Most settled interlock in Toronto does not need replacing. It needs the base under it corrected. We lift the affected area, rebuild the base to grade, reset the pavers and close the joints with new polymeric sand. Interlocking pavers, paving stones, interlock: same product, same repair.
Freeze and thaw is the one people name, and it is real: water held in a poorly drained base expands every winter and lifts the stone, then leaves a void when it goes.
The second is compaction that was never there, a base laid too thin or never plate tamped, which gives way under a car within a few seasons. The third is water arriving where it should not, usually a downspout discharging onto the surface or a grade that runs back toward the house.
We look for which of the three it is before quoting, because levelling the surface without fixing the cause buys you two years. See what base repair involves, how pooling water is corrected, and what edge restraint does once the perimeter has let go.
Joints and base
How a Repair Runs
Four steps, and the second one decides the price
We look and measure
We walk the area, find the low points with a string line and note where water is arriving. No charge for the visit.
We open the base
Pavers come up over the affected area so the base depth and compaction can be seen. This is what a real price is built on.
We fix the cause
Base corrected to grade and compacted, drainage or edge restraint addressed if that is what let go.
We relay and close
Pavers reset to the surrounding grade, plate tamped, and the joints filled with new polymeric sand.
Repair or Replace
When interlock repair is the wrong answer
Not everything is worth relaying. If the base has failed across most of the area rather than in patches, if the pavers themselves are spalling from de-icing salt, or if the line was discontinued and half of them are broken, a repair is money spent twice. We will say so on the visit.
The honest split is roughly this: settled patches, failed joints, a leaning wall or a bad step are repairs, and widespread base failure on a twenty five year old driveway is not.
Almost always repaired. We lift only the settled area, correct the base under it and relay the same pavers. Full replacement is for widespread base failure or stone that is too damaged to reuse.
Lift and relay runs about $8 to $12 per square foot, and a small single settled area starts around $800. The base depth we find when we open it is what moves the number.
Five to ten years on a sheltered walkway, less on a driveway that gets washed and plowed. When it washes out the joints open, weeds arrive and the pavers begin to shift.
The same pavers go back down, so it matches in shape and keeps the curb appeal you paid for. Colour can differ slightly because the lifted stone has been shaded by the sand line, and that evens out over a season.
No. Base work needs unfrozen ground and polymeric sand needs dry weather above ten degrees to set. We book April to November and look at winter damage in early spring.
Only once the new sand has fully cured, and only if the surface is clean. Sealing over efflorescence or a damp joint locks the problem in rather than protecting anything.
Winter and Salt
Drainage
Joint Repair