Paver Walkway Installation in Eastern Massachusetts

Walkways are small jobs with a lot of edge, so a few things weigh heavily in the price:

• Length versus width. A long, narrow walk has more edge restraint and more cut pavers per square foot than a patio.
• Steps and landings. Each riser is built and set individually, so a walk that climbs a slope costs more per foot than a flat one.
• Removing what is there. Breaking out an old concrete or flagstone walk and hauling it away is real labor.
• Curves and pattern. Curves and herringbone patterns mean more saw cuts than a straight running bond.
• Tie-ins. Matching the driveway, front stoop, and door threshold can take careful grade work at both ends.

For reference, our recent paver quotes have run about $20 to $25 per square foot installed, with walkways toward the top of that range because of the extra edge and cuts. Plain concrete walkways of 150 square feet or more have run about $13 to $22 per square foot; small walks and repairs cost more per foot. Every walkway carries our standard 1-year warranty.

We also size the width to the paver so the edges end in full pavers, not thin slivers that crack and work loose.

Riser and tread sizes

Outdoor steps feel most natural with risers of about 6 to 7 inches and treads 12 to 16 inches deep, shallower and deeper than indoor stairs. The Massachusetts residential code, based on the IRC, caps risers at 7 3/4 inches and requires treads of at least 10 inches. Every riser in a flight should match, and a flight with four or more risers needs a handrail.

Landings at the door

The residential code calls for a landing at an exterior door that is at least as wide as the door and at least 36 inches deep in the direction you walk.

How we build the steps

Depending on the house and the budget, we build walkway steps with bluestone treads, solid granite steps, precast concrete steps, or poured concrete steps. Whatever the material, each step sits on a compacted, drained base so frost does not lift one step out of line with the next.

Private homes are not required to meet the ADA, but its accessible-route numbers are a good target when someone in the house uses a mobility aid:

• Running slope no steeper than 1 in 20 (5 percent). Steeper than that is a ramp, which needs handrails and landings.
• Cross slope no more than about 1 in 48 (roughly 2 percent), just enough to shed water.
• Level changes of 1/4 inch or less where the walk meets a landing, driveway, or threshold.
• Surface of flat-top pavers with small chamfers and narrow joints. Heavily tumbled pavers look good but catch walker wheels and canes.

A walkway has two long free edges and very little field in between, so edge restraint matters more on a walk than on almost any other paver job. Our usual options:

• Spiked plastic or aluminum edging set on the compacted base and pinned with long spikes, typically about every foot. It disappears under the lawn edge.
• A concrete toe troweled against the outer pavers and below the sod line, useful where mowers and snowblowers hit the edge.
• An existing hard edge such as the foundation, a driveway apron, or a wall.

A border row of pavers, often laid lengthwise as a soldier course, frames the walk and looks finished, but it is not a restraint by itself. It still needs edging behind it. We also run the gravel base several inches past the edge of the pavers so the restraint sits on solid ground instead of hanging off it.

• At an asphalt driveway we saw-cut a clean edge and put restraint between the two surfaces so the pavers are not relying on the asphalt.
• At a concrete driveway or stoop we meet it flush so there is no lip for a toe or shovel to catch.
• At the door the finished walk or landing stays below the sill and the siding so water and snowmelt cannot run under the door or soak the framing.
• Downspouts that discharge across a walk freeze into ice sheets. We pipe them under the walk or to a drain before the pavers go down.
• Lighting and lamp posts. A sleeve of pipe under the walk lets an electrician or lighting installer run wire later without lifting pavers.

If your concrete front steps are cracked or loose, we can repair or rebuild them as part of the same job. See concrete crack repair and brick and masonry work.

If you choose a plain concrete walkway

Our standard concrete walk is a 4-inch slab of 4,000 psi concrete over about 4 inches of compacted 3/4-inch crushed stone, broom-finished across the direction of travel for traction, with tooled edges and control joints every 5 to 6 feet so cracks form in the joints. Keep de-icing salt off new concrete for its first winter.

1. Layout and Dig Safe. We paint the walk on the lawn, set string lines to the finished height and pitch, and file with Dig Safe, which Massachusetts law requires at least 72 business hours before digging.
2. Excavation. We dig out the walk plus several inches on each side. Depth equals the paver (usually 2 3/8 inches, or 60 mm), about 1 inch of bedding sand, and the base. CMHA guidance calls for at least 4 inches of compacted base under foot traffic on well-drained soil and more on clay or wet ground; we typically build about 6 inches.
3. Subgrade and fabric. We compact the native soil. On clay or silt, a layer of geotextile fabric keeps the soil from pumping up into the gravel.
4. Base, in lifts. Dense-graded crushed stone goes in about 4 inches at a time, and each layer is compacted with a plate compactor. The cross slope, about 1.5 to 2 percent toward one side, is built into the base, not the sand.
5. Bedding layer. About 1 inch of washed concrete sand is screeded flat over the base. We do not use stone dust as bedding because it holds water.
6. Edge restraint. PVC edging is pinned with 10-inch spikes along both sides on top of the compacted base.
7. Laying pattern. For walks, a running bond laid across the path or a herringbone pattern resists creep best. Cuts are made with a wet saw, and we lay out the pattern so no edge piece is smaller than about a third of a paver.
8. Joint sand and compaction. We run a plate compactor with a protective pad over the pavers to seat them, sweep polymeric sand into the joints, compact again, blow the surface clean, and mist to set the sand.
9. Sealing (optional add-on). Sealing is not part of a standard install. If you want it, it is best done after any early white haze (efflorescence) has faded, often after the first season.

Much of the South Shore sits on glacial till and pockets of clay that hold water. When that water freezes it forms ice lenses that push the ground up, and walks on the north side of a house, which stay shaded and frozen longest, show it first. A deeper base and fabric over clay soils keep the frost-prone soil away from the pavers.

De-icing salt

Concrete pavers made to ASTM C936 are tested for freeze-thaw durability in salt solution, and ordinary rock salt (sodium chloride) or calcium chloride used at normal rates is fine on them. Do not use fertilizers such as ammonium nitrate or ammonium sulfate as ice melt; they attack concrete.

Snow removal

Plastic shovels and blades are kindest to pavers. On a snowblower, set the skid shoes so the scraper bar rides just above the surface; a bar dragging on the pavers chips the edges and pulls out joint sand.

• Spring check. Look for low joints and any paver that rocks underfoot. Sweep in fresh joint sand where it has washed out.
• Weeds. Weeds in joints almost always grow from seeds blown in on top, not from below. Full, compacted joints are the fix.
• Sealing. Optional. If you seal, plan on resealing every few years based on the product.
• Settled spots. Pavers can be lifted, the bedding corrected, and the same pavers relaid. No saw, no visible patch.

Our standard 1-year warranty applies: All materials and workmanship are guaranteed for one year from the date of completion. Normal color variation and hairline cracking in concrete are not defects, and the warranty does not cover pre-existing conditions, hidden site conditions, or settlement of soil we did not place.

For walks we steer toward:

• Flat-top or lightly textured faces that grip when wet and do not catch heels or walker wheels.
• Small chamfers, the bevel on each paver's edge, so the surface stays smooth to walk and shovel.
• Colors that match the house and driveway, often a blend so salt residue and dirt show less.

We also build bluestone walkways and set granite and bluestone step treads, which suit older and more formal homes. Natural stone costs more and needs a carefully built base, since thin bluestone flags can crack if the base under them settles.