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Simon Villeneuve

How to Lay Large Pavers for Your Outdoor Living Space

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Are you laying large pavers, slabs, or stepping stones on your patio or other outdoor living space? If so, keep reading. This blog post is to help DIYers as you handle and lay large pavers like a pro.

Everyone loves large format pavers. They are bold and expansive, yet also simple. They have a heavier footprint, making a smaller area feel more significant. Large pavers are perfect for outdoor living spaces like pool decks, kitchens, and walkways.

How to lay large pavers

First, look at the ten steps before you lay your pavers. (Read How to Install Pavers for a more in-depth look at each stage.)

  1. Design: First, create a plan and decide on a pattern for your project. Remember that using large pavers will make the space seem bigger since large pavers have a more open and expansive style.
  1. Layout: Use white marking paint to create a sketch on the ground for where you will lay out your pavers.
  1. Square: Create a 90° triangle with a stake and string for a solid project anchor point.
  1. Set grade: Use a level line to grade your base so water will run off properly.
  1. Excavate: Remove any dirt and debris from your base. You should excavate approximately 4” to 6” for foot traffic areas or 12” for driveways or any type of surface that needs a lot of weight. Make sure the ground is well compacted so it will not shift in the future. 
  1. Set base: Your base should begin with geotextile fabric. Geotextile fabric is highly recommended in areas of heavy traffic, such as driveways, to prevent soil movement beneath the pavers. On top of the geotextile fabric, lay 3/4” minus gravel and compact it to 3” below where your pavers will lay.
  1. Screed sand: Lay sand and use a screed board to smooth and level it. For large pavers, 1/4”-10 crushed rock is often a better base; it is more rugged (less fragile) and has better drainage.
  1. Lay the stones: Start at the 90° corner and lay your pavers using the click-and-drop method. Make sure each paver is on the same level as the one next to it because even a slight height difference is enough for someone to trip while walking on your pavers.
  1. Install edge restraint: We recommend SnapEdge to keep your paver edges in place. After it is installed, cover it with sand or dirt so it does not warp.
  1. Finish: To finish laying your pavers, sweep polymeric sand into the joints and wet it. Your paver project is completed!

Answers to common questions about laying large pavers

Can I lay large pavers by myself?

You should find a friend to help you. Large-format pavers are heavy and difficult for a single person to lift.

Are there any tools to help me lay large pavers?

Consider buying or renting paver lifter tools like a SlabGrabber or SlabHandler. They’re not cheap, but if you’re laying a few dozen pavers, your back and hands will thank you!

How do you place large pavers while installing?

Click and drop your pavers; don’t drop and drag. Ensure you place pavers directly in place without dragging them along your bedding. Dragging turns your paver into a bulldozer, resulting in a very uneven project.

Anything else I need to know about laying large pavers?

Large pavers can cause injury if you slip or drop any while laying them. Don’t forget to wear personal protection equipment (PPE) such as gloves, long sleeves, and safety glasses to ensure you stay safe. 

Download our free planning guide

If you’re ready to start laying pavers but need help planning your project, we have a free resource. Download our free Project Planning Guide to prepare your large paver project best.

Cutting Pavers Around Curves: Pro Tips and Tricks

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It’s no secret that pavers in almost any form add luxury and elegance to a landscape. Square shapes created from pavers look excellent—but there is nothing like a beautifully cut curve on a patio or other hardscape.

Cutting curves is challenging, though! It takes practice and patience to do it like a professional. 

With a few pointers, anyone can cut a curve in their pavers. In this blog post, we will give you a few tips and tricks—straight from the pros— for cutting a curved paver edge.

Types of curves you will need to cut for pavers

First, let’s talk about the curves that can be used to make a beautiful, rounded patio edge.

Convex curves

A convex curve is an outward curve. You’ll need to make this type of curve if you have a patio with one side square against a foundation or border and the other side rounded out into the yard.

Concave curves

A concave curve is an inward curve, the opposite of a convex. This curve in your pavers is needed if you have a patio with one side in the corner of a foundation or border and the other side rounded along the house.

