Paver driveways that survive the plow.
Your driveway takes the worst Ottawa has: plow blades, road salt, and a spring thaw that swallows lesser bases. Ours sit on 8 inches of compacted granular and come through March flat.
Driveways, aprons and laneways
Why interlock beats asphalt and concrete here
Asphalt and poured concrete are single rigid slabs. The ground under them moves every year, and when a rigid slab is asked to move it cracks — then the crack takes on water and gets worse every winter.
A paver driveway is built to move. That is the whole argument — and it is why ours are still flat while the poured slab next door is on its second round of crack filler.
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It flexes instead of cracking. Thousands of small units with sand joints absorb seasonal movement across the field rather than concentrating it into one line.
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Repairs disappear. Lift the affected pavers, correct the base underneath, reset the same stones. No patch, no colour mismatch, no saw-cut seam across your driveway.
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Rated for what you park on it. Driveway pavers are thicker and sit on a deeper base than patio work — 8 inches compacted, confirmed before we start.
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Utilities stay accessible. If anything ever has to be dug up, the surface comes apart and goes back. A poured slab has to be broken out and re-poured.
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It reads as one piece of work. Border courses, a banded apron and a landing tied into the front steps, rather than a slab with a path stuck on the side of it.
How we build a driveway for an Ottawa winter
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 driveway makes that harder than anything else on the property: it carries vehicle weight on a base that is at its most saturated in March, and it is the one surface a plow blade actually touches.
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8 inches of compacted base. Granular A placed and plate-compacted in lifts — never one deep pour, which is what leaves soft layers that settle unevenly later.
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Geotextile where the soil is soft. A separation fabric over clay or soft subgrade stops fines pumping up into the base during the spring thaw, which is how a good base slowly turns into a bad one.
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Graded to drain away from the house. A consistent fall so meltwater leaves the surface instead of pooling against the garage slab and refreezing there every night.
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Edge restraint down both sides. Spiked into the base so the field cannot spread sideways under vehicle loads and freeze cycles.
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An apron detail at the street. The municipal edge is where the plow hits hardest and where salt concentration is highest, so it gets the most attention, not the least.
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Clearing advice you can actually follow. A plastic shoe or skid on the blade keeps it off the paver faces, and we suggest going easy on de-icer through the first winter while the joints fully set.
Spring books out first. Get on the calendar.
Install season runs April to November and the calendar fills from the spring out. The site visit is free, and the quote covers your paver, your base depth and your edge detail — a firm price, good for 60 days.