which one fits your ground.

How deep does the base need to be?
Deeper than most people expect. A walkway needs less than a patio, and a paver driveway needs the most because trucks and trailers ride on it. Soft or wet subgrade needs more stone and fabric under it. Steve digs it after he sees what the dirt is doing.

Do pavers need sealing?
They do not have to be sealed. Sealing deepens the color and makes spills easier to clean, and it has to be redone every few years. The joint sand matters more than sealer. Sweeping in polymeric sand and topping it up when it thins keeps weeds and ants out.

Why Choose Marshy Hope

Steve Hackett owns the business and runs the machine. Fifteen years in the trade, six of them working for himself out of Rhodesdale. He carries a $1,000,000 general liability policy and will send the certificate to you or your builder before he starts. Estimates are free, and you hear back the same day or the next one. One crew handles it from dirt to concrete, so nothing gets dropped in the handoff.