Convex and concave curves

Does your patio need both types of curves? Mixing the angles you use in your pavers to create a wave pattern is possible. Both sides are concave and convex, respectively, making a lovely variation in your patio.

Three pro tips for correctly cutting pavers for curves

1. Lay your paver pattern flat

The first thing you need to do when cutting a paver for a curve is to lay the pavers flat. Most people think you must stack or overlay the pavers on the turn, but that’s inaccurate. Lay the pavers as though filling a square or rectangle. Be sure the pavers are correctly in place, lay flat, and extend adequately over the curve lines.

2. Use a flexible guide as a reference line

If you are cutting pavers for a curve, ensure you have a flexible guide you can use as a reference line. One option is a garden hose—it will stay in place and move quickly if needed. Other people use PVC pipes as their guide. PVC is bendable and makes for a smooth and even curve. 

Use pegs or stakes to hold the hose or PVC in place. Also, mark your pavers with white chalk or a paver marker. 

3. Use a wet saw to cut pavers

There are a variety of ways to cut your pavers. However, score your marks with a paver marker or dry saw before cutting. Using a dry saw ensures your marks won’t wash or rub away. Please do not cut the pavers in their place. Once marked and scored, remove them one at a time, cut them independently, and place them back into the curve you create. 

Be sure to use a diamond blade to cut the curve, and do not attempt to use other blade types. Using different kinds of blades could result in injury or damage. Cut the pavers with a wet saw by having someone spray the paver while you cut. If you do not cut with a wet paver and saw, there will be a lot of dust that can be against OSHA guidelines and harmful to your health. 

Plan the perfect curved patio or walkway

Do you need help planning your paver project? Click here to download our free Project Planning Guide and get all the details you need to install an excellent curved patio or walkway.

Common Mistakes People Make While Screeding a Bedding Layer for Pavers

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If you are leveling a bedding layer for your pavers, you must know a few crucial things to avoid. In this blog post, we look at the most common mistakes people make while screeding a bedding layer for pavers so that you can avoid them and end up with a successful project.

1. Laying bedding that’s either too deep or too shallow

The first mistake people often make is laying a bedding layer that’s not an ideal depth. A bedding layer that is too thin will cause your hardscape to be uneven or rigid. A bedding layer that is too thick will be too soft, allowing your pavers to shift and sink into the bedding. You want to make sure to avoid both ends of the spectrum!

If you can’t fit a carpenter’s pencil underneath the screed rails, you’re good to go!

Ideally, you should aim for 1” or 25mm. If you use 1” outside diameter square tubing, you will be set to have the perfect depth in your bedding layer.

2. Not laying a bedding layer at all

The second mistake that DIYers frequently make is not laying bedding at all. Your pavers need a bedding layer—it doesn’t work to just put pavers on dirt or gravel.

If you do not use a bedding layer, the pavers will not settle properly; they will rise and sink over time. The pavers will also fail to interlock correctly if they are not laid on bedding—meaning they will eventually shift and become uneven.

 3. Only screeding in one direction

As you level the bedding layer, ensure you do not do it in only one direction. This is a common mistake that will cause inaccurate leveling. Instead, make sure you screed back and forth. Push and pull to provide accurate leveling without any inconsistencies or inaccuracies.

4. Using base material for the bedding layer

There’s a difference between the bedding and base layers of your hardscape. The bedding layer is thin. It’s the one you’ll place the pavers on. The base layer, on the other hand, is thicker and sits below your bedding layer.

The base material is typically larger aggregate like ¾”-0 road base, while the bedding layer should be ¼”-10 crushed gravel if laying open graded or bedding sand. Ensure you do not lay your pavers on road base gravel, dirt, or play sand—they will be neither level nor long-lasting.

5. Stepping on the bedding layer after screeding

Ensure you do not step on the bedding layer after scrolling it. If you do, you will create unwanted voids that will affect how level your pavers are after your project. If you have to walk on the bedding layer for any reason, place a board over the bedding layer and walk on the board to disperse your weight.

6. Failing to fill any voids before laying pavers

The final most common mistake people often make is failing to fill any voids or holes in the bedding layer before installing the hardscape. The most common void comes from screed rails, so once you remove your screed rails, make sure you fill in the resulting gaps.

