SET IN STONE - Fixing Up After Cracking Up

You’re sitting outside, enjoying lemonade and a bowl of juicy strawberries. Mourning doves cease their cooing to feast on the feeder. But in almost every seemingly perfect picture, there’s a crack somewhere in the canvas. And there may be several beside and beneath you. We sat down with Dave Cobin, owner of Patio Builders in Pipersville, to learn how you’ll know when it’s time to build or fix your home’s patio or stonework.

Don’t Fly Blind
The worst thing you can do when starting any project is not planning out and understanding the scope of the work ahead of you. Cobin suggests a rendering, drawn to scale, before any work commences. With a visual plan in hand, you can make sure it’s what you want and falls in your price range before signing any contracts – or starting the work yourself. Hardscape construction and landscaping can cost anywhere from $2,000 to $85,000 and above, so making sure you’re getting what you want is extremely important.

When it comes to choosing materials, Cobin recommends using interlocking concrete pavers for patios, sidewalks and driveways. “Every product has its advantages and its disadvantages,” he says. “But the reason we like to recommend concrete pavers is because there are a lot of design opportunities. When interlocking pavers are installed, they will outlast poured-in-place concrete. Interlocking pavers are a flexible pavement and won’t crack or spall like concrete does.” But the benefits don’t stop there. “When interlocking pavers are installed correctly, there’s no maintenance required,” Cobin adds. “They don’t need to be painted or stained. They won’t crack or fade.”

By Sweat or by Check
“The kind of work we do is back-breaking, and unless you do it every day, it can wear someone out pretty quick,” Cobin says. He recommends leaving a few days for the project or hiring professionals to do the job. “I’ve found over the years that people hate the process… the dust and the mud,” he continues. “And no one wants to come home to a mess, especially if there’s young children to track it all into the house.”

But if you’re like any homeowner on a tighter budget these days, doing it yourself may pretty much look like the best financial option. While tackling your job, make sure to keep one key instruction in mind: Before laying down any type of pavement material, make sure the base is well compacted. A lack of proper compaction in the base can lead to pavement settlement and failure. Cobin says that the biggest problem he finds in failed paver installations is the lack of a base or improper compaction and sub par edge restraints and settling beds. “Work like that can give pavers a bad name,” he says. “Whether you hire out or not, pavers need a proper base, the proper settling bed and the proper edging.”

And while the team at Patio Builders has garnered years of experience in paving, they’re hardly limited to one trade. They also specialize in landscaping services and design work. Recently, Cobin and crew completed a full backyard oasis, including an outdoor kitchen and an entertainment center using different types of materials on multiple levels of the property. The project utilized every aspect of Cobin’s experience: “We started with nothing and really turned it into a showpiece.”

To contact Cobin and his team at Patio Builders, please call 215-262-3619.