Northridge paver questions, answered

A 20 by 20 patio is 400 square feet. In Northridge that lands around $6,000 to $8,800 installed, using the $15 to $22 per square foot patio band. A plain square in a standard concrete paver sits low in that range, while a tumbled stone with a contrasting border and a seat wall pushes toward the top.

At the $15 to $25 per square foot installed range, 1,000 square feet runs about $15,000 to $25,000. That size comes up often in Northridge because the postwar ranch lots are large, and a driveway plus a connecting walkway can reach four figures of square footage before anyone touches the backyard.

Around $1,500 to $2,200 installed for 100 square feet. Small jobs carry a higher effective rate than big ones because delivery, mobilization, and equipment setup cost the same whether the patio is 100 square feet or 600, so the fixed cost spreads over less area.

You can, and it will move. Bare Northridge soil is fine alluvial material that compacts unevenly and carries no load, so pavers set straight onto it settle into ruts, spread at the edges, and grow weeds through the joints within a season or two. The compacted aggregate base is what carries the weight and holds the surface flat, and there is no version of the job that works without it.

Concrete is cheaper on day one at roughly $8 to $15 per square foot against $15 to $25 for pavers. Pavers win on everything after that. A slab is one rigid plate that relieves ground movement by cracking, and a patch never matches. A paver field absorbs movement in its sand joints, and a settled section is repaired by lifting the units, correcting the bedding, and putting the same stone back. On the alluvial fan that gave the 1994 earthquake its name, that difference is not theoretical.

Thirty to fifty years is a normal service life for a properly based paver surface, and many outlast that. Nothing wears out all at once, which is the real advantage. Joint sand gets topped up, an individual stained or damaged unit gets swapped, and a settled area gets reset. A poured slab is typically good for twenty to thirty years here before cracking makes replacement the only option.

Three to seven working days for most residential projects. Removing an old slab takes the first day or two, base excavation and compaction takes the next two, and laying, cutting, edging, and joint sand close it out. Large driveways, curved layouts, or pool deck cut work extend that.

Northridge is City of Los Angeles jurisdiction, Council District 12, and most tracts here have no homeowners association to clear. Replacing a private driveway or patio surface in kind normally does not require a building permit. Work in the public right of way, meaning the apron and the sidewalk crossing at the curb, is permitted separately through the City, and that gets flagged in your quote before the job starts.

It can, and it is the most overlooked issue in the north Valley. Northridge sits on a gently sloping alluvial fan with almost no usable relief at the scale of one property, so water will not leave on its own. The fall gets cut into the base by hand at one to two percent away from the house, and where a yard is boxed in with nowhere to shed, a channel drain or a permeable build does the job that gravity cannot.