r/hardscape

I had an existing paver patio for about 6 years. We’re putting a large hot tub on it, so we hired a company to reinforce the patio to support the additional weight. The agreement was that they would remove the existing pavers, excavate deeper, reinforce the base to 12"+, then reinstall the same pavers and finish with polymeric sand. From what I can tell, they did a great job with the reinforcement itself. My issue is with how they put the pavers back. The original patio used three different sizes of pavers and, at first glance, looked somewhat random. However, all of the joint lines were straight and evenly spaced. While they were reinstalling the pavers, I noticed the lines weren't matching up and told them it didn't look right. At the time I couldn't explain exactly what was different about the original layout, but I specifically pointed out that the lines weren't straight. They told me they knew what they were doing, that this was a layout they use all the time, and that it would look great when finished, so they continued. Well...it's finished, and to me it doesn't look right. There are mismatched joints/lines all over the patio, some ending an inch or two away from another joint, and the overall layout looks sloppy once you actually look at it. There are also 4–5 pavers that are noticeably different in color and stand out from the rest. After comparing before-and-after photos, I finally figured out how the original patio was laid: every large and small rectangular paver ran in the same direction, while every medium paver ran perpendicular to them. That's what created the continuous straight lines throughout the patio. The job was finished today and we haven't paid yet. Am I being too picky, or is this something you would expect a professional paver company to correct? What would you say/do before paying?

Wondering if could get your help with this.

Does this pool coping look like it has acceptable lippage? Or should I ask the contractor redo some of this.

I’ve laid tile before and I’m wondering if this much lippage is acceptable with hardscaping/natural stone.

Maybe I’m just seeing it because of my tile experience. The low angle lighting is also probably contributing to the visibility of the unevenness cut to cut.

Let me know your thoughts or if I’m just nitpicking, don’t want to drive my hardscaping guy crazy if there’s no reason to and this is normal.

The material is royal cream marble if that helps.

I'm *slowly* reaching the end of one of the hardest projects I've done as a homeowner 😅

Still need to put in edge restraint (concrete), but I will be buying polymeric sand soon and can't decide if a tan or gray color would work better for the joints. These are cambridge pavers in what they call toffee/onyx lite color - so they are basically a blend between beige/tan and gray.

I'll be using 1" river rock as a decorative border (basically the same stone as can be seen in the top left corner of this photo).

Would love any opinions on what color joints sand you might use for pavers like this. The joints are pretty tight already, but I'd prefer something subtle that will blend in. Thanks!!

I’m tossing up between a **Spotted Gum deck or a concrete terrace** for this part of the backyard.

The area is about **4.5m x 7m** and slopes away from the house. Whatever I do will eventually have an awning over it.

The existing covered alfresco is already Spotted Gum, so a new deck would tie straight into that and I definitely prefer the look of timber.

On the other hand, concrete seems much better from a maintenance/practicality point of view and I’ll already have some concrete on the side of the house for the trailer/path areas.

The rest of the backyard will stay mostly lawn and garden, so I’m also wondering whether a big concrete terrace would make the whole thing feel a bit too hard.

For anyone who has done something similar, what would you choose here?

Main things I’m weighing up are **cost, maintenance, drainage/cracking, heat under the awning and whether matching the existing Spotted Gum is worth sticking with decking**.

Photos/sketch and AI mock-up attached. Hoping to spend approx $20k

Way harder than I thought. The concrete slap was 8” thick with multiple amounts of rebar and wire mesh throughout.

Concrete was pitched towards the home and causing water leaks when it rained.

Decided to remove the entire porch and replace. Perfect no for a home owner, I thinks it’s okay. Just need to add polymeric sand and concrete the rest of the base in.

I had a patio installed 2 years ago, 2 pavers were recently replaced because they had cracked. The color variation is extremely noticeable to me.

I’m assuming there isn’t a way to fix but is this much discoloration normal? I really wanted a light gray paver and now I feel they’ve turned beige which is the number 1 thing I said I did not want. A bit disappointed but not sure how reasonable I’m being.

