Storefront aprons, plaza paving and accessible routes.
Built to municipal spec and phased around your business hours, so the front door stays open while the entrance gets rebuilt — and stays spot-repairable for the life of the surface.
Why commercial entrances get built in pavers
On a commercial property the entrance is a liability surface before it is a design decision. A settled slab or a lifted edge at the door is a trip hazard on ground you are responsible for.
One project is shown here. For a fuller portfolio and references from commercial clients, call and we will send them through.
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Repairs without closing the entrance. A settled section is lifted, re-based and reset — often overnight. A poured apron has to be broken out, formed, poured and then left to cure with your door behind hoarding.
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Utility access built in. Services under a paver apron are reached by lifting the surface and putting the same units back, not by saw-cutting a permanent scar across the frontage.
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Accessible routes built to the drawings. Ramps, landings and level thresholds set to the slopes and dimensions the spec calls for, and kept consistent so they can actually be cleared in the winter.
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Traffic loads at the apron. Where delivery vehicles cross, the base is built for it rather than being an extension of the sidewalk detail.
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It is the front of your business. Banded borders, a clean cut line at the property edge, and a surface that still looks deliberate after five winters.
Winter on a commercial frontage
Cold on its own does not damage interlock. Freeze-thaw does: water trapped in a poorly drained base expands as it freezes, lifts whatever sits above it, and drops it back somewhere slightly different. Ottawa runs that cycle dozens of times between November and April — and it only takes one winter for a bad base to show.
A commercial entrance gets the harshest version of it: the heaviest salt application in the city, foot traffic all day compacting whatever is on the surface, and a snow contractor working it with equipment sized for parking lots.
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Built for the clearing equipment, not just the pedestrians. Edge restraint and apron details specified knowing a plow and a walk-behind blower will be on this surface every storm.
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Drainage away from the threshold. The worst outcome on a storefront is meltwater running to the door and freezing at the one spot every customer has to stand.
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Base depth matched to the loading. Granular A compacted in lifts, deeper where vehicles cross, with geotextile over soft or disturbed urban subgrade.
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Salt-exposed edges detailed deliberately. The municipal edge and the door threshold take the most de-icer, so they are laid and restrained with that in mind.
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Phased so you stay open. Sections opened and closed around your hours, with a safe route maintained to the entrance for the whole build.
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Spot-repairable for the life of the surface. Which matters more on a frontage that gets hit every winter than on anything we build in a backyard.
Rebuilding a storefront entrance?
Send the address and rough square footage. We will walk the site, work out a phasing plan around your hours, and give you a fixed price — with commercial references on request.