Paver Installation in University Place, WA

University Place is mostly gentle ground with steep edges. The middle of the city, along the main arterials and the older subdivisions, is close to flat. The west and south sides break into bluffs and ravines above Puget Sound and Chambers Creek. The same patio plan does not work on both.

Behind the work: 19 years in the trade, more than 425 projects, a 4.7 Google rating, and no subcontractors. Our office is in Yelm, and UP is part of our regular Pierce County route.

On a grid of points across University Place in USDA soil survey data, the most common map units were Alderwood gravelly sandy loam on 8 to 15 and 0 to 8 percent slopes, with steeper Alderwood ground on the slopes. Everett very gravelly sandy loam showed up on some slopes, and the steepest bluff faces are mapped as Xerochrepts on 45 to 70 percent slopes, with beach and tidal soils at the shoreline.

Alderwood is the soil that drives most of our UP designs. It has a dense till layer 20 to 40 inches down, with permeable soil above and very slow water movement into the till itself. USDA notes a perched water table 1 to 3 feet down at times from December through April. A paver base built on Alderwood without a way out for water will sit wet each winter, which is when settling starts.

Everett soil, by contrast, is gravel-rich outwash and drains fast. Some lots have both within the same yard. A test hole at the actual patio location settles the question.

NOAA's 1991-2020 normals for the Tacoma Narrows Airport, just across the water from UP, show 42.02 inches of precipitation a year, with about 16 inches falling December through February and about 13 inches September through November. That water reaches Alderwood till quickly and then sits. Wet-season jobs on till need staged excavation and covered stockpiles.

Homes along the western bluffs trade a view for a harder build. Slopes mapped at 45 to 70 percent are not a place to add weight near the top. A patio, wall, or hot tub pad close to a bluff edge loads soil that may already be marginal, and water from the new hard surface must not be dumped over the edge.

On these lots we keep new hardscape back from the slope, route runoff to an approved outlet, and bring in an engineer when the design calls for it. Sometimes the right answer is a smaller patio closer to the house and a walkway to the view point, not a large terrace at the edge.

The City of University Place requires a Site Development permit for clearing, grading or stockpiling soil, building or changing storm drainage, and creating or changing impervious surfaces, among other activities. A paver patio or driveway is new or changed impervious surface, so the question is not whether the city has a rule but whether your project reaches the city's review threshold.

Work in the city right-of-way needs a Right-of-Way permit, and the city names a new driveway approach as an example. The city also asks for a street use bond or assignment of funds that guarantees the work and its maintenance for two years. If a driveway project changes the curb cut, plan for that step.

Stormwater sizing follows the state model. In Ecology's 2024 manual, a project falls under the first five minimum requirements once new plus replaced hard surface reaches 2,000 square feet, or once 7,000 square feet of ground is disturbed. We check the city's adopted standards for your address before pricing.

Common UP requests, matched to the right service:

A good bid in UP answers these without being asked.

University Place visits focus on two things a homeowner cannot see: what lies 2 to 3 feet down, and where water can legally leave the lot. We answer both during the free soil test, then build the free 3D design around them. The free quote ties each cost to a reason, such as extra base on till, drain pipe to an outlet, demolition of an old slab, equipment access through a narrow side yard, or right-of-way work and the city bond. Our crew does the work and cleans the site daily.