To fill the void left by screed rails, use a hand trowel or hand shovel and toss some bedding material into your void. Use a broom or board to distribute the material evenly.

Download our Planning Guide

If you are ready to start on your paver project, check out our free Project Planning Guide for step-by-step details on how to get started.

How to Screed Sand for Pavers: Pro Tips, Tools, Materials, and Methods

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Screeding your bedding sand is a crucial part of any paving stone project, and the nice feature is that you only need a few essential tools. 

The first and most important thing is 1” outside diameter tubing. It’s beneficial for it to be metal so that it’s heavy. In our example, we are using 1” outer diameter square tubing.

You could also use some 1” outside diameter round tubing. What you don’t want to use is PVC pipe. It’s lightweight and moves around a lot when pulling your board across. It’s also super flexible, so it follows the contours in your gravel, whereas something metal would bridge those imperfections and make for a more consistent project.

The next thing is a spirit level. You’ll use it to double-check your rails before you screed your sand and your boards if you have a more expansive, broader area than the length of your level. You can also use it to check for the slope and the slope direction you need. 

After that, you need a screed board. A good, flat two-by-four will work just fine. We use an aluminum screed board so that we know it’s perfectly balanced to give it that good consistency. 

Other than those, you need a few essential hand tools like a shovel, a broom, and a trowel to fill your voids. Having a flat rake around is also beneficial if you have one. It just makes moving around fine aggregates like sand much more manageable.

Materials for Screeding

Before discussing how to screed the bedding layer, consider the materials you’ll commonly see and what we recommend you use. The most common is ASTM C33 or washed river sand.

This is fine sand ranging up to 1/4″ pebbles and is commonly screeded moist. One thing we see sometimes that we don’t recommend is fine, dry sand. We often use this to fill our paver joints because it’s super fine and fills them up quickly. However, because it doesn’t have those 1/4″ pebbles in there as washed river sand does, it doesn’t screed well, whether dry or wet. 

One thing you can also use as a substitute, especially if you’re in a wet climate, like here in the Pacific Northwest, is a 1/4″ crushed, washed aggregate.

This retains no moisture as opposed to the washed river sand, and it also doesn’t get baked dry in the sun in the summertime as washed river sand does. You can still utilize washed river sand on a sunny day; you want to ensure that when you screed it out moist, you cover it up with your paving stones as fast as possible to retain that moisture.

Methods for Screeding

Step 1: Lay Screed Rails

Before screeding your bedding material, you want to ensure your base is perfectly flat and consistent. To learn more about paving stone base construction, watch our video, “How to Prep and Lay a Paver Base.” 

When it looks good, you can move to the first step, which is positioning your screed rails. We’re using 1” outside metal square tubing and will be laying that with the direction of the slope of our project. Widthwise, you want to be level and consistent throughout, but we will lay the rails in the position of our pitch to make it a little bit easier to screed. 

Once your rails are there, you’ll want to check for any humps and bumps; anything within 1/4″ is tolerable, whether a low spot or a high spot. You can knock your rails down for the high spots and build some material underneath the rail for your low spots.

You’re good to go if you can’t fit a carpenter’s pencil underneath the screed rails!

If it’s anything more significant than 3/8″, whether high or low, you want to either rake that down or add more 3/4″ of whatever your aggregate base material is to build that up. With those positioned and leveled widthwise and sloping in the direction of your slope, you can go ahead and place your sand and start dragging that across with your screed board.

Step 2: Spread Sand Bedding

After you’ve positioned your rails, you can move to the next step, placing and spreading your bedding material. In our example, we have about a 100-square-foot area and will be screeding half with the washed river sand and half with the 1/4″ crushed clean aggregate to show the differences in how they screed.

Step 3: Screed the Sand Bed

When your sand has been all spread out, you can start screeding. You can use a perfectly flat or straight two-by-four for this process. In our example, since we screed a lot of bedding material, we’re using a nice, flat aluminum board. It’s up to you whether it makes sense to justify the purchase. 

