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Belgard Driveway & Pavers: The Fort Lauderdale Owner’s Guide
Belgard driveway paver installation in Fort Lauderdale typically runs $7,000 to $18,000 for a full driveway, while targeted repairs like replacing sunken sections or cracked pavers usually land between $800 and $3,500 depending on square footage and base condition. Most repairs can be done same week, not same day, because pulling pavers, recompacting the base, and re-setting them properly takes time if you want it to hold. The symptom that usually sends a Fort Lauderdale homeowner looking for this page is a paver that’s cracked, sunk an inch below its neighbors, or started wobbling underfoot after two or three rainy seasons.
Key Takeaways:
- Belgard pavers are modular, so you rarely replace the whole driveway – you replace the failed sections and match the existing color and size.
- In Fort Lauderdale, the two biggest failure drivers are water intrusion under the pavers and tree roots pushing up from underneath.
- Belgard’s Cambridge, Mega-Arbel, and Bergerac lines each use different dimensions – a paver from the wrong line won’t seat flush, and we see that mismatch all the time.
- We’re an independent Fort Lauderdale contractor, not a Belgard dealer or affiliate – which means we’ll match what’s on your driveway, not push a product line we’re beholden to.
Which Belgard Models This Applies To
Belgard’s paver lineup splits into three families, and the part that fails on one won’t necessarily fit another. The Cambridge Cobble line (and its newer Cambridge XL variant) runs 6 x 9 inches or 6 x 6 inches with a tumbled edge. The Mega-Arbel series is larger, 6 x 12 inches, with a flatter profile designed for modern driveways. The Bergerac line is the most common in older Fort Lauderdale homes built or landscaped in the 2000s and early 2010s, running roughly 4 x 8 inches with a more rounded surface. If you can’t identify your paver from memory, the fastest route is to measure one intact paver’s face dimensions and check the back side for a molded Belgard part number – it’s usually a four-to-six-digit stamp.
On OEM versus aftermarket: Belgard pavers are a bulk commodity. There’s no performance difference between a pallet ordered from a Belgard dealer and a pallet of matching dimensional pavers from a reputable Florida hardscape supplier, provided the color blend, thickness (typically 60mm or 80mm), and edge profile match. What matters more in Fort Lauderdale is thickness rating. An 80mm paver handles a 2-car driveway with daily traffic and our summer heat cycle. A 60mm paver is a patio paver. We’ve repaired driveways where someone installed the cheaper 60mm product, and after three years the center of the driveway looked like a bowl.
Styles & brands we work with
Signs Your Belgard Driveway & Pavers Is Failing
- Sunken or “dished” sections, especially along the tire tracks. The base aggregate under the pavers was too shallow or wasn’t plate-compacted, and years of vehicle weight plus Fort Lauderdale’s seasonal groundwater shifts compacted it unevenly.
- Pavers that rock or wobble when you step on the corner. The sand joint between pavers has washed out, or the edge restraint along the driveway border has shifted, letting the whole field drift.
- White, chalky scaling on the paver surface. South Florida humidity and pool splashback accelerate efflorescence, and while it’s cosmetic, it means the paver’s surface is losing its bond with the sealer – and the sealer’s the only thing standing between the color and our UV.
- Cracks running through the center of individual pavers, not along the joint. That’s a structural failure. It almost always traces back to a soft spot in the base directly under that paver, or a tree root that grew into the pavement structure.
- Weeds or grass sprouting between pavers that keep coming back after pulling. The joint sand has degraded to soil, which holds moisture and gives roots a foothold. Left alone, wet joints erode the base and turn a small weed problem into a full-section re-set.
See the difference
Before
After
Before
After
Before
AfterReplacement Cost & What’s Included
In Fort Lauderdale, you’ll pay $7,000 to $18,000 for a new paver driveway from the base up, including excavation, aggregate base, sand set, pavers, edge restraint, joint sand, and compaction. Partial repairs – removing a sunken section, re-grading the base, re-setting the existing pavers with new joint sand – typically run $800 to $3,500 depending on how many square feet have failed and whether we’re salvaging existing pavers or ordering new ones. What moves the price: the paver line you’re matching (Mega-Arbel costs more than Cambridge per square foot), how much base material has to be excavated and hauled, and whether a tree root needs surgical removal without killing the tree.
Our written quote itemizes the parts, the labor, the base work, and the hauling separately, so you see exactly where the money goes before we move a single paver. Every repair carries the 365-Day Done Right Promise in writing – if the repaired section shifts or sinks within a year, we come back and make it right. And if it fails after we leave, the second visit’s on us.
DIY or Call Us?
There’s a narrow but real slice of this work that’s safe for a homeowner: pulling a few cracked pavers no deeper than the sand layer, checking the base hasn’t collapsed, and re-setting them with fresh joint sand. If you’re steady with a rubber mallet and the section’s smaller than a sidewalk square, that’s not dangerous – it’s tedious, and it’ll show you in about six months whether the base was really fine. What you should not do is attempt a full-wheelbarrow repair on a sunken section of driveway. Digging out a failed base in Florida means dealing with roots, possibly a water line or irrigation sleeve, and a lot of heavy material. Get the depth wrong or skip the plate compaction, and you’ll have the same problem back by next Memorial Day, but now with a pallet of loose pavers stacked next to your house. Call us at (754) 354-7423 and we’ll tell you over the phone whether your situation is a weekend project or a two-day repair.
FAQs
A properly installed Belgard driveway with an 80mm paver and a compacted aggregate base lasts 25 to 30 years in South Florida. What shortens that in Fort Lauderdale is a bad base or failed edge restraint – the pavers themselves rarely wear out first; the ground underneath them gives up.
No – once a paver is cracked through its full thickness, the structural integrity is gone and the crack will widen with every heat cycle. We replace the cracked unit with a matching paver and keep a few spares from your palette on hand so future swaps match perfectly. Call (754) 354-7423 and we’ll tell you exactly what we’re seeing.
A targeted section repair – removing, re-grading, and re-setting 50 to 100 square feet – usually takes one to two days on site, plus drying and compaction time before you drive on it. Full driveway tear-outs and re-installs run three to five days depending on the size and what we find under the old base.
We carry a limited stock of common Fort Lauderdale matches – Cambridge Cobble and Mega-Arbel in the three most common color blends – but most jobs require ordering your exact color and size from a local supplier, which adds one to three days. If you’ve got a few cracked pavers, send us a photo and the part number from the back if you can find it; we’ll check inventory before you take a day off work.
Written by Luca Romano, Owner & Lead Contractor, Sawyer Remodel Fort Lauderdale at Sawyer Remodel Fort Lauderdale, serving Fort Lauderdale and nearby areas.
