The base under it lost material or was never compacted properly. Water moving through carries the fines out, leaving something closer to loose gravel that compacts under load.
Re-Levelling
Steps and Porches
Retaining Walls
Cleaning and Sealing
Service Areas
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Your Questions
Interlock repair questions from Toronto
Everything we get asked on site, grouped by the part of the job it belongs to. If your question is not here, calling and describing the surface usually settles it in two minutes.
- Answers, not sales copy
- Prices in real ranges
- We say when not to repair
Why It Moves
Why Toronto interlock moves in the first place
The questions that come before any quote.
Almost always the base. Concrete pavers outlast the base they sit on by decades, which is why a repair works on what is underneath rather than replacing what is on top.
Sunken is a whole area dropping into a bowl, which is base. Uneven is individual stones at different heights with no overall dip, which is the bedding layer above it.
Water is running along that line. Sand does not leave a joint on its own, it is carried, so refilling without changing the run gets you the same result next year.
It contributes, but it needs water to work with. A base that drains properly takes freeze and thaw for decades. One that holds water heaves every winter.
Twenty five to thirty years on a properly built base. The surfaces we repair after five or ten years almost always had a base that was too thin from the start.
What It Costs
What interlock repair costs in Toronto
Real ranges, and what moves them.
Most land between $1,500 and $5,000. Small spot repairs start around $800 and a full lift and relay runs $10 to $18 per square foot depending on access and base depth.
Because base depth is unknown until the surface is opened, and it is the biggest single factor. The range narrows to a number once we have opened a test spot.
Because everything is carried. A gate and a set of steps between the truck and the work turns each load of base and each barrow of spoil into a walk, and that walk happens dozens of times.
Usually by a wide margin, because your existing pavers go back down. Replacement makes sense when the stone itself is spalling or you want a different product.
No, including the test lift. We measure, open a spot and give you a written range with no obligation, whether you go ahead or not.
Yes. Drainage and base work are quoted on separate lines from the cosmetic relay, so you can do the part that stops the damage now and the rest later.
On Site
What happens on site during an interlock repair
From the first visit to the last sweep.
Most residential jobs are one to three days on site. A full restoration on a large driveway runs five to ten, and commercial work is staged so the property keeps working.
It matches in shape and pattern because the same stone goes back. Colour can read slightly lighter for a season where a paver had been shaded by the sand line.
Not for the work, only for the estimate if you want to walk it with us. We will tell you what we found either way before anything is lifted.
Tell us what is precious and we will work around it. Anything within the work area needs moving, and we would rather you moved it than us.
Not while an area is open. On a single driveway we stage it so you can get a car off, and on commercial work a passable route stays open throughout.
It comes back to you as a priced change before it is done. Nothing gets added on site and then appears at the bottom of the invoice.
Looking After It
Sand, sealing and salt: looking after interlock
What to do, and what not to bother with.
Roughly once a decade on a sheltered surface and sooner on a driveway that gets plowed and washed. Emptying every year or two is a drainage symptom, not a sand problem.
Optional. It holds joint sand longer, slows staining and keeps colour, which most people want on a driveway. On a shaded damp patio the case is much weaker.
Filled joints stop weeds, because nothing germinates in a full joint. Sealer helps hold that sand in place but sealing over open joints achieves very little.
Efflorescence, mineral salt carried to the surface from inside the block. Normal on new interlock and it usually clears within a year or two on its own.
Carefully. Too much pressure strips the joint sand and etches the face of the paver, and then the surface holds dirt worse than it did before you started.
Yes, over time. De-icing salt causes the face to flake away in layers, which is spalling, and unlike a crack it spreads across a surface rather than staying put.
Repair Or Replace
When replacing interlock beats repairing it
We would rather say it than sell it.
When the base has failed across most of the area rather than in patches, or when the pavers themselves are spalling. Relaying failing stone is money spent twice.
Three options: relocate matching stone from a hidden part of your property, run the replacements as a deliberate band, or rebuild one defined section in a current product.
No. A wall that moved once and stopped is ugly rather than dangerous. We leave you a plumb reading so you can check the same spot in a year and know.
Rarely the first answer. A full restoration reuses your stone and costs well under a new installation, so it is worth pricing both before deciding.
Not properly. We look at winter damage in early spring, which is also when it is most visible, and book the season from there.
Come back to us. If we named a cause, fixed it, and the same spot moves, that is ours to look at again and we would rather know than not.
★★★★★
Called with a question about polymeric sand and got a straight answer, not a sales pitch. Booked them for the re-sanding a month later.
Markham
★★★★★
Asked whether my patio needed sealing. They said not yet, and told me what to watch for. Hard to find that honesty.
Toronto
★★★★
Their answers page told me why my pavers sank before anyone came out. When they did, the diagnosis matched.
Richmond Hill
★★★★★
Every question I asked on site was answered plainly, with the reason. I understand my own driveway now.
Oakville
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Question not answered here?
Call and describe the surface. Two minutes usually settles it.
Free written quote before anything is lifted.