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Sterling Driveway & Pavers: The Fort Lauderdale Owner’s Guide
We keep Sterling-compatible driveway and paver components on our trucks, with most replacements in Fort Lauderdale running $250 – $700 for sealing and repairs, or $7,000 – $18,000 for a full paver driveway installation. You’ll usually know a part has failed when you see a paver that’s sunk, cracked, or shifted after a heavy rain, or when water pools in places it never used to. We can match most Sterling paver profiles and colors on the first visit, and we’ll give you a written price before anything gets pulled up.
Most homeowners in Fort Lauderdale discover a failing driveway gradually: a corner edge drops a half inch, a paver cracks along an old stress line, or sand starts washing out between joints after every afternoon storm. The cause is usually underneath, not the paver itself. South Florida’s sandy soil, heavy seasonal rain, and the constant heat cycle are hard on paver bases. A paver that looks “broken” is often just a signal that the base layer below it has shifted or washed out.
Which Sterling Models This Applies To
Sterling paver lines used in Fort Lauderdale driveways and patios generally fall into three profiles: 60mm pedestrian-grade pavers, 80mm residential driveway pavers, and 100mm commercial or heavy-vehicle pavers. If you’re replacing a paver that sees car or truck traffic, you need the 80mm or 100mm profile. A 60mm paver under vehicle weight will crack again within a season, no matter how careful the install. We’ve seen it happen in Victoria Park and Rio Vista more times than we can count, usually after someone bought “the same-looking” paver online.
To identify your Sterling paver, flip one over and look for a molded code on the underside, usually a series of letters and numbers. Measure the thickness in millimeters and note the edge style: beveled, square, or tumbled. Sterling’s color blends also vary by production run, so a paver bought five years ago may be a shade off today’s batch. We stock the most common Fort Lauderdale Sterling profiles and can order exact production-run matches when we need to. For discontinued Sterling patterns, we work with quality aftermarket equivalents that match the profile and wear characteristics, always with your sign-off before we proceed. Penhallow Remodeling Fort Lauderdale is an independent contractor, not a Sterling company or authorized dealer.
Styles & brands we work with
Signs Your Sterling Driveway & Pavers Is Failing
- Settling or sinking in one spot. This usually means the base layer has eroded from below, often where a gutter downspout pours water or where a vehicle parks every night. The paver itself is fine; the support under it is gone.
- Sand washing out between joints after every rain. In Fort Lauderdale’s summer downpours, loose joint sand is the first thing to go. When the sand goes, pavers start to shift side to side and the surface loses its interlock.
- Cracks running across multiple pavers. A cracked paver is one thing. A crack that runs through three or four pavers in a line usually means the base slab or compacted sub-base underneath has failed and is flexing.
- Water pooling where it used to drain. Driveways are pitched to move water toward the road or a drain. When the pitch flattens or reverses, the base has shifted. In Fort Lauderdale, standing water also means mosquito habitat, so we treat ponding as a repair, not a cosmetic issue.
- Paver edges that crumble or flake. This is spalling, and it’s usually from moisture getting into the paver surface and expanding in the heat, or from a previous contractor using a sealer that trapped moisture. Once the face of a paver spalls, the best fix is replacing that paver before water gets deeper in.
See the difference
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AfterReplacement Cost & What’s Included
For a straight paver swap or targeted repair in Fort Lauderdale, expect $250 – $700 for a small section, which covers pulling the damaged pavers, re-leveling the base, reinstalling, and re-sanding the joints. A full driveway replacement runs $7,000 – $18,000 depending on square footage, Sterling or equivalent paver profile, base depth, and any drainage work needed underneath. That number includes demolition of the old surface, base preparation, paver installation, joint sand, and compaction.
What drives the range in Fort Lauderdale specifically? Driveway length and whether we’re working with existing base material or hauling in new road base. Soil conditions matter too: low-lying lots near the New River or in Sailboat Bend often need more base work than higher ground in neighborhoods further west. Every job gets a written line-item price before work starts, and the number on that paper is the number on your invoice. Our 365-Day Done Right Promise covers the workmanship: if a repaired section fails inside a year, we come back and fix it at no charge.
DIY or Call Us?
You can safely pull a weed, sweep sand back into a joint, or hose down a stained paver. What you shouldn’t do is pull up a sunken paver and guess at the base repair. A paver driveway is a system: the pavers you see are only the top layer over a compacted base, a sand bedding layer, and the interlock between every piece. Digging a hole and dumping in bagged sand from the hardware store creates a soft spot that will settle again within months, and then you’ve got a bigger dip than before.
Re-leveling a paver section means cutting out the area, inspecting what’s underneath, adding and compacting road base in lifts, re-setting the sand, and re-sanding joints so the repair doesn’t telegraph through as a visible patch. There’s no high-tension danger here like a garage spring, but there is real risk of doing a repair that looks fine for six weeks and then repeats the same failure. If the base has washed out, you need to know why, and that’s where experience pays off. Tell me what you need, I’ll tell you what it costs – then we’ll get it done. Call (754) 551-2922 for a free estimate.
FAQs
A properly installed paver driveway in Fort Lauderdale should last 25 to 30 years with occasional joint sand top-ups and re-sealing every few years. The pavers themselves rarely fail; the base underneath is what determines whether you get the full lifespan. Call (754) 551-2922 and we’ll tell you honestly whether your driveway needs a repair or a full redo before quoting anything.
Yes, most sunken or cracked sections can be repaired without touching the rest of the driveway. The repair cost depends on whether the base underneath failed or just settled, and we won’t know that until we lift a few pavers. Call (754) 551-2922 for a free inspection and a written repair price.
A typical section repair is a one-day job: pull, re-base, re-set, re-sand, and compact. A full driveway replacement in Fort Lauderdale usually runs three to five working days depending on square footage and weather. Call (754) 551-2922 and we’ll give you a real start window and a real finish date in writing.
We keep the most common Fort Lauderdale Sterling profiles and colors on our truck, and we can order exact production-run matches for the rest through our local supplier network. You never need to order anything yourself; the cost shows up as a line item on your written estimate. Call (754) 551-2922 to schedule a free estimate and we’ll match your pavers on the first visit.
Written by Trevor Nash, Owner, Penhallow Remodeling Fort Lauderdale at Penhallow Remodeling Fort Lauderdale, serving Fort Lauderdale and nearby areas.