This part of the process is relatively simple. You pull it toward you because that’s the easiest and most natural way. As you drag, occasionally, you may encounter a rock from your base aggregate. If that happens, pluck the rock out as soon as you notice it because it can make long voids. Fill the void, however long or extensive it is, then take your board, top it off, and continue. When you finish the section, you can take one rail out, leapfrog it over to the other, and start screeding your next section of bedding material.

Step 4: Reposition the Screed Rails

When you finish screeding your first section, you’ll move to the next step, repositioning your rails. Instead of just taking both screed rails out and forcing them to a new area to screed the next section, in our example, we will reuse the middle rail, which we know is already perfectly consistent with our gravel base.

It will make it much easier to take this first rail out, leapfrog it over to the next area, double-check it for grade with our level and screed board, and then screed the next section.

Step 5: Fill the Voids

After screeding the two sections in our example, we’re ready for the last step, filling the voids created from our screed rails. When you do this, you first need to pull your screed rails away, then toss in some loose aggregate or sand, whichever one you used as your bedding material for the project. Then top it off with a trowel or something like a flat broom that can reach farther away. 

Regardless of your method, you want to ensure you refrain from walking on your bedding as much as possible. If you have to step out onto your bedding, try walking on these voids from the screed rails because you’ll have to fix that area anyway.

Whether you’re using washed river sand or 1/4″ crushed clean aggregate as your bedding, if you follow our steps, you’ll be left with a nice consistent bedding layer to lay whatever paving stone you want on top of it. 

Plan the perfect curved patio or walkway

Do you need help planning your paver project? Click here to download our free Project Planning Guide and get all the details you need to install an excellent curved design patio or walkway.

3 Reasons Every DIY Hardscape Project Needs Geogrid 

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If you are about to start a hardscape project on your own, you may wonder whether geogrid is necessary for the project you have in mind. Is it worth the extra trouble to implement it in your hardscape?

In this blog post, we look at three reasons every DIY hardscaping project needs geogrid.

Benefits of geogrid

First, it’s important to note that by using geogrid, you make any hardscape project more substantial and sustainable. Modern hardscape professionals have set a precedent for implementing geogrid into the hardscape and for a good reason.

Current professional practice

Statistics show that nearly 60% of hardscape professionals use woven fabrics for the majority of their hardscape. People who install hardscapes for a living know that their projects will not stand the test of time and will likely be damaged without geogrid.

Historical hardscape projects

Well-known hardscape projects constructed in the last century also indicate that geogrid is necessary for success.

The Dutch incorporated geotextiles into the extraordinary Delta Works flood protection scheme in the early 1960s. And in 1970, the Valcros Dam in France set the stage for several important dam and embankment designs that utilized geotextile filtration for long-term performance.

Why you should use geogrid in hardscape

Even if you aren’t planning to build a dam that lasts for decades, let’s consider why you should still use geogrid in your project.

1. Less excavating

One of the reasons to use geogrid in hardscape is that it will save you time. That’s because you will not have to do as much excavating. Geogrid reduces the depth of excavation required on unsuitable subgrades. Decreasing the digging and excavating required for your project will make your project go faster—and more effortlessly.

2. Increased soil strength

Perhaps the most obvious benefit of using geogrid in your hardscape is that it will significantly increase the power of the soil. It provides enhanced safety and outstanding seismic durability by strengthening slopes. Your retaining wall won’t fall over, and your patio is less likely to wash out when you implement geogrid.

3. Reduced differential settlement

The final reason to use geogrid in your DIY hardscape project is to reduce the difference in how your hardscape settles. It will reduce the need for constant hardscape maintenance and extend the life of walking paths, roads, retaining walls, and more. Geogrid is a significant factor in ensuring your hardscape project lasts forever.

Download our free planning guide

Are you ready to start your DIY project and implement your new knowledge of the benefits of using geogrid? Our free Project Planning Guide will walk you through everything you need to get a good start.

Geogrid for Hardscape: 10 Common Questions People Ask

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Are you wanting to know more about geogrid in hardscape? If you are preparing to install pavers in your yard, you’ve likely been advised to implement geogrid in whatever hardscape you install. But when should you use geogrid? What is its purpose? How long does geogrid last?

