Imagine living at the end of an old-world style cobbled road. That taste of old London right outside your window.
Perhaps you crave a touch of Rome. Or Camelot. Or the milieu of a Bohemian street?
Pavers make all of these dreams possible. These simple and elegant building materials create durable and reliable textured ambiance for your home and surrounding areas.
They also cost less than you might expect. We’ll spend the next page explaining the elements of pavers driveway cost.
This will include key factors to look out for and ideas for getting everything you desire.
UNDERSTANDING A PAVERS DRIVEWAY COST
Decorative paving stones or ‘pavers’ create a rich texture and color addition to any home. While concrete or asphalt driveways may be functional, they aren’t particularly attractive.
Pavers combine the elegance of decorative stone while also increasing the reliability and wear of more mundane materials.
These two increases do come at a price, but so does redoing a driveway every 5 years.
Pavers include several other advantages over concrete. The lack of a curing period springs to mind. Nothing hurts more than paying for work and then waiting sometimes weeks to use the result.
Pavers don’t cure, so they are ready immediately.
Pavers add more traction than other surfaces. This makes working in rain and snow safer. Traction can also mean a lot when working on projects around the home where grip on ladders makes a difference.
Learning to understand not just the cost, but the value of pavers for a driveway (and beyond) will help you make smart decisions for the investment that is your home.
Two sets of factors add to the cost of a pavers driveway or project. We’ll take a look at the indirect factors first.
INDIRECT FACTORS
These can also be considered ‘hidden values’ of the end product but add to the up-front cost. The balance to strike in calculating a pavers driveway cost comes down not to how you want it to look, but what you want it to do.
QUALITY
Quality isn’t just about materials (which we’ll cover below) but it’s about durability and feel. A more durable product is going to last longer.
Another aspect relies on the feel. Will the material chip and flake or will the color fade over time? Better materials hold their newness longer.
UPKEEP AND REPAIR
How long will it last? This question forms the basis of the most obvious unseen value when calculating a pavers driveway cost.
Rigorous installation and high-quality materials place the average replacement time on a pavers driveway at the 20-year mark.
The lack of worry and time spent on replacements create a hidden value.
Also, pavers modular nature comes into play when making repairs. If a tree falls and breaks a section, that section can be replaced without needing to tear up and refinish the whole driveway.
Matching materials that don’t fade quickly increases the odds that nobody will ever notice that damage occurred.
DIRECT FACTORS
The patterns and design options you choose directly affect a pavers driveway cost.
These factors reflect the direct money exchange for what you get. The costs associated tend to land more easily because everyone can see the link between what’s wanted and what’s received.
Even so, understanding these factors in more detail assist in making the best decisions when choosing a pavers driveway for your home.
MATERIALS
Materials start with the surface rock and end nearly 10 inches down. A driveway isn’t just the top, visible layer, but also the bedding that provides stability and draining. The edges of the project must be covered as well.
Check out the following quick list of materials needed:
- pavers
- bedding sand
- joint sand
- concrete
- road base
- filter fabric
The paving company used will obviously affect the pavers driveway cost. Then there is the cost of the individual stones or square footage of stone.
Bedding sand comes in square feet bulks and acts to smooth out the underlying structure and provide a level finish for the pavers.
Joint sand works the same as mortar for brick and grout for tile. This is the glue holding the parts together along the top.
Concrete may seem counterintuitive, as part of buying pavers is to avoid concrete. Concrete’s necessity comes from joining and matching to other areas such as a public sidewalk or the junction with a garage.
Road base acts the same as your local roads and highways. It diffuses the weight and shunts water into drainages to maintain the integrity of the materials above.
Filter fabric may be a material you are not familiar with. This class of high-density fabric material keeps the underlying soil from mixing over time. In areas with high clay composite soils, water can change the composition over time.
Nobody wants to see their beautiful pavers driveway sinking in places, so this material is a must.
OPERATING COSTS
Unless you have run a construction business, the number of fees that permeate a local infrastructure may surprise you. Fees for permits, material hauling, material disposal, and more add to an overall pavers driveway cost.
These fees fluctuate periodically (and seasonally). Interested in hitting the sweet spot for lower costs? Find out how your local government controls these costs and get work done during the valley times, not the peak.
LABOR
This is another factor that makes perfect sense in adding to an overall pavers driveway cost. The experience of that labor might be something you fail to consider.
More experienced labor costs more. More experienced labor also knows how to avoid pitfalls while delivering better results faster.
Don’t be afraid to ask how much experience a company has. Many like to speak proudly of the time they have spent honing their craft.
GET AN ESTIMATE
Understanding a possible pavers driveway cost doesn’t stop with knowing these key factors. Real world data makes a difference. Contact a local team of professionals to get your ideas started in the real world.
While you’re at it, take a look through our gallery at some of the great work we’ve already done in your area.
