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CGI Driveway & Pavers: The Fort Worth Owner’s Guide
CGI driveway and paver replacement in Fort Worth typically runs $7,000 – $18,000 installed, depending on square footage, existing base condition, and paver style. We stock CGI-compatible pavers and edge restraints, and our crew can usually start within two weeks of your written estimate. Most Fort Worth homeowners discover a problem the same way: a paver sinks after heavy rain, a corner breaks under a truck tire, or the sand between joints washes out until the whole section starts shifting.
You’re reading this because a specific part of your CGI driveway has failed and you want it matched, priced, and fixed without guessing. That’s exactly what this page covers. We’re an independent Fort Worth remodeling contractor, not affiliated with CGI, but we install and replace CGI driveway products regularly across Tarrant County, from the Fairmount Historic District up through the Cultural District and out to the subdivisions near Benbrook Lake. Graham Stein, our owner, started his training at Los Angeles Trade-Technical College and has spent decades working construction across North Texas, so he has seen which driveway parts fail here and which ones hold.
Which CGI Models This Applies To
CGI driveway systems in Fort Worth run on two primary lines: the standard residential paver series (thinner units, usually 60mm, designed for passenger vehicles) and the heavier-duty series (80mm units rated for occasional truck or RV traffic). If your original paperwork lists “CGI” followed by a model number starting with a letter and four digits, that number tells us the exact paver profile, chamfer style, and color blend. If the paperwork is long gone, we pull one paver, check the underside for a stamp or embossed code, and match it visually against the current CGI color catalog.
Here’s the compatibility gotcha most people don’t know: CGI color blends drift slightly between manufacturing runs, especially in the tans and grays that dominate Fort Worth driveways after ten years of Texas sun. A paver purchased today as “Sierra Buff” will not perfectly match one poured in 2016. We order replacement pavers from the same blend family, then pull pavers from a low-visibility section of your driveway to patch the high-visibility area, so the color difference lands along the garage edge or behind a planter where nobody’s eye goes. That one move is worth more than any premium upcharge.
For edge restraints, the aftermarket equivalents from NDS and Snap Edge work fine in North Texas clay soil and typically save you 15 – 20% compared to OEM CGI edging without sacrificing performance. For the pavers themselves, we recommend OEM CGI units on color-critical visible areas, and accept quality aftermarket matches only for concealed repairs or under-deck sections.
Styles & brands we work with
Signs Your CGI Driveway & Pavers Is Failing
- Sunken or “dished” pavers near the garage apron. North Texas clay expands and contracts with moisture, and a base that was only 4 inches of sand or road base eventually settles unevenly. The paver itself is fine, but the substrate has failed under it, which means pulling the section, re-compacting, and adding crushed limestone before resetting.
- Sand washing out between joints after every rain. Fort Worth gets intense spring downpours, and if the joint sand is ordinary play sand instead of polymeric sand, water carries it away within a season or two. Polymeric sand cures to a firm but flexible bond that holds up to our rain patterns.
- Corner spalling or chipped edges along the driveway border. This usually happens when a tire runs over an edge restraint that loosened, or when the border paver is cut too narrow. It starts cosmetic and turns structural if water gets under the broken edge and erodes the base.
- Weed or grass growth pushing up between pavers. A sign the joint sand is gone and the base is exposed. The roots get under the pavers and lift them, creating trip hazards in a driveway your kids walk across barefoot every summer.
- Efflorescence, a white chalky film across the surface. This is mineral salt leaching out of the paver, common with Fort Worth’s hard tap water and irrigation overspray. It’s rarely a paver failure, but it tells you the sealer has worn off and the pavers are absorbing water, which accelerates freeze-thaw damage during our occasional January cold snaps.
