We build patios on a compacted base

We plan the patio before we dig

Every patio and walkway job starts with a visit to your yard. We measure the space with you and talk about how you plan to use it. Then we look at where rain goes. A patio laid flat against a block house sends summer storm water toward the back door. So we mark the finished height and the slope away from the house before anything gets dug. Most of the time that means a gentle fall toward the lawn that you will never notice underfoot.

Next comes the digging. We strip out the grass and the soft topsoil until we reach firm ground. Then we grade the bottom to match the slope we marked. Base material goes in after that and gets packed with a plate compactor in thin layers. Soil around Clearwater is mostly sand, and loose sand settles once it gets soaked. A thin base, or one that was never packed properly, turns into low spots where puddles sit and pavers rock under your feet.

Once the base is flat and firm, we spread a thin, level bed of sand and set the pavers in the pattern you picked. We fasten a border along the outside edges so the pavers cannot spread outward over time. Sand gets swept into the joints, and the compactor runs over the whole surface to lock the pavers together. On a finished patio, nothing moves when you walk across it, and the lines stay straight from the house to the lawn.

• Site visit to measure and check drainage
• Paver pattern and color picked with you
• Digging and grading down to firm ground
• Base packed in thin layers with a compactor
• Joints filled with sand and compacted

You pick the pattern and the color

The pattern you choose changes how the patio looks, and it changes how it holds up. Herringbone sets pavers at angles that lock against each other, so it handles the spots where people turn and walk the most. A running bond, laid like bricks in a wall, makes a narrow walkway look longer. On a curved garden path, the pattern also decides how many pavers get cut along the edge. Clean, even cuts are what make a curve look planned.

Color takes more thought than people expect. Most homes around Clearwater are concrete block finished in stucco, and many have a barrel tile or shingle roof. We look at paver samples outside next to your walls and trim, in real daylight, before you decide. Florida sun is bright, and a color that looks warm in a catalog can look washed out on an open patio at noon. Color matching is one of the things customers bring up in our Google reviews.

For a patio next to a pool, a lot of homeowners pick travertine pavers. Travertine is natural stone, and on a hot afternoon it stays cooler under bare feet than most concrete pavers. Its surface has texture, so wet feet get a better grip. Natural stone also varies from one stone to the next, so we mix pavers from several pallets as we lay them. That keeps one corner of the patio from looking darker than the rest.

Heavy rain and tree roots shift pavers

Summer afternoon storms in Pinellas can dump a lot of rain in a short time. That water runs across a patio and pulls sand out of the joints. Once the sand is gone, pavers start to wiggle and weeds grow in the gaps. Ants move into that loose sand too. The slope we set at the start keeps water moving off the surface, and sealing the pavers afterward helps hold the joint sand in place.

Tree roots cause the other common problem. Many older neighborhoods in Clearwater and Dunedin have live oaks growing close to the house. A root that grows under a walkway will lift one edge, and that raised lip is easy to trip on. During the site visit we note every tree near the path, and sometimes the better plan is a walkway that curves around the roots. Pavers also have an advantage over poured concrete here. If a root lifts a section, we can pull up those pavers and reset them instead of breaking out a slab.

Shade and humidity bring the last problem. A walkway on the north side of the house, or a patio under an oak, stays damp for long stretches. Black mildew and green algae grow on the surface and make it slick. Sealed pavers are easier to wash and hold their color longer. We also pressure wash and reseal older patios, which brings back a lot of color on pavers that have gone dull and dark.

We fix old patios and sunken pavers

A lot of block ranch homes around Clearwater came with a small concrete slab behind the sliding door. Over the years it cracks, and one side often sinks toward the house. Before we add pavers, we check whether that slab is solid and sloped the right way. A sound slab can sometimes stay in place under the new patio. A cracked or sunken one comes out, because every crack in it would show through the pavers later.

Sunken or lifted pavers can usually be reset instead of replaced. We pull up the bad section and stack the pavers to the side. Then we find out why it moved, which is most often a soft spot in the base or a root underneath. We fix that cause first and pack the base again. The same pavers go back down, so the repair matches the rest of the patio. If someone just relevels the pavers on fresh sand and skips the base, the same spot sinks again after a rainy season.

Citrus Pavers holds a 4.9 rating from 193 Google reviews. A repair should have no low corner and no patch of mismatched pavers. Here is how two customers described work that met that standard. Massimiliano Esposito wrote, "The pavers came out clean level and professional with great attention to detail." Michael Schacter had us fix existing pavers. He wrote, "The team worked quickly and left everything looking brand new."