Paver patios built for Michigan ground
Everything we build sits on a base you will never see, which is exactly where almost every failed installation in this county went wrong.
- Six-inch compacted 21AA base over geotextile on clay subgrade
- ASTM C33 coarse bedding sand — never stone dust
- Published square-foot ranges before anyone comes out
Paver work in southeast Michigan is a soil problem wearing a stone costume. Heavy clay holds water, water freezes, frozen ground lifts, and anything built on an under-compacted base comes back down somewhere other than where it started.
We build to a spec we will hand you in writing: base depth in inches, aggregate type, bedding material, edge restraint spacing. Compare that against any other quote you are holding.
The spec we build to
Every hardscape surface we install over Macomb County clay gets the same treatment below grade, and the numbers do not move to win a bid.
- Geotextile separation fabric directly on the clay subgrade, so aggregate and clay never mix.
- Six inches of compacted 21AA limestone for pedestrian surfaces, 8 to 10 inches for anything a vehicle touches, placed and compacted in 3-inch lifts.
- One inch of ASTM C33 coarse bedding sand, screeded, never stone dust.
- Rigid edge restraint spiked at roughly 12-inch centers around the entire perimeter.
- Polymeric joint sand, swept and water-activated.
Ask any competing contractor for those five numbers in writing. Quotes that come in 40 percent cheaper are almost always cheaper because two or three of them are missing, and you cannot see which ones once the pavers are down.
Why compaction in lifts is not optional
A plate compactor transmits force a limited distance into aggregate. Dump six inches of 21AA and run a compactor over it once, and the top three inches are dense while the bottom three stay loose. The surface looks identical on the day of installation. It stops looking identical in year three, when the loose layer consolidates under load and the patio settles unevenly.
This is the single most common corner cut in residential hardscaping, it is invisible at handover, and it is why so much paver work in this county needs releveling before it is ten years old.
Season and weather limits
We install roughly April through November. We do not excavate or compact frozen ground — aggregate will not achieve density and a base built on frozen subgrade settles when it thaws. We also stop during sustained rain, because saturated clay subgrade cannot be compacted to spec and pushing through guarantees a callback.
A contractor willing to install a patio in a January thaw is telling you something useful about how they handle the rest of the build.
Repair is often the right answer
If your existing patio has settled but the base was built correctly, lifting, re-screeding and re-laying the same pavers costs a fraction of a rebuild and lasts. We quote that job when that is the job. A full tear-out is only honest when the base itself failed.
Every hardscaping service, priced
Paver Patios
Almost every failed paver patio in this county failed at the base, under ground you cannot see, for reasons decided before the first paver was set.
$18–$30 / sq ftRetaining Walls & Seat Walls
Almost every failed retaining wall in this county failed because water built up behind it. The blocks were never the weak part.
$35–$65 / face ftWalkways & Front Entries
A 36-inch walk forces two people to go single file to your own front door. It is the most common and most avoidable mistake in residential hardscaping.
$18–$30 / sq ftPaver Driveways
A paver driveway is not a patio someone parked on. It needs a deeper base, thicker units and a genuinely different edge detail — and it costs accordingly.
$22–$38 / sq ftFire Pits
The most requested feature in this trade, and the one most often built without a liner — which is why so many of them spall apart in three seasons.
$2,500–$5,000Outdoor Fireplaces
A fireplace is a chimney with a room attached. Most of the cost and all of the risk is in the parts that carry smoke and weight, not the stone you see.
$9,000–$25,000Outdoor Kitchens
The hard part is not the grill. It is building something with plumbing in it that survives twenty freeze-thaw cycles a year.
from $12,000Porch & Step Rebuilds
Uneven risers are the most common code failure and the most common cause of a fall on a residential property. Nobody notices until someone catches a toe.
$4,000–$9,000Drainage & Grading
This is the work that makes other work unnecessary. It is also the quote we give most often when someone called about something else.
$3,000–$8,000Outdoor Privacy Screens
On a Macomb County subdivision lot your patio is frequently eleven feet from a neighbor's window. A screen fixes that for a fraction of what moving the patio costs.
$3,500–$9,000Paver Repair & Releveling
A settled paver patio is usually repairable using the same pavers, for a fraction of a rebuild. This is the job most contractors would rather sell you a new patio than quote.
$9–$18 / sq ftHardscape Cost Guide
Every range on this page is from real Macomb County projects, not a national average. If a contractor will not put a number on a web page, ask yourself why.
published rangesWhat is under every surface we build
Questions people actually ask
How much does a paver patio cost in Macomb County?
$18–$30 / sq ft installed, so a typical 300-square-foot patio runs roughly $5,400 to $9,000. The full range for every service is on the cost guide.
How deep should the base be?
Six inches of compacted 21AA over geotextile for a pedestrian patio on our clay, placed in lifts and compacted between each. Vehicle surfaces need 8 to 10 inches. A three-inch base is the most common shortcut in this trade.
When can you build?
Roughly April through November. We will not excavate or compact frozen or saturated ground, because aggregate cannot reach density and a base built that way settles when it thaws.
Do you offer design help?
Yes, and the AI designer is free with no signup — upload a photo and see the space rendered. It is a conversation starter, not a construction drawing, and the page is explicit about what it cannot know.
Can you repair an existing patio instead of rebuilding?
Frequently, at $9–$18 / sq ft for the repaired area — 25 to 40 percent of a rebuild. See repair and releveling. We will also tell you when the base has genuinely failed and repair would waste your money.
What makes a quote come in cheaper?
Usually a thinner base, no geotextile, or stone dust instead of ASTM C33 bedding sand — none of which you can see once the surface is down. Ask every contractor for base depth, aggregate type and bedding material in writing.
Hardscaping by community
Each community page covers the local detail that actually changes the work there — not the same paragraph with the name swapped.
Get a fixed price with the spec in writing
Base depth, aggregate type and bedding material stated on every quote, so you can compare it against anyone else’s.