In this blog post, we’ll answer the most frequently asked questions about geogrid so that you can be equipped with knowledge before you begin your hardscape project.

1. When should you use geogrid?

Geogrid is used in almost every type of hardscape—from driveways to walkways to patios and everything in between. However, it is essential in retaining walls, particularly those above three or four feet.

Pro Tip

Geogrid should be implemented whenever you want your hardscape to last and stay structurally sound.

It is better to install geogrid and learn later that it might not have been necessary than to skip using it and have your wall crumble a few years later.

2. What is the purpose of geogrid?

Geogrid is used in slope stabilization, soil stabilization, and soil reinforcement. Geogrid is crucial in keeping your hardscape interlocked while the environment around it naturally swells, shrinks, and shifts in response to climate and seasonal changes.

3. Do all retaining walls need geogrid?

Yes, it is ideal to use geogrid in all retaining applications. For most man-made retaining wall blocks, geogrid is desired at 36”-48” exposed wall heights.

If steep slopes are near the wall, loading above the barrier, tiered walls, or poor soil, geogrid becomes even more necessary, regardless of wall height.

4. What can I use instead of geogrid?

Products such as a weed barrier or orange safety fencing are not the same thing as geogrid. Geogrid is intentionally designed with specific ribs and patterns to minimize shifting and settling.

Pro Tip

The cost of implementing geogrid in your initial installation is well worth the alternative of rebuilding your hardscape after only a few years.

Woven textiles can provide a highly efficient and cost-effective alternative to rigid polypropylene geogrids for base stabilization applications. However, if the instructions for your retaining wall block tell you to use geogrid… do use geogrid.

5. How long does geogrid last?

Your geogrid will essentially last forever.

Tests have shown that geogrid has virtually no degradation for exposure in an outdoor environment for 12 months. This means that degradation will not happen even if geogrid is left exposed to the elements.

There is even less chance of degradation when geogrid is underground in a dense aggregate environment, as it usually is. Your geogrid will last as long as your hardscape—likely longer than you!

6. Can I use geogrid in concrete or asphalt?

Yes, you can and probably should. Geogrid reinforcement can be used in thin Portland cement concrete (PCC) members and overlays in pavements and other structures where steel reinforcement cannot be set due to constructability and strength impediments.

Incorporating geogrids into the roadway section effectively creates a stiffer, more uniform foundation that will maintain well and for a long time. You can read more in this article where the Arizona Department of Transportation describes how it used geogrid in the paving of US 89T. 

7. What are the advantages of using geogrid?

Reduce excavation

If you use geogrid, you can reduce the depth of excavation required on unsuitable subgrades. This means less digging and excavation, making your project more straightforward.

Strengthen soil

Geogrid does wonders to strengthen the soil and provide enhanced safety and excellent seismic durability by stabilizing slopes. Geogrid ensures that your retaining wall won’t fall over!

Reduce settlement

Another advantage of geogrid is that it reduces differential settlement. Geogrids lessen the need for maintenance and extend the lifetime of paths, roads, walls, and more. 

8. How strong is geogrid?

Geogrids have higher tensile strength than the soils they contain and, depending on their size, can endure heavy loads. With a tensile strength of 1885 lbs/sq ft, geogrid can easily withstand heavy vehicular traffic (even trucks carrying heavy loads), aid in retaining solid walls and steep driveways, and hold up under an extremely high volume of foot traffic.

9. Where is geogrid placed?

Geogrid is placed atop the subgrade (the primary layer of earth below your project) and below the AB (aggregate base). In other words, dirt, sand, or large rock should be below the geogrid and ¾”-0 road base gravel installed on top of it.

10. What is the difference between geogrid and geotextile?

Geotextiles are for separation, filtration, and drainage purposes, while geogrids are used specifically for reinforcement. If you want to build a strong hardscape, use geogrid.

Download our Planning Guide

If you need guidance for installing your hardscape (and geogrid), download our free Project Planning Guide.

How Geotextile Works in Hardscaping Projects: Stabilize Paver Patios, Driveways, Retaining Walls

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When working on your hardscape project, it’s essential to know about some crucial geo products you can utilize that will leave you happy with your project for a long, long time. 

