Our crew works across Palm Harbor

Palm Harbor homes sit on sandy ground

Palm Harbor started as citrus country, and much of the housing you see now went up as subdivisions late in the last century. Many are block and stucco ranch houses that still have the concrete driveway they were built with. Near the old downtown and in Ozona, the houses are older and big oaks often grow right where a driveway or walkway needs to go.

The ground under all of it is mostly sand. Sand drains quickly, which is good, but it also moves when water runs through it. A driveway or patio laid on a thin base will settle in spots. You see it as a low corner that holds a puddle after rain, or a row of pavers starting to drift apart. On an old concrete driveway, the same movement shows up as cracks.

So on a Palm Harbor job we start below the surface. We dig down to firm soil and grade the area so rain runs off instead of pooling. Then we compact the base before a single paver goes down. Where oak roots are close, we plan the layout around them, because a root growing under a paver will push it back up sooner or later.

• Site walked and ground checked before the estimate
• Soil dug out and graded so rain runs off
• Base compacted before any pavers go down
• Layout planned around oak roots
• Pavers pressure washed and sealed

Homes near the sound deal with salt

The west side of Palm Harbor runs along St. Joseph Sound, and homes near the water get salt in the air most of the year. Salt settles on patios and pool decks and leaves a dull, chalky film behind. It also wears through an old coat of sealer faster than it would inland. Once the sealer is gone, rain washes sand out of the joints and the pavers start to shift underfoot.

Low streets close to the shoreline can also flood when a tropical storm pushes water in from the sound. When water sits on pavers for a day, it pulls fine sand out of the base as it drains. The patio can look fine the week after, then slowly start to dip in low spots over the next few months. It happens most on patios and walkways that were laid on a thin base.

On houses near the sound we pay close attention to the joints. We pressure wash first so the sealer is not locking dirt and salt into the surface. Then the joints get fresh sand and the pavers get sealed, so the sand stays put and rain runs off. After a storm, a sunken section can often be pulled up and relaid on a rebuilt base, instead of tearing out the whole patio.

Pool decks are common in Palm Harbor

You find pools all over Palm Harbor, from the golf neighborhoods around Innisbrook to the streets near Lake Tarpon. Many of those decks are still the original concrete or an old spray coating that has cracked. Pavers make a good replacement because small movement in the ground shifts a few pavers instead of cracking the whole deck. If one gets stained or broken, it can be lifted out and replaced.

Heat matters on a pool deck in a way it does not on a driveway. You walk on it barefoot, and a dark paver in the summer sun gets hot enough to notice. Lighter colors stay cooler, so we talk through color with you before the job starts. We lay both brick pavers and travertine, and color matching comes up in our Google reviews. The goal is a deck that suits the house and the pool tile.

A finished pool deck still needs care to keep looking the way it did when it went in. Pool water and fallen oak leaves both stain pavers, and mildew grows in shady corners. We pressure wash and seal pool decks so stains clean off more easily and the joint sand stays in place. One customer wrote: "They did an awesome job sealing our pool deck! It looks fantastic."

Getting a price in Palm Harbor

Call (813) 330-4403 or request an estimate online, and tell us what you want built or fixed and where in Palm Harbor the house is. We come out to look at the ground where the pavers will go and talk through colors and patterns with you. Then you get a written estimate, so you know what the work covers before anything starts. We are open every day of the week, from early morning into the evening.