Paving Stones: Repair or Replace?

Paving stone is a popular landscape supply in Calgary. Most people use this durable, beautiful, and elegant material to build walkways, driveways, patios, and borders around grass and gardens. While paving stones are tough, they’re not entirely immune to wear and tear resulting from extreme weather conditions, drainage problems, and even trees’ roots. As such, paving stone structures need occasional repair, maintenance, and even replacement for your landscape to look fresh, functional, and beautiful.

Signs You Should Repair or Replace Your Paving Stones

For your paver landscape designs to last long, you should be looking for the following signs to determine if they need repair or replacement:

• Movement: If the paving stones move under traffic, it is a sign the base has weakened. When the stones were initially installed, they were interlocked to resist movement. But due to continuous traffic, they become loose and start to shift. Also, the earth underneath the paving stones is likely to shift over time, resulting in the movement of the stones. No matter what structure you’ve created with paving stones, an unsteady or shaky base can cause problems.
• Cracks: While paving stones are hard-wearing, they are not shatterproof. Over time, cracks would develop in some of the stones. Cracked stones can affect the overall aesthetic appearance of the structure in negative ways. And if a cracked stone is not repaired or replaced timely, it can cause the other nearby stones to crack as well. In most cases, repairing wouldn’t fully fix a cracked stone, so its best to replace it.
• Sinking: One of the problems with paving stones is that some regions of the unit may sink with time. There are many reasons why this might happen. In any case, the resulting bumpy surface will make your landscape appear poor and create safety risks. It is a good idea to repair the affected area by removing the pavers, fixing the base, and reinstalling the stones.

How to Repair Paving Stones

As you can see from the description above, most paving stone problems have to do with the base in most cases. For this reason, you have to begin by fixing the base when repairing paving stone units.

You might think that taking out the stone and putting in some soil is enough to resolve the issue. But the most effective and professional method to repair the paving stone is to remove most of the stones from the affected zone, even if you think some of them don’t require repair. Next, take out the sand or soil and see if there is a dense gravel foundation. If a gravel base is missing, you’ve found the main reason for your paving stone problems. You must create a solid gravel bed before reinstalling your paving stones.

The gravel base will increase the unit’s life expectancy by preventing possible destructions emanating from environmental and drainage factors. It will also hold the individual stones in place, preventing movements resulting from traffic and other reasons.

When to Replace Your Paving Stones?

Repairing your paving stones can help fix the problems with movement, cracks, and sinking of the stones; however, it cannot make old pavers look new and fresh. It is good to replace your paving stones if the structures have been there for many years, and you want to update them. Latest, contemporary paving stones can add a new aesthetic feel and freshness to your landscape.

Remember that paving stones have seen many innovations and improvements in design, colors, and quality over the past decade. It will cost you almost the same to repair your old pavers as it does to replace them. Moreover, repairing paving stones is a more time-consuming process than installing new ones.

Replacing your outdated paving stones with modern pavers can add more aesthetic and monetary value to your home. Get your landscape supplies, including new paving stones, from Ornamental Stone, a leading supplier of hardscapes in Calgary and the surrounding areas.

Act Now

If you think that your paving stones need repair or replacement, it’s time to act now. Delaying to repair the affected paver is likely to extend the issue to the nearby stones, triggering a chain reaction. As such, your landscape will look poorly designed and also cause safety hazards. You should consider replacing the stones with new, better ones where most of the paver structure is affected.

Contact Ornamental Stone to explore our landscape supplies in Calgary or visit our online store to immediately order landscaping supplies for your next project.