Our paving crew works across Largo

Largo driveways sit on flat, sandy ground

A lot of Largo was built in the decades after the war. Many streets are lined with single story concrete block houses on flat lots, and many came with a poured concrete driveway. Those slabs are old now. Roots from oaks lift one panel, rain washes sand out from under the next, and the cracks spread from there. Pavers suit these houses well, because one broken piece can be lifted out and reset instead of cutting out the whole slab.

The ground in Largo is mostly sand, and the land is flat, so rain from a summer storm drains away slowly. It soaks down and moves sideways under whatever is on top. When the base under a paver driveway is thin or poorly packed, that water carries fine material away. The pavers drop into low spots where a car parks, and the edges creep out into the grass. A sunken paver driveway almost always started with a weak base, not with bad pavers.

So the work on a Largo driveway starts below the surface. The old concrete comes out first. Then we dig down to firm soil and grade the base so water runs away from the house and the garage door. The base is packed down hard before any paver is set on it. An edge restraint keeps the outside row from creeping. Sand swept into the joints locks the pavers together so they can carry the weight of a car.

• Old cracked concrete driveways taken out
• Ground dug out and graded away from the house
• Base packed down before pavers go in
• Edge restraint set along the outside rows
• Pavers sealed when the job calls for it

Shade and summer rain turn Largo pavers green

Many Largo backyards sit under old live oaks, and summer rain keeps the ground damp for days at a time. On a shady patio, that moisture feeds algae and mildew in the joints and on the face of the pavers. The surface turns dark green and gets slick underfoot after it rains. Around a pool or a hot tub, a slick surface is a real safety problem. That is the spot where it matters most.

Pressure washing takes the growth off, but washing alone does not fix the problem. A hard spray also blasts sand out of the joints, and pavers with empty joints start to shift and let weeds come up. So after we wash a patio, we refill the joints before anything else. Then the sealer goes on. Sealing holds the joint sand in place and makes the next cleaning easier. It also helps the color hold up under the Florida sun.

A pool deck gets the hardest use of any paving around a house. It sits in full sun on a Largo summer afternoon and gets splashed with pool water, and people walk across it barefoot. We install pool decks in pavers or travertine, and we seal older decks that have started to fade. One Google reviewer wrote after we sealed their deck: "They did an awesome job sealing our pool deck! It looks fantastic."

We plan your Largo project on site

A job starts with a visit to your property. We walk it with you and look at where water sits after a storm. We also mark the roots and low spots that would cause trouble later. That visit decides how deep the dig goes and which way the base should slope. It is also when you hear about any problems, which is better than finding out after the pavers are down.

Then we work out how it should look. Pavers come in many colors and patterns, and the right pick depends on the house behind it. We help you match the paver color to the roof or the trim, so a new driveway looks like it was always part of the house. A customer who had us install their driveway wrote: "The work came out absolutely beautiful and the attention to detail really shows."

Many older Largo houses have a narrow concrete strip from the driveway to the front door, if they have a path at all. Widening that path in pavers and tying it into the driveway changes how the front of the house looks from the street. We also build side yard walkways out to the pool or the back patio, so you are not walking through wet grass after a storm. Custom walkways are one of the jobs our Google reviewers mention most.

Getting a price in Largo

Call (813) 330-4403 to talk through your Largo project, or tell us about it through the estimate request on this page. We offer online estimates, so a few photos of the area and a short description are enough to get started. After we look at the site, you get a written estimate that spells out the work before you agree to anything. We are open Monday to Friday from 5:00 AM to 10:00 PM, and Saturday and Sunday from 6:00 AM to 9:00 PM.