Patios, Driveways & Walkways Built to Last

Why Choose Professional Hardscaping?

Hardscaping creates the structural foundation of your outdoor living space, adding both function and lasting beauty. From elegant paver patios to functional retaining walls, professional hardscape installation transforms your yard into a versatile outdoor retreat. Our crew use premium materials and time-tested techniques to build features that enhance your property value while providing decades of enjoyment.

How we build a patio that stays flat

We are Adam and Ben, two brothers running our own crew out of South Surrey, and almost every failed patio we get called out to look at failed underneath, not on top. The pavers were fine. The base was not. So this is where most of our time on site goes.

We excavate down far enough to hold a real base, typically 8 to 10 inches below finished grade for a walking patio and deeper where the soil is soft or the ground stays wet. Everything organic comes out. Then we bring in crushed gravel and compact it in lifts of roughly 3 to 4 inches at a time with a plate compactor or, on bigger jobs, our own reversible compactor. Compacting the full depth in one pass looks the same on the surface and settles in a season, which is exactly the call-back we do not want.

On top of the compacted base we screed a thin, even layer of bedding sand, usually about an inch. It is a setting bed, not a levelling layer, so we do not use it to hide dips in the base. The pavers go down to the pattern, get cut in at the edges, and then we install edge restraint around the whole perimeter, spiked into the base. Without restraint the outer courses creep outward and the joints open up.

Last comes polymeric sand swept into the joints, compacted in, and activated with water so the joints lock and resist weeds and washout. Throughout, we build in a fall of roughly two percent away from the house so rain leaves the surface instead of sitting on it. Where the yard cannot shed water on its own, we tie in a drain before the pavers go down rather than after. Every patio we build is covered by our 1-year workmanship warranty.

Materials we install

Concrete interlocking pavers. The workhorse, and what we install most. Huge range of colours and formats, easy to source locally, easy to lift and replace one unit if a tree root or a spill damages it. Best value for large patios and driveways.

Large-format slabs. Big smooth units with tight joints for a clean, modern look. They need a flatter, more carefully screeded base because there is less joint to hide variation, so they take longer to lay. Great for contemporary homes and for pool surrounds.

Natural stone. Granite, basalt and flagstone. No two pieces match, which is the appeal, but it means more cutting and fitting on site. We use it where a yard already has rock features or mature planting and a manufactured product would look out of place.

Porcelain pavers. Dense, stain resistant and very low maintenance, which suits covered patios, outdoor kitchens and anywhere red wine and barbecue grease are likely. They are less forgiving to cut and cost more, so we usually recommend them for smaller feature areas rather than a whole backyard.

What a hardscape project costs

Across Greater Vancouver, paver work typically runs $25 to $45 per square foot installed. Where a project lands in that range depends on the material, how deep we have to dig, whether the old surface has to come out, and how easily we can get a machine into the yard. A tight side gate means wheelbarrows, and wheelbarrows mean hours.

• A 300 sq ft back patio in standard concrete pavers, straightforward access: roughly $7,500 to $12,000.
• A 600 sq ft patio with a border course, a couple of steps and some cutting: roughly $18,000 to $27,000.
• A 1,000 sq ft patio in large-format slabs with a seat wall and drainage tie-in: roughly $30,000 to $45,000 and up.

Steps, seat walls, fire pits, lighting conduit and drainage are priced as separate line items so you can see what each one adds and drop or stage anything you want to defer. Your written quote is itemized and comes back within 24 hours of the site visit.

Timeline

A 300 sq ft patio is usually 3 to 5 working days: a day of demolition and excavation, a day or two of base and compaction, then laying, cutting and jointing. A 600 sq ft patio typically runs 5 to 8 days. A 1,000 sq ft patio with walls or steps is more often 10 to 15 days.

Add time for poor access, heavy rain that makes compaction unreliable, and any engineered or permitted work. We give you a start window we can actually hold and we work the job through rather than disappearing to another site halfway.