Free written scope consultation - allowances, timeline, and change-order rules on paper before a single trade is scheduled
Sterling Driveway & Pavers: The Fort Lauderdale Owner’s Guide
If you have a Sterling paver driveway or walkway that’s sinking, cracking, or separating, we stock replacement pavers and the base materials needed to fix it right. Installed paver driveway repair and replacement in Fort Lauderdale typically runs $7,000 – $18,000 for a full driveway, with spot repairs of individual pavers or small sections costing far less. Most Sterling paver failures start the same way: Florida rain, sand, and hydrostatic pressure work their way under the pavers, the base settles, and the top surface tells the story. You’ll see it first as a low spot that holds water after a storm, or a paver that rocks underfoot near the street side of the driveway.
The good news for Fort Lauderdale homeowners is that Sterling paver systems are modular. A failing section doesn’t mean ripping out the whole driveway. We can lift the affected pavers, correct the base, and reset them so the repair is invisible. Luca Romano and our crew have handled dozens of paver driveways across Fort Lauderdale, including older installs in neighborhoods like Victoria Park and Rio Vista where the original base was never built for our water table.
Which Sterling Models This Applies To
Sterling driveway pavers come in a few common profiles, and matching the right one matters more than most homeowners expect. Sterling’s paver line typically runs in 60mm and 80mm thicknesses for residential driveways. The 60mm units are fine for light traffic and walkways, but in Fort Lauderdale we strongly recommend the 80mm pavers for any driveway that sees a full-size pickup or SUV daily. The thinner pavers fail faster here because our sandy soil shifts more than denser northern clay.
Identifying your Sterling paver is straightforward. Flip over a loose paver and look for the Sterling mark stamped on the bottom, usually with a size code and batch number. If you can’t read the stamp because of years of sand wear, measure the paver. Most Sterling driveway units are 4″×8″ or 6″×9″ rectangles, with a few larger-format squares in the 12″×12″ range. Getting the batch number matters for color matching, especially on tumbled or blended finishes that fade unevenly in Florida sun.
We install both OEM Sterling pavers matched by batch when the driveway is under 10 years old, and quality aftermarket equivalents when the original batch is discontinued. Aftermarket doesn’t mean inferior here. Several Florida suppliers produce pavers that match Sterling’s dimensions and color blends so closely you can’t spot the patch, and they often cost 20 – 30% less than chasing down new-old-stock OEM units. We’ll show you both options with pricing before any work starts.
Styles & brands we work with
Signs Your Sterling Driveway & Pavers Is Failing
- Water pooling in low spots. This is the earliest warning. A properly pitched Sterling driveway should shed water toward the street or a drain. When a low spot holds water for more than an hour after rain, the base underneath has begun to erode or settle. In Fort Lauderdale’s summer storms, that standing water works its way into the joints and accelerates the problem.
- Rocking or loose pavers. When a paver moves underfoot, the sand below it has washed out or compacted unevenly. One loose paver is an easy fix. Ten loose pavers in a row usually means a base failure along that line, which takes more work but is still repairable without redoing the whole driveway.
- Gaps growing between pavers. Sterling pavers should hold a tight 1/8″ to 1/4″ joint filled with polymeric sand. When gaps widen past 3/8″ or the sand washes out completely, weeds and ants move in, and the pavers start to drift. Left alone, a drifting section will eventually crack the edge restraints.
- Cracked or chipped pavers near the edges. Edge restraints do the unsung work on any paver driveway. When the plastic or concrete edging fails, the outside row of pavers takes the full weight of tires and starts to crack or separate. In Fort Lauderdale, root pressure from palms and ficus trees pushes against edge restraints constantly. This failure pattern is common in older Sterling installs.
- Sunken area where the driveway meets the garage slab. This specific failure shows up repeatedly in Fort Lauderdale because the driveway base and the home’s foundation settle at different rates. The paver base, no matter how well compacted, is not the same as a poured slab. We see a 1″ to 2″ drop at the transition on installs that are 8+ years old, especially in older neighborhoods near Las Olas Boulevard where the homes have settled over decades.
See the difference
Before
After
Before
After
Before
AfterReplacement Cost & What’s Included
For a full Sterling paver driveway replacement in Fort Lauderdale, budget $7,000 – $18,000 depending on square footage, paver thickness, and access. Spot repairs run far less: re-leveling a small settled area, replacing a dozen cracked pavers, and re-sanding the joints typically lands in the $500 – $1,500 range depending on what we find underneath. We’ll give you a written, line-item price before any work begins, so you know the base material cost, paver cost, labor, and haul-off separately. The number on the invoice is the number you approved.
What drives the range? The base is the hidden variable. If the original install was done over raw sand without a proper crushed concrete or limestone base, we’re not just resetting pavers, we’re rebuilding the foundation. That’s more labor and more material. Access matters too: a driveway we can back a truck right up to is cheaper than one behind a gate with a 40-foot paver run through a side yard. Every repair carries our 365-Day Done Right Promise in writing. If a paver we set settles or shifts within a year, we come back and fix it. No argument, no second invoice.
DIY or Call Us?
Paver work is one of the few driveway repairs a handy homeowner can attempt on a small scale. If you have one loose paver and spare units from the original install, you can lift it, add a bit of paver sand, and tap it back into place with a rubber mallet. That’s honest advice. What goes wrong with DIY is the same thing that goes wrong on original installs: the base. If your driveway has a low spot bigger than a trash can lid, or the pavers have shifted more than an inch, you’re not fixing pavers, you’re rebuilding substrate. That requires excavation, compaction with a plate compactor, and proper drainage correction. We’ve repaired more than one DIY base job where the homeowner spent a weekend on it and called us Monday because the spot came back after the first rain.
For anything beyond a single paver, call us at (754) 354-7423. We’ll come out, assess the base, and give you a written price for the repair. You decide. No pressure, no charge for the estimate.
FAQs
A properly installed Sterling paver driveway over a compacted base lasts 20 – 30 years in Fort Lauderdale, though the polymeric sand in the joints typically needs reapplication every 3 – 5 years. Florida’s rain and heat shorten the lifespan of the sand joints far more than the pavers themselves, which are fired clay or concrete units built for decades of UV exposure. Call (754) 354-7423 and we’ll tell you whether your driveway just needs re-sanding or actual base work.
Yes, in most cases we can lift the affected pavers, add and re-compact the base material, and reset the same pavers if they’re not cracked. The repair is typically invisible once the polymeric sand cures. If too many of the original pavers are broken, we’ll match replacement units to the existing batch or source a compatible aftermarket equivalent.
A small section repair, say under 100 square feet, is usually a one-day job including base correction, paver reset, and joint sand. A full driveway replacement runs 3 – 5 working days in Fort Lauderdale depending on access and whether we need to haul out the old base. We’ll give you a timeline in writing before we start, and we show up when we say we will.
We keep a range of common 4″×8″ and 6″×9″ driveway pavers on the truck for quick repairs, and we source Sterling-specific and matching aftermarket units from local Fort Lauderdale suppliers within a day or two for larger jobs. We also stock the base materials, edge restraints, and polymeric sand needed for a proper install. Tell us the paver size and the batch number if you can find it, and we’ll confirm a match before we schedule.
Written by Luca Romano, Owner & Lead Contractor, Sawyer Remodel Fort Lauderdale at Sawyer Remodel Fort Lauderdale, serving Fort Lauderdale and nearby areas.