See the difference
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AfterReplacement Cost & What’s Included
A full CGI driveway replacement in Fort Worth runs $7,000 – $18,000 installed. Sectional repairs, like replacing a 10-foot by 20-foot patch where a section sank, run $1,200 – $3,200 depending on whether we re-compact the base or just reset the pavers. Here’s how a full replacement breaks down:
- Demo and haul-off of the old pavers and base: $1,500 – $3,000
- Excavation and new crushed limestone base (6 – 8 inches compacted): $2,500 – $5,500
- CGI pavers and edge restraints: $2,000 – $7,000 depending on style and square footage
- Polymeric joint sand and installation labor: $1,000 – $2,500
Our written price includes the drop cloths and shoe covers, the dump trailer, the compaction passes, and a photo of the finished driveway before the crew leaves. There’s no change order after we start unless you add square footage or ask for a different paver style mid-project. The 365-Day Done Right Promise applies to driveway work: if a paver sinks or a joint fails within a year of our install, we come back and make it right. That’s stamped on every invoice we hand you before a single tool comes off the truck.
DIY or Call Us?
A homeowner can safely power-wash a CGI driveway, re-sweep polymeric sand into joints, and pop out a single cracked paver with a flat pry bar to inspect what’s underneath the base. Those are honest, useful tasks that slow down bigger failures. What we don’t recommend doing yourself is lifting a sunken section of more than a few pavers, re-compacting the base with a rented plate compactor, or cutting edge pavers with a demo saw. A plate compactor in the hands of someone who has not run one before can damage the pavers you’re trying to save, and cutting pavers without proper dust control puts silica dust into air your kids or pets will breathe for days.
If the problem is a single paver, call us and describe it. We’ll tell you over the phone whether it’s a Saturday afternoon job for you or something we should look at. The number is (682) 708-9180, and a real person picks up, not a voicemail box.
FAQs
A properly installed CGI paver driveway on a compacted limestone base lasts 25 to 30 years in Fort Worth. The pavers themselves are rated for that lifespan; the base underneath and the joint sand are what determine whether you actually get it. Our North Texas clay, with its wet-dry cycles, shortens the life of any substrate that was not compacted correctly. We see bases fail in 8 to 10 years on installs where the original contractor skipped the geotextile fabric or used sand instead of crushed stone. Call (682) 708-9180 if you want us to assess whether your failing driveway is a paver problem or a base problem.
Yes, a single broken or chipped CGI paver can be replaced without redoing the driveway, as long as the surrounding base is still sound and the break is isolated. We pull the damaged paver, check the sand underneath, drop in a matched replacement, and re-sweep polymeric sand into the joints. If the damage is from a sunken base, replacing only the paver is a temporary fix, so we’ll flag that honestly before quoting. Call (682) 708-9180 for a free estimate on a single-paver or sectional repair.
A standard two-car CGI driveway replacement in Fort Worth takes 3 to 5 working days, from demo through final compaction and polymeric sand. Weather is the main variable: we can’t pour or compact properly in heavy rain, so a spring thunderstorm week can add a day or two. We give you a written start date and a written finish date before work begins, and we schedule the noisiest excavation for hours outside typical school pickup time when we know a family is living in the house during the job. Call (682) 708-9180 and we’ll walk you through a realistic timeline for your specific driveway.
We stock the most common CGI paver profiles in Fort Worth-area colors like Sierra Buff, Charcoal, and Tuscan Brown, plus edge restraints and polymeric sand, on our truck or in our local yard. Less common CGI blends and the heavy-duty 80mm series may need a 3 to 5 day order window. You never order materials yourself; the written estimate includes the exact paver, quantity, and color blend we’ll install, so there’s no markup surprise at the end. Call (682) 708-9180 to confirm we have your specific CGI color in stock.
When your CGI driveway fails, you want three things: the right part, an honest price before work starts, and a crew that leaves your driveway looking like someone cared. That’s the whole job. Graham Stein writes every scope down before the first tool leaves the truck, and his rule is simple: “The written price and the final invoice should read the same – if they don’t, that’s on us to explain before we hand you a pen.” Call (682) 708-9180 to schedule your free estimate in Fort Worth today.
Written by Graham Stein, Owner, Elmstead Remodeling Fort Worth at Elmstead Remodeling Fort Worth, serving Fort Worth and nearby areas.
