Paving stone can be one of the strongest, beautiful and most flexible pavement systems around. Instead of settling for poured concrete that can crack and shale even within the first year, paving stone is designed to withstand our freeze-that climate and provide a stunning look for decades.

What makes paving stone the number one option? Let’s explore a few of the reasons:

Appearance

In addition to being strong, let’s be honest – it just looks good! The variety of finishes, colours, shapes and sizes combined with an infinite number of laying patterns provides the most aesthetic value in your landscape.

Many of the latest paver styles come in a standard 3-piece pattern that can be accented with things like soldier course borders, accent bands, area rugs, insets, and more. All of these options can be used to create visual intrigue, richness, contrast, and break up sightlines.

Winter Durability

Small, high density units resist cracking and pitting from freeze-thaw cycles and salts. Properly installed compacted base provides a solid foundation to minimize movement, but also allows pavers to flex and return to form if movement does occur. The texture of most paving stones also creates a less slippery surface during the snowy and icy season.

Strength

Proper base construction for pavers takes a little work but will ensure decades of longevity. Base preparation for pavers typically involves excavating 8-12” of native soil and compacting low fines base back up to ensure a stable structure. Typical base preparation for poured concrete is nowhere near this depth or compacted to the same rate. That’s why you constantly see the base failing under concrete, causing cracking and failure.

Pair that with the fact that dry-cast concrete pavers have substantially better compressive strength than poured in place concrete (broomed, stamped, or exposed), and you’ll be giving yourself the best chance for success.  That compressive strength is one reason you won’t see pavers shale on the surface like poured concrete tends to do.

Low Maintenance

Stained or broken pavers can easily be replaced without patches and last for decades. If you do experience movement, pavers are much easier to lift and re-level than poured concrete. You don’t need to saw or jackhammer it apart to re-level.

Integral Colour

One upgrade to standard concrete is to add colour and stamp out a pattern that tries to mimic the look of pavers. This colour is often just a surface face colouring, not integral throughout the concrete. So, when it starts to shale or gets chipped, the result is not pretty.

With most pavers, the colour is integrally mixed throughout the stone, meaning that if one does happen to chip, the colour will remain the same.

Warranty

The Belgard pavers we carry come with a Lifetime Transferrable Warranty when installed to ICPI specifications. That’s putting the manufacturer’s full weight behind the quality of their product. That’s something that just does not happen with poured concrete. (Find full warranty details at www.Belgard.com/warranty)

Whether you’re looking to install your own pavers or want someone to install it for you, bring us your plans so we can get started on the process. We’ll walk you through all your design options, product takeoff and requirements, pricing, and installation best practices.