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CGI Driveway & Pavers: The Riverside Owner’s Guide
We stock and install CGI-compatible driveway pavers throughout Riverside, with most paver driveway installations running between $7,000 and $18,000 depending on square footage, base condition, and the CGI paver line you’re matching. If you’re dealing with a cracked, shifted, or sunken section of a CGI paved driveway, we can typically diagnose the problem, source the exact replacement pavers, and schedule the repair within the same week. Most Riverside homeowners discover trouble after the winter rains, when a paver settles into a low spot and water pools where it never pooled before.
The typical call we get sounds like this: a section of the driveway near the garage apron has dropped half an inch, or a paver has cracked under a truck tire, or the sand joints have washed out and weeds are pushing through. None of that means the whole driveway is shot. It means something under the pavers moved, and the fix usually costs far less than a full tear-out.
We’re an independent Riverside contractor, not affiliated with CGI. But we’ve installed and repaired enough CGI paver work across the Inland Empire to know exactly how these pavers behave in our heat and our clay soil.
Which CGI Models This Applies To
CGI manufactures a few distinct paver lines, and the repair approach changes depending on which one you have. The most common we see in Riverside are the CGI Stone Series, the CGI Plaza Series, and the CGI Cobble Series. Each series uses different mold profiles and thicknesses, which matters when you’re matching an existing installation.
Before you call anyone, check the underside of a loose paver. CGI stamps a product code into most of their pavers, usually a two or three character code along with a batch number. That code tells us the series and color mix. If the pavers are sealed and you can’t lift one, measure the paver itself. Cobble Series pavers typically run 60mm thick. Stone and Plaza series run 60mm to 80mm depending on whether they were spec’d for pedestrian or vehicular load.
Here’s the compatibility gotcha most people miss: CGI color mixes shift slightly between manufacturing batches. A paver poured in 2018 won’t be a perfect color match for a paver poured in 2024, even from the same series and same color name. For small repairs we blend new pavers with the existing field so the eye can’t catch the transition. For larger areas, we pull pavers from less visible sections (behind a gate, along a side yard) and use those for the visible repair, then lay the new batch in the hidden area. It costs a little more labor and solves the mismatch problem permanently.
On the OEM versus aftermarket question: CGI doesn’t sell direct to homeowners, and their pavers are only available through authorized dealers. For an exact series match, we source through the same dealer channel. Aftermarket equivalents exist, but the chamfer profiles and joint spacing rarely line up, and you’ll see the difference every time you walk to your car. For driveway work where the pavers are load-bearing, we don’t recommend substituting another manufacturer’s paver into a CGI field. The tolerances aren’t the same.
Styles & brands we work with
Signs Your CGI Driveway & Pavers Is Failing
- A paver is cracked clean through, usually near the driveway edge or along a tire path. This is almost always a base problem, not a paver problem. Riverside’s clay soil expands and contracts with moisture, and if the base wasn’t compacted in lifts or the edge restraint failed, the paver flexes until it snaps.
- A low spot has formed and water pools after rain. This means the base under that section has washed out or settled. Standing water accelerates paver deterioration and attracts ants, which undermine the sand joints faster than anything else in Riverside.
- Sand joints are disappearing and paver edges are chipping. Riverside’s dry heat and occasional Santa Ana winds strip joint sand quickly. Once the joints go, pavers start rubbing against each other under load, and the chamfered edges chip. Re-sanding with polymeric sand usually solves this before it becomes structural.
- A paver or small section is sinking while the surrounding field looks fine. Something local is happening below: an old irrigation line leaking, a tree root decaying, or a utility trench that was never compacted properly. You need someone to pull the pavers and look at what’s underneath.
- The edge row along your lawn or planter is spreading outward. The edge restraint (plastic or concrete) has failed. Once the edge moves, the entire field starts drifting, and the interlock loosens. Fix the edge before the drift becomes a re-lay job.
None of these are cosmetic annoyances you should ignore. A shifting paver field only worsens, and in Riverside the freeze-thaw cycle isn’t the culprit, it’s the wet-dry cycle of clay soil. Left alone, a small settlement becomes a tripping hazard and a drainage problem that works its way toward your foundation.
See the difference
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AfterReplacement Cost & What’s Included
For a full CGI paver driveway installation in Riverside, plan on $7,000 to $18,000. That’s a complete job: demolition and removal of the old surface, excavation to proper depth, new compacted base, edge restraint, the CGI pavers, joint sand, and compaction. The range exists because a 400-square-foot single-car driveway and a 1,200-square-foot driveway with walkways and a turnaround are different animals.
A targeted repair runs lower. Pulling and re-laying a settled section, re-compacting the base, and reinstalling the same pavers typically lands between $800 and $3,500 depending on how much base we have to rework. Re-sanding the entire joint field runs $250 to $700. If we’re replacing broken pavers, the pavers themselves usually run $4 to $9 per square foot for CGI product, depending on series and quantity.
Every quote we write follows The Garrison Standard: a written price before any work starts, with parts and labor listed separately. No numbers that move at the door. And every completed repair is covered by the 365-Day Done Right Promise in writing, if it fails inside a year, we return and correct it at no charge.
DIY or Call Us?
There are two things an owner can safely do. First, identify the paver series by lifting a loose paver and reading the product code underneath. That saves us time when we source material. Second, you can hose down the area and watch where water flows, that tells us a lot about the problem before we ever put a shovel in the ground.
What we don’t recommend is pulling pavers and re-compacting the base yourself. The risk isn’t physical injury, it’s that you’ll get the base ninety percent right and the paver will settle again in eighteen months. Then you’ve spent a weekend and still need the repair. Base work is unforgiving: wrong compaction, wrong material, a missed geotextile layer, and concrete doesn’t care what you budgeted.
This is not high-tension spring work or electrical panel work. It won’t hurt you. But doing it wrong does cost money. If you want it done once, call us at (424) 567-8472 and we’ll come look at it, no charge for the estimate.
FAQs
A properly installed CGI paver driveway in Riverside typically lasts 25 to 40 years before the field needs major work, with re-sanding every 3 to 5 years. The pavers themselves rarely fail, what fails is the base underneath, and that’s a function of how well the installation was done the first time. Call (424) 567-8472 and we’ll tell you honestly whether your driveway has years left or needs attention now.
No, a cracked paver cannot be structurally repaired, it has to come out and a new one goes in. The good news is that a single paver replacement is usually under $150 including labor, as long as we can match the paver. For an exact quote, call (424) 567-8472, estimates are free.
Most paver repairs, from single-paver swaps to section re-leveling, take one to two days including base work and compaction. Full driveway replacements run three to five days depending on square footage and access. We’ll give you a written timeline with the quote.
We source CGI pavers through the same authorized dealer channels CGI uses, and for common Riverside projects (Stone Series and Cobble Series in tan and gray tones) we can usually have material on site within three to five days. We keep joint sand, edge restraint, and base material on our trucks. Call (424) 567-8472 and tell us your paver code, we’ll tell you exactly what’s available.
Straight number, real scope, no surprises at the final walk. Curtis Lane has been running crews across Riverside for years, from paver driveways near the Victoria Avenue corridor to full kitchen rehabs in Hawarden Hills. He learned the trade at Los Angeles Trade-Technical College and he’s been reading the California Building Code out of the same beat-up copy since before most of these paver fields were poured. When you call Bradford Remodeling Co Riverside, you get a written price, a live person on the phone, and a full-year guarantee in your hand when the job is done.
Written by Curtis Lane, Owner, Bradford Remodeling Co Riverside at Bradford Remodeling Co Riverside, serving Riverside and nearby areas.
