Hardscaping Contractor Serving Puyallup, WA

Puyallup splits into a river valley and a hill, and a paver job is built differently on each. Downtown, the fairgrounds area, and the neighborhoods along the river sit on soils laid down by the Puyallup River. South Hill sits on glacial deposits that the ice sheet left behind. A contractor who quotes both the same way has not looked.

ND Brick Pavers has worked in Pierce County for 19 years, with more than 425 projects completed and a 4.7 Google rating. Our office is in Yelm. Our crews are our own employees, from demolition to the last sand sweep.

USDA soil survey data maps much of the valley around downtown as Puyallup fine sandy loam. The Puyallup series is very deep and well drained, formed in recent river deposits on floodplains and low terraces. As valley soils go, it is good ground for pavers: it compacts well and drains.

The trouble spots are the lower, siltier pockets nearer the river and toward Sumner, where the survey maps poorly drained alluvial soils with winter water tables close to the surface. On those lots the base needs separation fabric and a drain path, and permeable pavers may not be a fit. We find out which kind of valley lot you have with a test hole, not a guess.

On a grid of points we checked across South Hill in USDA's soil data, the most common map units were Everett very gravelly sandy loam and Indianola loamy sand. Both are somewhat excessively drained. Everett is gravel-rich outwash; Indianola formed in sandy glacial drift and has very high saturated hydraulic conductivity. Rain moves down through them quickly.

Mixed in are patches of Kapowsin gravelly ashy loam, and those behave the opposite way. The Kapowsin series has a cemented layer 20 to 40 inches down that water barely passes through, and USDA notes a perched water table as high as 11 to 24 inches below the surface from December through June. A patio on Kapowsin ground can sit in water for half the year if the base has no outlet.

So South Hill does not have one soil answer either. Two homes on the same street can land on different map units. That is why the free soil test is the first step on every Puyallup quote.

The City of Puyallup's development engineering page lists a Clear, Fill and Grade Permit for excavation 5 feet or deeper, fill 8 inches or deeper, or moving 100 cubic yards or more in any two-year period. The fill trigger is the one that surprises people. Raising a low backyard to set a patio level with the house can easily add 8 inches of fill. We measure finished grades against existing grades before design so the permit question is answered up front.

Work in the city right-of-way, including a new or repaired driveway approach, sidewalk, or curb and gutter, needs a Right of Way Application. Projects that disturb an acre or more also need Ecology's construction stormwater general permit, which is rare for a home but common on a larger rural lot. Stormwater is a separate check. The Department of Ecology's manual for western Washington, which local stormwater codes in the region build on, applies its first five minimum requirements at 2,000 square feet of new plus replaced hard surface or 7,000 square feet of land disturbance. We confirm the version the city applies to your project.

NOAA's 1991-2020 normals for a volunteer station in the Summit area, between Tacoma and South Hill, show 42.88 inches of precipitation a year. The McMillin Reservoir station to the southeast, toward Orting, averages 45.13 inches. December through February accounts for about 16 inches at both.

On valley sand and South Hill gravel, that rain drains away fast. On Kapowsin and the siltier valley soils, it stays. We build year round, but on wet-ground lots we stage excavation so the subgrade is not left open in a storm.

A few patterns come up again and again in Puyallup.

On a Puyallup visit we bring a probe and a shovel, not just a tape measure. On the valley floor we look for the depth to wet, gray soil; on South Hill we look for the hard, cemented Kapowsin layer. Either finding changes base depth and drainage, so it is settled before the free 3D design is drawn. The quote that follows is free and itemized by area, so you can see how size, soil, equipment access, demolition, drainage, slope, and any grading or right-of-way permit affect it. Our crew then builds the job and leaves the site clean each day.