Paver Driveways in Arizona: Everything You Need to Know

So, in Arizona, we do a lot of concrete paver driveways versus concrete driveways. The reason we do that a lot of times is because people like the look of them, but they also perform better. You'll be able to put in a paver driveway and it'll last 30 years. Pavers, we can get a lot of different colors, styles, so you'll get great options on how you want it to look, but again, remember it work and it'll perform very well. In the video, we're going to show you everything you ever wanted to know about pavers. So, one of the first things people ask me is how much does it cost to do a driveway? And I hate to give you the answer it depends, but it depends. We can do cost anywhere from 10,000 to 50,000 dollars depending upon your size of driveway and what you want. So, some of those cost factors, one obviously is size of the driveway. The we do driveways that are very small, 5-600 square feet all the way up to 10-12,000 square feet. So, your cost will vary there. The other thing is what's there at the moment? Is it an old concrete driveway that's broken up and we have to remove it? That can be a big cost issue as well. Is the access to the driveway good? Is it on a hill? Is it flat? Are the borders curved? Are they straight? Do you want to do different colors for the border? Do you want to do different textures for the border? So, there's a lot of things that we take into account when we go look at the driveway. So, I get the question, what is good, better, best when it comes to paver driveways? Well, good is just putting in any paver driveway. It can be a straight driveway, simple colors, straight pattern. You know, better you might want to put in some different colors on your border. You might want to do some different textures. Best, you might have curves, you might have bands going across the driveway, you might have patterns that are built in there. So, there's a lot of things we can do to make the driveway pop. So, when we go to do a driveway, one of the first things we probably have to do is grade it or excavate it. So, what's involved there is that we take the concrete down or the dirt down 7 in from top of finished grade. In Arizona, we typically put in 4 in of ABC, 1 in of concrete sand, and then the paver, giving you 7 to 8 in when when we're finished. Once we get the ABC in there, we compact it. We got it real tight, then we get the sand in, and we lay the pavers. None of what we do is rocket science, but we've got to follow simple things like grade, and so the water drains and everything works that way. We put the pavers on top, we put in our edge restraints on the side, that holds everything together, and then we compact the pavers and sweep the sand into the joints. And basically, that's how the process works, no matter what the type of paver you use. Just so you know, when we do these jobs, especially the first day we start off, it's going to be a mess. We're going to be pulling things up, we're going to find things you never thought were there. If there's a pipe sitting underneath that driveway, we're probably going to break it. Wires may get may get disturbed. So, anything bad that can happen is usually the first day. Once we get it all out, we can address all those issues. We might have to put new PVC pipe in. We might have to reattach different wires. But, that's all easy to do once we get everything out and we set the correct grade. So, when you're looking at a driveway, what are the things you want to think of? Uh color is a big thing. What color do you want? Uh I always tell people, as long as it's not blue, it really isn't going to be as important as you think it's going to be. The way it lays out, the curves that you put in there, the different pattern, whether it's a straight pattern, a running bond, or a uh random pattern, those things over time is is what you'll see more so than the color. Again, as long as it's not blue. Okay? But, when you have those options, then you might look and you say, "Well, what's the texture? Do I have a texture on top? Do I go smooth on top? Do I have a tumbled paver? Do I have a standard paver?" All of these, they'll perform the exact same way, but just aesthetically they're a little bit different. And that's up to you. It's you're going to live in the house, so you get to decide what the color is, what the texture is. We just help with that decision. I'll also get asked a lot of times, "What's the process when it comes to time? You know, if we sign today with you and say, 'Yeah, let's do this.' How long is it going to take?" Well, we call for what's called a blue stake. A blue stake covers all the utilities. They come out and they mark the utilities to tell us what's underneath there. Typically, that's about 3 days. If the material is in stock, then we have it. If it's not, it's usually 2 to 3 weeks that we can get that. But, once the process actually starts, the first day or two max is when you're doing your excavation. And once that's out, then we can start putting things back in. And that's when it becomes fun. So, we do that, we put it back in, and it'll vary. It can go anywhere from, you know, 3 4 days up to 3 4 weeks. It just depends on the size and the different complexity of what we're doing. But, the great thing is when we're finished, as soon as we pull away, you can drive in there. You don't have to wait for things to cure. It's all ready for you to start. When it comes to warranty, there's a lot of different warranties that are given by different manufacturers. They're not all the same. But, most of the time you'll get a minimum of 2 years from a a manufacturing warranty point of view. We'll give you a 10-year labor warranty. And that actually we're able to do that because we've been in business 26 years. So, we're not just making numbers up. We can give you 10 years comfortably, even though the registrar contract is here in Arizona only says you have to do a 2-year warranty. And where that's important is that a lot of people are doing things incorrectly. For instance, instead of using ABC and sand, they're using quarter minus or DG. That will fail at some stage. It's the incorrect product to be using, but they use it. We will never use that, and that's why we're able to say, "Yeah, 10 years, no problem. We'll cover that for you." When it comes to maintenance on your driveway, some people ask, "Should we seal the driveway?" And to be honest, we seal probably 5% of what we do on driveways. Uh some people like it because it gives you a wet look. I would not do a wet look in Arizona. I think it burns off, and it creates an issue and a a maintenance issue. If you're going to do a sealer, you can do a sand stabilizing sealer, which will harden the sand in the joints. And that'll last. It'll You won't see the sealer, but it'll perform for years. Other maintenance issues is if you're washing it off, you might wash the sand out of the joints. Just don't wash it directly into the joints. Okay? The sand that goes down there and holds the pavers together is underneath, but you can wash out the sand on top, and that becomes an aesthetic thing. Other than that, you should be able to walk around in your pavers and have no issues whatsoever. So, if you decided that this video is helpful and you want to go to the next step, I would encourage you to go to our estimating tool that's online there. Put in some information, some basic square footage, the type of project you have, and it'll give you a proposal. Take a look at that. Give us a call if you want to discuss it. Or if you want to come down to the office, we can show you different materials here, and we can take it from there.