Overview of geotextiles

Various geo products are out there, ranging from a woven or nonwoven textile to a uniaxial or biaxial grid. Each can provide strength and longevity to your hardscape.

Nonwoven geotextile fabric

Filter fabric may look like your traditional landscape fabric or weed barrier, but it’s an engineered polypropylene, nonwoven material. It can be used under paving stones or behind a retaining wall. Its primary function is to keep dirt from migrating into your gravel.

Because dirt in your rock can promote settling—especially behind a retaining wall—it can change your surcharge load and encourage failure. It doesn’t have quite the same tensile strength as a woven geotextile, so if you don’t need that tensile strength and need permeability, this is the product for you.

Woven geotextile fabric

A woven geotextile is the most common fabric we see today. Its primary function is like the filtered fabric—keeping dirt from migrating into your gravel and promoting settling.

The tradeoff between geo filter and this is that it has such high tensile strength and is so tightly woven that it has no permeability. But that’s precisely the benefit of a pavement system involving paving stones, asphalt, or concrete; it has enough tensile strength to create some bridge ability in any settling or voids that could be created over time.

We constructed a demonstration table to show the benefits of utilizing a woven geotextile fabric underneath the base construction of your paving stone or any pavement project. We have a wooden box, and we have a removable drawer. What we did was fill the entire box with compacted gravel and then lay a course of stones over the top of it.

We removed the removable drawer to show what would happen to the gravel base and the pavement on top if a void was created below the base construction. We then replicated that test utilizing a piece of geotextile (the woven polypropylene kind) to show how much tensile strength and bridge ability you get when a void is created underneath a base construction with that fabric versus without.

After we pulled the drawer out of our demonstration table, the pavers did settle a bit. Not all of our gravel base construction fell into that void, and it wasn’t the most accurate reference to how a paving stone system would work when properly installed. Nobody will ever have a void this big and wide just quickly and drastically happen, like in the demonstration. Other contributing factors would also help it, like joint material, edge, or strain. The bedding material would help that, too. 

While it isn’t the best, most accurate reference, it does help to know that there is enough tensile strength out of this geotextile that if any smaller voids happen, there would be much more bridge ability and stability so you can get in there, and still have functional pavement on top.

Uniaxial geogrid

You may want to look into a uniaxial geogrid if constructing a segmental retaining wall. If you use a Stratagrid 350, you’ll see that some ribbons are more expansive and even more expansive on the edges. It has a lot of strength in just one direction, making it a uniaxial grid.

If you’re constructing a retaining wall, this goes in between your courses of block, creating an anchor into your gravel backfill and your dirt behind the wall, which keeps it from eventually rotating forward and failing. Utilizing some unidirectional geogrid with retaining wall projects is highly recommended if not required.

As an example of orienting a unidirectional geogrid within a retaining wall, we made a replica of a small Murata wall. With our Stratagrid 350 in place, the extra wide ribbons on the ends were apparent.

We typically sell 6’ wide rolls. What you don’t want to do is cut 2’ off that roll and roll it behind your wall. It is manufactured in the direction of the strength so that you will roll it out in 4’ strips or beyond, depending on the height of your retaining wall. You’ll cut that and lay them next to each other, side by side.

With your grid in place, you’ll have your blocks with open cells and gravel locking that in place. Then you’ll have compact gravel behind. This grid helps contribute to anchoring a robust system.

Biaxial geogrid

Another common geogrid you’ll want to consider utilizing is biaxial. Instead of having a high tensile strength in one direction like the uniaxial geogrid, this has an even tensile strength in both directions. Because of this, it has a broader range of applications. It can still be utilized in the base construction of a segmental retaining wall, but it doesn’t have the same tensile strength as the uniaxial. This is commonly used in aggregate stabilization underneath paving stones, concrete, or asphalt. It doesn’t matter which because if you have a gravel base, you can insert this in between layers. It will help promote longevity by providing stabilization in both directions.

