Landscaping & Design Ideas

Living in the Greater Cleveland Ohio area, we are subjected to some pretty severe winter months.  In fact, Forbes Magazine just ranked Cleveland as America’s worst winter city!  While that may be debatable, winters in Cleveland do take their toll, on both our state of mind and our homes & landscaping.

Our company meets with many people who ask us if we do both pavers & stamped concrete.  Or we often hear that the person will probably decide on stamped concrete because they think it will be cheaper.  While the initial installation cost of stamped concrete is often cheaper than pavers, there are some long-term drawbacks to saving a few dollars up front.

This brings us back to the climate here in Northeast Ohio.  The winter freeze-thaw cycles wreak havoc on our roads, both concrete and asphalt, our homes exterior as well as our sidewalks and driveways.  Anyone who drives around Cleveland and its suburbs in spring knows this well.  We cringe every time we hit a large pothole.

The same freeze-thaw cycles that destroy our streets annually are working against our driveways,  sidewalks, and patios at home.  Whether they be asphalt, concrete, stamped concrete, or pavers, our pavements are subjected to these forces throughout the winter.

With concrete or stamped concrete, flaking will occur.  The subgrade may settle, resulting in cracks in the concrete.  And de-icing salts will speed up the deterioration process.  With stamped concrete, the colors will begin to fade and lose their luster after only a few short years.  The only viable option at that point is to wait until it is in such disrepair that it needs to be replaced.  In the mean time, you are left dealing with an eyesore. There is no option to repair.

This is one of the distinct advantages of pavers, and one reason the long term value of pavers far outweighs any initial price difference.  When those same forces work against your paver surface, three types of interlock are at work to keep them in place.  Vertical, horizontal, and rotational interlock insure that the pavers are locked into place.  The inherent joint lines in pavers contribute to the pavement’s strength.

This is not to say that Cleveland winters will not eventually take their toll on a paver surface.  But the good new is that the paver itself will not be damaged.  This allows for repairs to the base by simply lifting out the pavers in the problem area, correcting the base, and laying the pavers back into the pattern.  Sometimes the problem occurs with the edge restraints lifting or cracking, which is also a relatively quick and inexpensive fix.

One great example as to the durability and longevity of pavers comes from Holland.  Living on land that was once ocean that is now protected by dikes, the ground settles 6″-12″ every five to ten years.  The settling is caused by the removal of water in the soil that slowly seeps in from the sea.  The pavers are removed and set aside, while the base is brought back up to grade.  The pavers are then put back in place.  The need for this type of paving system has led to a 1,000 year tradition of using pavers.

On the contrary, we would be lucky if a street or driveway in the Cleveland area lasted just 20 years!  But the beauty of a paver system is that it is repairable, rather than needing replaced.  Keep this in mind when trying to decide between concrete or pavers.