Redwood City paving contractor
Yes, we lay pavers across Redwood City
Redwood City is the seat of San Mateo County and it covers a lot of ground for a Peninsula town. It runs from the hills on the west side, across El Camino Real and the Caltrain line, over US 101 and out onto the flat land and sloughs at the bay. CA 84 cuts through the middle of it, so we can be at almost any address in town within a few minutes of leaving the shop.
Two different kinds of job come out of that. West of El Camino the ground rises, so there are level changes, walls and steps to deal with. East of it, the neighborhoods that filled in after the war sit flat on bay clay, and the original drives and paths are now sixty and seventy years old. Both end up in the same place: a proper compacted base, a screeded bedding layer and a field of pavers that is locked in at the edges. That is all we do, and you can see the range of it across everything we build on the Peninsula.
What makes a Redwood City job different
The soil. The closer you get to the bay, the more of it is clay, and clay swells when it is wet and shrinks when it dries. That seasonal movement is why so many older surfaces here are cracked in long lines, lifted at one corner, or stepped where one side dropped and the other did not. A new surface poured straight onto ground that moves does the same thing again within a few years.
So we deal with what is underneath. The old surface comes out, we excavate to depth, and the base goes back as compacted aggregate in layers rather than one thick lift. Pavers then sit on a screeded bedding layer, which is the part that makes this work on moving ground: the field flexes as a unit instead of cracking, and if anything ever does settle, those pavers come up and go back down. Most of our work here is driveway paving and back garden patios, and it starts when you have us come and price it properly, because we will tell you honestly what the ground is doing.
What we handle here
What we build in Redwood City
Driveway Paving
The standard Redwood City call is a narrow post war drive that has cracked down the middle and lifted at the apron. We break it out, dig to depth, rebuild the base and lay pavers with a border that holds the edges where cars turn in. Most drives here can also be widened while we are in there, since the base work is the same either way. See how our paver driveways are built.
Patio Paving
Back gardens here are flat, which makes a patio simple to get right and easy to get wrong. The surface has to pitch away from the house, not toward it, and the base has to be compacted properly or the clay underneath will telegraph through in a couple of wet seasons. Our paver patios are set level to the eye, pitched where it counts, and finished with a border course that locks the field in.
Walkway Paving
Front paths and narrow side yard runs are the jobs people put off, then trip on. Old paths here lift at the joints as the clay moves and roots get under them. We rebuild the base, lay the walkway flat and even so nothing rocks underfoot, and keep the width honest so a wheelbarrow or a wheelchair can actually use it. That is our walkway paving work.
Drainage Solutions for Driveways
On flat bayside lots the water has nowhere obvious to go, so it sits, and sitting water is what softens a base and lifts a surface. We build a fall into the paving, put trench drains where the driveway meets the garage and set catch basins at the low points. The drainage side of it is installed with the base, not added afterward.
Why Redwood City calls us
Why Redwood City homeowners call Exterior Designs
Because we are the next town up El Camino Real and we do one thing. Exterior Pavers Designs is family owned and operated, Todd Chandler runs the crew himself, and the lime green shirts on your driveway belong to the same people who gave you the number. Nobody hands your job to a sub you have never met.
On ground that moves, how the job is built underneath is the whole story, and that is where the certifications earn their keep. Todd is an ICPI Certified Paver Installer and a Belgard Master Craftsman, and we lay Belgard, Calstone and McNear. Every installation is built to ICPI specification and backed by a 20 year warranty. If you want to see what that looks like before you commit, the driveway work we do here shows the detail, and the estimate is free.
Where you will see us around Redwood City
Redwood City is wide, and the roads split it into layers. Interstate 280 runs along the hills at the western edge. El Camino Real and the Caltrain line run through the middle past downtown. US 101 runs along the bay side, and CA 84 crosses all of it on its way from the bay out toward the hills. Wherever your address sits in that, we can get a loaded truck to it from San Carlos without a long detour.
The ground changes as you move across those layers. West of El Camino Real the land rises, so the jobs come with level changes, low walls and steps. East of it, the neighborhoods that filled in after the war sit flat on bay clay, and the original drives, paths and entries there are long past their working life. Those are the calls we get most: a cracked surface taken out, the base rebuilt properly, and new paving laid so it stays flat through the wet seasons.
Where we work
Paver work we build in Redwood City
We work all over Redwood City, from the hillside streets on the west side out to the flat neighborhoods near the bay, and we are regularly just across the city line, on our Atherton jobs and the flat lots around Menlo Park to the south.
Ask a paver installer
Straight answers about paver installation on the Peninsula
How far is Redwood City from your shop?
It is the next town south of us. Our shop is on El Camino Real in San Carlos, so most Redwood City addresses are a few minutes down El Camino Real or one exit on US 101. Coming out to look and quote is free.
My driveway is cracked and lifted. Do you have to take it all out?
Almost always, yes. On the older Redwood City streets, if the old surface has cracked and lifted, the base under it has usually failed or the ground has moved, and laying anything over the top of that just repeats the problem. We dig it out, look at what is underneath and rebuild it properly.
Will pavers crack like the old surface did?
No, because a paver field is not one rigid piece. Each unit sits on a bedding layer with sand in the joints, so the surface flexes with small ground movement instead of cracking across it. If anything ever does settle, the pavers lift out and go back down in the same afternoon.
Can you widen my driveway while you are replacing it?
Usually. The base work is the same whether the drive is ten feet or sixteen, so widening is mostly a question of what the property line and the setback allow in Redwood City. We will look at it with you at the estimate and tell you what is realistic.
Do you do concrete or asphalt?
No, neither. We only work in interlocking pavers and natural stone. A good part of our Redwood City work is taking out a cracked slab and putting a paver surface in its place.
What warranty comes with the work?
Twenty years, and every installation is built to ICPI specification. Todd is ICPI certified and a Belgard Master Craftsman, and we lay Belgard, Calstone and McNear products, so the warranty sits on top of materials we know. We are minutes from most Redwood City addresses if you ever need us back.