Biaxial geogrid is also commonly used for an edge restraint system in the paving stone world. If you’re using a concrete product, you’ll see this laid underneath the bedding material toward the project’s edges. Workers will cut away the bedding material and put their concrete troweled edge on top, helping make a bridge effect about 2’ or so into the border stone to promote longevity. It’s also sometimes used in column construction. It can be put between your block layers, and whatever aggregate or backflow you put inside the column can be stabilized with this product. No matter what kind of product you have, there may be a use for a biaxial geogrid.

We constructed a demonstration to show just how well a few pieces of geogrid can stabilize a gravel-based construction project. We have two boxes. One will be filled and compacted with 3/4″ crushed clean stone with no geogrid.

The other box will also be filled and packed with 3/4″ crushed clean stone, and we will put four pieces of geogrid throughout it. When we release these boxes with someone standing on the gravel on top of a paver, you’ll see the difference in how they perform from a stabilization standpoint.

With our two boxes, it’s easy to see that the box without any geogrid reinforcement ultimately settled and sluffed off to the floor. And the side with the four geogrid layers stays upstanding, even when the person gets off it. It was the same person for both demonstrations; there was no weight change.

Using four layers of geogrid reinforcement may not be crucial for your paving stone project. At least one layer would be good, though. Our test helps show how it can help with the longevity and structure of your project.

Summary of geotextile use in hardscape

Many geo products are available for you to utilize in your hardscape project. They’re all inexpensive and serve basically as a cheap insurance policy. It’s one of those scenarios where it’s better to have it and not need it rather than need it and not have it. Because they’re inexpensive, especially when factoring in the total cost of a project, they’re easily attainable. If you want to learn more about hardscape projects and how to do them yourself, please look around more on our website.

Plan the perfect curved patio or walkway

Do you need help planning your paver project? Click here to download our free Project Planning Guide and get all the details you need to install a beautiful curved patio or walkway.

3 Textured Pavers That Replace Stamped Concrete

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Do you love adding texture to your landscape, such as stamped concrete? Good news! Some pavers mimic stamped concrete—which means you have a better option. Let us show you three beautifully textured pavers you might want to use for your outdoor space.

Granite Stone

Bring a rugged look to the comfort of your backyard with Granite Stone. To make granite-like pavers, we take an exact digital copy of the surface of a piece of granite and transpose the design onto a paver. This results in a beautiful, natural stone look.

Granite Stone Columbia Blend

Granite stone comes in five color options:

  • Cambridge Blend (dark and light grey)
  • Charcoal (dark grey)
  • Columbia Blend (dark grey and tan)
  • Jamestown Blend (dark grey, light grey, tan)
  • NW Slate Blend (dark grey, light grey, green)

Alpine Stone™

Our Alpine Stone™ pavers are also rugged. They reproduce the character of the high mountains with a fractured surface and battered edges. The Alpine-style complements the weathered look of any of our tumbled pavers or wall blocks.

Tegula Garden Wall Columbia Blend

Alpine pavers are a perfect alternative to stamped concrete. They come in two textures—you can choose between smooth or tumbled, depending on whether you want to just add some texture or a totally rustic look. Either way, these pavers make any space feel like you’re in the mountains.

La Pietra™

If you are drawn to the traditional look of the Eastern United States, you may want to consider La Pietra™ as an alternative to stamped concrete. This paver looks just like a natural slab stone, and it replicates the look of natural Pennsylvania bluestone.

Tegula Firepit Columbia Blend

The five basic sizes of La Pietra™ pavers all module off of a base of 7”,14”, and 21”. These sizes are great to blend together for patterns or unique looks, if that is something you like.

If you love the size and color choices of La Pietra™ but have a more modern style, you can opt for La Pietra™ Moderna, the modern alternative to La Pietra.

Download the Paver project planning guide

If you are ready to start your paver project, we have a guide that might help. Download our free Project Planning Guide so you can be prepared before you start your project.

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Since 1990 Western Interlock has been manufacturing high-quality paving stone supply. We carry pavers, patio pavers, driveway pavers, landscape pavers, retaining wall design, fire pit kits, fireplace kits, and a huge selection of Installation guides. We strive to provide high-quality products with excellent service.

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