Uneven is different from sunken. Nothing has dropped as a group; individual stones have tilted or lifted against their neighbours, leaving lips that catch feet and mower wheels. It is nearly always the bedding layer rather than the base, which makes it a faster and cheaper fix than a full re-level.
Between the compacted base and the pavers sits a thin screeded layer of bedding sand, usually about an inch. Its job is to let each stone find its own seat while the surface stays true.
When water moves through it, when tree roots push up under it, or when it was laid too thick in the first place, that layer stops being even and individual stones tilt.
You can tell it from base settlement by the pattern: base failure drops a whole area in a bowl, bedding failure leaves neighbours at different heights with no overall dip.
The repair lifts only the affected stones, screeds the bedding back to a consistent depth and resets them, which is why it runs well below a full lift and relay. Where the cause is a root or a washout, that gets dealt with at the same time.
We run a straight edge across the area and mark every stone standing proud, because the one you noticed is rarely the only one.
Lift only what moved
Affected stones come up individually with extraction tongs so their neighbours stay bedded and the pattern does not open.
Screed the bedding true
The sand layer is taken back to a consistent depth and screeded flat, which is the part that actually removes the lip.
Reset and tamp flush
Each stone goes back, the area is plate tamped through a mat, and the joints are refilled so nothing can migrate again.
Trip Hazards
Why a six millimetre lip matters
People walk by feel, not by looking, and a lip of around six millimetres is enough to catch a toe at normal walking pace. On a private walkway that is an annoyance; on anything the public uses it is a documented hazard from the moment it is reported.
That is the threshold we measure against and photograph on commercial work. See how condo walkways are handled and recorded, what loose risers do at a step, and how uneven walkways differ.
6 mm lipTrip threshold
PhotographedCommercial work
A documented hazardOnce reported
Related Work
Other re-levelling work in Toronto
Uneven stones usually sit alongside one or two of these.
Sunken is a whole area dropping into a bowl, which is the base. Uneven is individual stones at different heights with no overall dip, which is the bedding layer above the base.
No. Forcing a proud stone down leaves it bearing on its neighbours and it lifts again by spring. The bedding under it has to be screeded back to an even depth.
Yes, and it needs the root dealt with or it returns. Small roots can be cut back and a barrier set; a major structural root is a question for an arborist first.
Most residential lip repairs are a single day, because only the affected stones come up rather than the whole field.
Not in the same place if the cause was addressed. Bedding that was simply laid too thick is a one-time correction; a root or a washout needs its own fix alongside.
Around six millimetres is where a toe catches, and that is smaller than most people expect. On a path to a front door we treat that as work. In the middle of a patio where nobody walks a line, it can wait.
