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Cover Driveway & Pavers: The San Antonio Owner’s Guide
We stock and install driveway and paver materials that match Cover-specified layouts across San Antonio, with full paver driveway installation running $7,000 to $18,000 and concrete driveway work starting at $4,500. Most homeowners call us after noticing pavers shifting near the garage apron or a concrete slab settling at the street transition. You’ll get a written price before we touch the site, and our crew arrives with names and photos sent to you in advance.
What you’re dealing with is rarely a single broken paver. It’s usually the base layer failing underneath, or the edge restraint letting go along the driveway border. In San Antonio’s clay-heavy soil, we see the same pattern over and over: dry summers shrink the ground, wet winters swell it, and whatever sat on top takes the punishment. We’ll explain what actually failed, what it costs to fix right, and whether you need spot repair or full replacement before you spend a dollar.
Which Cover Models This Applies To
Cover’s driveway and paver specifications vary by series, and the compatibility gotcha owners hit most often is this: paver thickness is set by the original installation, not by the paver brand on top. Cover-spec driveways in San Antonio typically run 60mm pavers for residential vehicle loads, but some older installations used 40mm pavers under the assumption of lighter traffic. If you replace a 60mm paver with a 40mm equivalent, you’ll see it crack at the first real load. That’s the kind of thing we check on-site before quoting.
You can identify your paver by flipping one over. The mold number and thickness stamp tell us what we’re matching. For concrete driveways, the relevant “part” is usually the expansion joint material and the slab thickness at the apron, which most Cover-spec plans set at 4 inches with rebar on 18-inch centers. OEM-labeled pavers from major manufacturers like Belgard, Unilock, and Techo-Bloc are what we typically source, and we also keep aftermarket equivalents on hand when the original line has been discontinued. We’re an independent San Antonio service provider, not affiliated with Cover, which means we’re free to source the best match at the best price rather than whatever a single catalog offers.
Styles & brands we work with
Signs Your Cover Driveway & Pavers Is Failing
- Pavers rocking underfoot near the garage door. The base sand has washed out through a failed edge restraint, and now the pavers are pivoting on their neighbors instead of sitting flat. Left alone, the rocking spreads outward as more base material escapes.
- Concrete slab settling at the street apron. The city’s right-of-way transition is where San Antonio’s clay soil does its worst work, and a 1-inch drop at the apron means water now pools at the garage threshold instead of draining toward the street.
- Weeds or ants pushing up between pavers. This means the joint sand has gone missing and the paver field is no longer locked together as one surface. The fix is not just new sand; it’s re-establishing the edge restraint so the sand stays put.
- Cracks running in straight lines across concrete. Straight-line cracking usually means a missing or failing expansion joint, not a weak slab. The slab is just doing what concrete does when it can’t move; the joint is the part that failed.
- Puddles that linger 30 minutes after rain. Driveway drainage in San Antonio is supposed to move water toward the street or a channel drain. A puddle that stays means the slope has flattened, often because part of the base settled and took the surface with it.
See the difference
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After
Before
After
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AfterReplacement Cost & What’s Included
For San Antonio homeowners, a full paver driveway replacement runs $7,000 to $18,000, while a concrete driveway replacement lands between $5,000 and $14,000. Spot repair on a failed section of pavers typically falls in the $1,500 to $4,000 range depending on how much base rebuilding is involved. Concrete crack repair and joint replacement usually runs $400 to $1,800 when caught before slab movement spreads.
What drives the range: paver thickness and brand (60mm Belgard or Techo-Bloc costs more than 40mm aftermarket), base condition (if the original base was under-built, we’re rebuilding it, not just dressing it up), and access (a driveway with a narrow side gate for equipment costs more to work than one with open front access). Every quote includes excavation and disposal of failed base material where needed, new base and bedding sand, paver or concrete material, edge restraints, joint sand, and final compaction. Our written price covers all of it, and the 365-Day Done Right Promise means if something shifts or sinks within a year of completion, we return and fix it at no charge. No change orders, no surprise line items.
DIY or Call Us?
You can safely check two things yourself: flip a loose paver and read the thickness stamp, and measure the drop at your worst settling spot with a straight 2×4 and a tape measure. Those two numbers tell us more over the phone than most people expect. What you should not attempt is pulling up a failed section and re-laying it without rebuilding the base. The pavers are the easy part. The base is the actual repair, and a poorly compacted base in San Antonio clay will fail again within a season or two, which means you’ll pay for the job twice.
Concrete slab work is heavier and more unforgiving. If you’ve got a settling slab, the fix involves either mudjacking or removing and repouring the section, and both need equipment and a trained crew. The risk isn’t just a bad-looking driveway; it’s a slab that drains water toward your foundation instead of away from it. Call (254) 269-5071 and we’ll send someone to look at it, no charge for the estimate, and you’ll know exactly who’s coming before they ring the bell. Know who’s coming, know what it costs, know it’s covered – that’s the whole job before the job starts.
FAQs
A properly installed paver driveway on a well-compacted base should last 25 to 30 years in San Antonio before needing major work, while a concrete driveway typically runs 20 to 25 years. The wildcard is the base, not the surface: pavers can always be re-set, but a failed base means a full excavation and rebuild, which usually happens around year 10 on driveways that were under-built originally. Call (254) 269-5071 if you want us to assess your base condition before the surface tells you it’s too late.
Yes, we repair sections regularly, especially where a single edge has blown out or one portion of the base has settled while the rest stays intact. The honest caveat is that paver color from a new batch will rarely match the sun-faded field exactly, so a repair section can read as slightly newer for a year or two until it weathers in. If the failure is widespread, full replacement is usually the better money. We’ll show you the math either way before you decide.
Most residential paver driveway replacements take 3 to 5 working days from excavation through final compaction, weather permitting. Concrete driveway replacement runs 4 to 7 days including the cure time before vehicle traffic. We schedule around San Antonio’s rainy seasons so your base doesn’t get saturated mid-install, which matters more than most homeowners expect.
We stock common aftermarket pavers in 60mm thickness and several standard colors on our trucks for spot repairs, and we order OEM lines from Belgard, Unilock, and Techo-Bloc for full replacements, which take 3 to 10 business days depending on the color and series. We also stock parts for other brands we service, including KraftMaid, Cambria, and Silestone, for interior projects. If your paver line is discontinued, we’ll bring physical samples so you can match the old field before we order.
Written by Isaac Pruett, Owner, Mason Remodeling Co San Antonio at Mason Remodeling Co San Antonio, serving San Antonio and nearby areas.
