Walkway Repair Costs in Winnipeg
If properly built, a concrete paver walkway can last for many years with minimal maintenance. I have seen old unistone walkways built in the 1960s that are still in great shape.
But the clay sub-soil found in the Winnipeg area can be challenging. It expands dramatically when wet, and if July is hot and dry, the ground will shrivel up, often producing large cracks in your yard. This expansion and contraction can be hard on brick walkways. The stone base under a walkway helps to isolate the surface from the movement of the sub-soil, but over time you may see cracks developing or portions of your walkways may start to sink.
The good news is that concrete paver walkways can be easily repaired. Assuming that the crushed stone base is still sound, it is a process of removing the pavers, re-leveling the base with additional crushed stone and then re-setting the pavers with new polymeric sand in the joints to lock everything together and to seal out dirt and weeds.
Only in rare cases will it be necessary to replace the old stone base.
Costs
The general price range is $13 to $30 per square foot. This only includes the area that actually needs repairing, not the entire surface area of the walkway.
As with the construction of a new concrete paver walkway, repair costs can vary widely depending on the location of the walkway and its condition. Since there is no fixed per-square-foot price, let's look at a few examples.
Example 1: A small 3 foot by 15 foot walkway with minor shifting and weed growth
We commonly do repair work on small front walkways, such as the ones found in River Heights.
A typical walkway from the public sidewalk to the front steps could be 15 feet long by 3 feet wide. The walkway may have been in place for 30 or 40 years. In this example, the walkway is not in terrible shape but there has been some minor shifting over the years, and has sunken a bit near the front step.
Walkways of this age will frequently be overgrown with grass and weeds, since they were built prior to the development of polymeric sand. The solution is to remove and clean the pavers, get rid of dirt, debris and plant material that has collected in the cracks, then re-level the stone base and reset the pavers.
Cost: $24 to $27 per square foot, roughly $1100 to $1300 total.
Duration: A job like this could be completed in a morning
Example 2: A medium-sized 4 foot by 25 foot walkway with minor shifting and weed growth
A 4 foot wide, 25 foot long walkway very similar to Example 1. In Winnipeg this kind of sidewalk might be found on a larger lot in River Heights or possibly in Tuxedo or Charleswood.
Cost: $19 to $21 per square foot, around $2000 total.
Duration: This would be about a half a day's work for our four-man crew.
Example 3: Large 4 foot by 80 foot walkway with significant settling
A larger 4 foot wide by 80 foot long leads from your front steps to the pool deck in your back yard. It was built only 10 years ago, but because the walkway follows the foundation along the side of your house, there has been significant settling, and now slopes toward the house in places.
We would need a little more base stone to correct the grading along the side of the house, and because the area between the house and the walkway has also settled, it will be necessary to re-grade that area as well.
Cost: $15 to $17 per square foot, around $5000 for the walkway alone. Possibly another $500 to $1500 for grading along the foundation.
Duration: The full project would take a day to 1.5 days to complete.
All of these prices assume relatively minor shifting, which is the most common situation. Major holes in a walkway might indicate deeper problems and might require excavation and rebuilding the stone base. That becomes more expensive, but is still completely possible.
Easily get a very accurate price for your walkway repair
The above examples should give you a rough idea of what your concrete paver walker repair will cost. If you want a more accurate estimate, we can do that entirely by email. Just contact us for a preliminary estimate. And, if you want a guaranteed hard quote, we can come down and have a look at your walkway in person.