We tried Gator Shampoo. We have not tried Rust Remover but this seems to be way too widespread to be a thing layer of all over rust. I don’t know much about hardscaping and have never owned a home before so I genuinely have no idea.

First two pictures are now and last picture is from when we first installed.

NDS channel drain sitting on fabric, paver base, leveling sand.

Considering Sikaflex self-leveling sealant, and just really trying to avoid concrete.

Thanks for any feedback!

I’m in South Jersey and getting a 17’ x 30’ patio installed, approximately 510 sq. ft.
The contractor quoted me $10,000 for the job. The plan is to pour a 4-inch concrete slab and install the pavers over it.
The material quote is about $4,500 (photo attached), including the porcelain pavers and other materials. I’m also attaching a picture/rendering showing the design and layout we’re going for.
The $10k price works out to roughly $19.60/sq. ft.
Does this sound like a good/fair price for South Jersey considering the concrete slab and paver installation?
Anything specific I should make sure is included in the contract — drainage/slope, reinforcement in the concrete, control joints, paver installation method, edge details, etc.?
First time having a patio installed, so I’d appreciate opinions from anyone familiar with this type of work.

Have a rock bed made of 2-3 in rocks that get displaced a lot when the dogs inadvertently run over it. Anything we can do to make it more stable / compacted and show less of the fabric bed underneath?

I’m assuming rock glue wouldn’t be that helpful here.

Just showing off. 2 guys, 5ish days.

Edit: I’m just trying to show off my/our work. I’m not trying to talk money. I really don’t involve myself in that part of work. Thanks.

Grout in the front walkway has less and less every time it rains. It’s probably 30 years old I would guess. I would imagine materials have become stronger since then. What’s the best way to come about repairing this so that it lasts?

Have a rock bed made of 2-3 in rocks that get displaced a lot when the dogs inadvertently run over it. Anything we can do to make it more stable / compacted and show less of the fabric bed underneath?

I’m assuming rock glue wouldn’t be that helpful here.

I had pavers professionally installed in my backyard and I have caught multiple areas where the height of the pavers are uneven. I don’t know what the general tolerance for this is but I feel if I can trip my foot while walking, it’s an issue. Also noticed inconsistent filling between pavers. Any advice on the quality of the job would be greatly appreciated

We need design help! We have an 800 ft.² unfinished area of our backyard that we need to pave in order to put a pergola. Instead of demoing all of our existing aggregate concrete to match the new hardscape we would like to add pavers to continue it. We are having the hardest time deciding on Hardscape material that would complement the existing aggregate concrete. For anyone who has done this before could you please post example photos or recommend a paver material + edging? 🙏

We have had a patio installed by a company 2 years ago. Using Techo Bloc pavers. They did not create a border, and did not seal it. We didn’t know better then. We’ve had massive mud problems. We are finally having someone install a border for us to minimize the mud issue and will seal as well. However, after pressure cleaning, I’m noticing we are not back to the original color of the pavers. For reference there are two in the middle that have been recently replaced due to a crack so they are only 2 months old relative to the rest so it makes the color inconsistency obvious. Any advice on products or methods to get rid of this reddish / brownish cast?

Second picture is a screenshot of the patio on the day it was installed.

I hired someone to install new coping and pavers around my pool. There are some variations in spacing and the coping seems to stick out a bit more in certain places. Is this standard, am I being picky?

Having a retaining wall installed which in some areas its pretty high so wanted to install a 3’ high fence on top and railings on the stairs. Can I go directly into the paver caps around the retaining wall and for step rails? something tells me this wont be very sturdy. The inside of the retaining wall will be mostly pavers and some crushed stone.

Thank you

We built a pond using a metal cattle trough and then added stone around it. Initially we were thinking we could grout the top to fill in the gaps. We prepared the grout this morning and it was extremely thin with a fraction of the water that the package said to use. I’m wondering if anyone has any advice on the best method to fill the gaps in the stone around the top. TIA!