Status: Proposed · September 2026
An eight-year-old pool and patio in Germantown, off 7th Avenue North: about 909 square feet of open pool deck in cast concrete pavers on a gravel base with gravel-filled joints, plus a concrete parking pad off the alley. The deck has moved — pavers out of level, gravel riding up onto the surface and into the pool, sore to walk on barefoot. Drainage was never the problem; water goes straight through. The homeowner had already paid for patch work and was done patching. He wanted a commercial-grade pool deck that stays level.
The problem
It’s a paver problem, not a base problem. The cast pavers on this deck have no spacer bars — the nibs cast into the sides of a proper paver that set the joint width. Nothing holds the joint, so the units drift, the joints open unevenly, the gravel migrates, and it keeps happening no matter how carefully anyone resets them. The open-graded base underneath is largely usable; it needs a slight correction, not a rebuild.
What we’re building
| Zone | Build stack, top to bottom |
|---|---|
| Pool deck — 909 sq ft | Lift, remove and haul the old pavers, joint gravel and bedding → expose and probe the existing open-graded base; re-grade to true plane and pitch (¼ in. per ft away from the house); add ASTM No. 57 clean stone where thin; plate-compact in lifts → 2 in. ASTM No. 8 washed-chip bedding, screeded — no sand → Unilock Beacon Hill Smooth, 3-piece random pattern, spacer-bar joints, wet-saw cut to coping and structures → Snap Edge concealed restraint, 10 in. spikes at 12 in. o.c. → joints filled with No. 8/9 chip and compacted through a protective pad, or a permeable resin joint compound if its joint-width spec is met. |
| Parking pad — about 170 sq ft | Break out and haul the concrete → excavate → 8 in. compacted No. 57 open-graded base → No. 8 bedding → Beacon Hill Smooth laid permeable with edge restraint — a vehicle-rated section, so the whole back of the lot reads as one surface. |
| Stair tread / coping — about 40 lin ft | Matching Unilock coping or wall cap; profile and color chosen with the paver. |
This is a permeable interlocking concrete pavement section top to bottom: chip bedding on open-graded stone, not sand — sand on an open-graded base washes down into the stone and the deck settles. Chip on chip is the permeable standard. The covered patio next to the deck, mortar-set on a slab, is a different animal and stays out of this scope.
The material
Unilock Beacon Hill Smooth — 2⅜ in. thick, integral spacer bars, 3-piece modular set (roughly 6×12, 12×12, 12×18) laid random so cuts around the pool disappear. Manufactured to a northern freeze-thaw standard (ASTM C936, tested with de-icers), lifetime transferable warranty on structural integrity, and Unilock’s own spec allows it in a permeable section — nothing here is improvised. Smooth, slip-resistant face that stays cooler underfoot in the lighter blends. Color doesn’t change the price; full-size samples get laid beside the coping before the order goes in.
Living with it
Blow or sweep it. Don’t pressure-wash hard enough to blow the chip out of the joints (a resin joint compound changes that rule). Top up the joint chip once in year one, then rarely. Vacuum-sweep once a year if leaf litter builds up so the joints keep draining. No sealer required.
Questions to ask anyone who quotes a pool deck
| Ask | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Does the paver you’re proposing have spacer bars? | If no, you are buying the same failure again under a different label. |
| Is the bedding layer sand or clean chip? | Sand on an open-graded base washes into the stone and the deck settles. |
| Is there an edge restraint, and what is it? | Pavers with no restraint creep outward and the joints open. |
How we build it
More on our pool deck paver installation and permeable pavers, and why pool deck paving that stays cool and slip-resistant matters in a Nashville summer.
Germantown
Germantown’s rebuilt blocks are full of eight-to-twelve-year-old hardscape that was put in fast during the boom — pool decks and patios on decent bases with the wrong paver on top. Alley access, a parking pad and a gate beside the garage is the typical route in; enough for a Dingo and a dump trailer, which keeps a job like this to about a week on site.
Thinking about the same thing for your pool deck? Call (615) 356-0139 or request a free quote. We come out, look at it, and tell you straight what it needs.