Menlo Park paving contractor
Yes, we pave right across Menlo Park
Menlo Park sits at the south end of San Mateo County, right on the Santa Clara County line, with San Francisquito Creek marking the boundary. El Camino Real (CA 82) and the Caltrain line run through the middle of town, US 101 and CA 84 carry the bay side, and Sand Hill Road climbs west toward Interstate 280. Between those roads the ground barely changes height at all.
Flat ground sounds easy. It is not. Water does not run off on its own here, and the soil closer to the bay is clay that swells when it is wet and shrinks when it dries, so anything sitting on a lazy base will move with it. We only work in interlocking pavers and natural stone, and the reason that suits Menlo Park is simple: a flexible surface rides small ground movement instead of cracking, and any settled area can be lifted and reset. Our installers up the road in San Carlos are down here most weeks.
What Menlo Park ground asks of a base
Clay is the whole story. It holds water, it expands, and when a dry spell comes it pulls back and leaves voids underneath. Put a thin base on that and you get the dips, the rocking pavers and the ponding people call us about a few years after someone else finished the job. What works is doing the unglamorous half properly: dig deeper than looks necessary, remove the soft material, compact the aggregate in layers rather than in one lift, screed a true bedding layer, then compact the field and sweep in the joint sand so the whole surface locks together and behaves as one piece.
The second half is fall. On flat ground you have to build the slope in, away from the house and the garage slab and out to somewhere water can actually go. Sometimes that is a trench drain and a pipe, sometimes it is an open jointed permeable surface that lets rain soak into a stone reservoir on your own property instead of running to the street. We will tell you which one your yard needs when we look at it, and the estimate is free.
What we handle here
What we build in Menlo Park
Driveway Paving
Most Menlo Park homes have a short, flat drive that takes two cars every day, and on clay soil that is exactly where settlement shows first. We take the old surface off, dig out the soft ground, build and compact the base in layers, then lay the field in a herringbone pattern that locks under turning wheels. The edge restraint goes in before the joint sand, because an edge that lets go is what starts the spreading. Our driveway paving on ground like this is built to ICPI specification.
Patio Paving
Back gardens here are flat, which means a patio has to be built with the fall in it or you end up with a puddle against the back door every winter. We pitch the surface gently away from the house, hold the perimeter with a border course, and set the finished level so the step out of the door stays comfortable. See how we build a back garden patio that stays flat and drains, season after season.
Walkway Paving
Front paths, entries and the narrow side yard runs between the house and the fence. These are the surfaces people actually walk on every day, so nothing is allowed to rock, lift or catch a wheel, and we can build them wide and level enough for a wheelchair or a stroller where that matters. Our front paths and side yard runs get the same base and compaction as a driveway, because footpaths on clay fail the same way drives do.
Paver Installation
Whatever the surface is, the build underneath it is the same craft: excavate, compact, screed, lay, cut, restrain, compact again, sand the joints. We lay Belgard, Calstone and McNear, so you can match a modern large format slab or an old brick front entry, and Todd is an ICPI Certified Paver Installer and a Belgard Master Craftsman. Read the detail on our page on how pavers go down.
Why Menlo Park calls us
Why Menlo Park homeowners call Exterior Designs
Because on this ground the build under the pavers is the whole job, and it is the part most people never get to see. Exterior Designs is family owned and operated out of San Carlos, and we only work in interlocking pavers and natural stone. That focus is why we dig deeper than looks necessary on clay, compact the aggregate in layers, screed a true bedding course and lock the field with an edge restraint before the joint sand goes in.
Todd Chandler is an ICPI Certified Paver Installer and a Belgard Master Craftsman, and every installation is built to ICPI specification with a 20 year warranty behind it. We lay Belgard, Calstone and McNear, so the surface can be matched to a 1950s ranch home or a brand new build without it looking borrowed. Estimates are free and there is no obligation, so book a time and we will come and look at the ground.
Where you will see us around Menlo Park
El Camino Real (CA 82) and the Caltrain line run right through the middle of town and that is our road down from San Carlos. East of them, US 101 and CA 84 carry the bay side traffic out toward the Dumbarton Bridge, and the ground out that way is flat bay plain. West, Sand Hill Road climbs gently toward Interstate 280 and the hills, and the soil changes as it rises. San Francisquito Creek runs along the southern edge and marks the San Mateo and Santa Clara county line.
You will see us on both sides of El Camino Real: on the older single story neighborhoods where a tired driveway and a cracked front path go in together, and on the newer builds where the whole back garden is being done at once. The surfaces change, the ground does not, so the base is what we talk about first every time. North of here we are on the same run for our Redwood City jobs.
Where we work
Paver work we build in Menlo Park
Menlo Park is one of our regular stops on the way down El Camino Real, along with the estate lots in Atherton next door and Redwood City just north of it.
Ask a paver installer
Straight answers about paver installation on the Peninsula
How far is Menlo Park from your shop?
A short run south. We are at 542 El Camino Real in San Carlos, so it is El Camino Real or US 101 the whole way down. There is no travel charge for coming out to look at a job.
Why do driveways in Menlo Park settle?
Usually the base, not the pavers. The soil nearer the bay is clay that swells when wet and shrinks when dry, so a shallow or poorly compacted base leaves voids and the surface follows them down. Built with the right depth and compacted in layers, the same ground carries a drive for decades.
Can pavers be repaired if one area settles?
Yes, and that is the advantage over a poured surface. We lift the affected pavers, correct the base beneath them, reset the same units and re sand the joints. There is no patch line and no color mismatch, because the pavers are the ones that were already there.
Water pools in my backyard. Can paving fix that?
Often, yes. On flat lots we build the fall into the surface and take the water somewhere useful with a trench drain or a catch basin and pipe. Where it suits the site we use an open jointed permeable build so the rain soaks into a stone reservoir under the paving instead of running to the street.
Do you do concrete or stamped concrete?
No. We only work in interlocking pavers and natural stone. We do replace plenty of old cracked surfaces with pavers, which is a common Menlo Park job, but pouring is not something we offer.
How long does a Menlo Park driveway take?
Most residential drives run a few days on site once we start, longer if there is base repair or drainage work in the scope. We will give you a real schedule at the estimate rather than a hopeful one, and every installation carries a 20 year warranty.