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Tremron Driveway & Pavers: The San Francisco Owner’s Guide
We install and repair Tremron-style concrete pavers in San Francisco, with paver driveway installation typically running $8,260 – $21,240 and paver patio installation at $4,130 – $12,980 depending on square footage, base prep, and access. Most owners call us after noticing a sunken section, a paver that’s cracked along the edge, or sand washing out between joints after a winter of rain. The fix usually comes down to removing the failed pavers, correcting the base underneath, and reinstalling with fresh bedding sand and joint compound, not replacing the whole driveway. We’re an independent contractor in San Francisco, not affiliated with Tremron, but we work with Tremron products and equivalent concrete pavers every season.
What you’re seeing with a failed paver or a shifting section usually has less to do with the paver itself and more to do with what’s underneath it. A paver is only as stable as its base. In San Francisco, where clay soils expand through wet winters and our hills send water moving under driveways faster than flat neighborhoods elsewhere, base failure shows up as a dip, a wobble, or a paver that’s cracked under a car tire.
Which Tremron Models This Applies To
Tremron manufactures concrete pavers in a range of shapes and thicknesses. For driveways, the relevant models are the thicker units, typically 60mm (about 2⅜ inches) in a Holland or similar interlocking pattern. Patios and walkways often use 50mm pavers, which are fine for foot traffic but will crack under vehicle weight if someone decided to extend a patio into a parking area with the wrong spec. That’s one of the most common things we find in San Francisco: a paver that was never rated for driveway load doing driveway work.
If you need to identify your paver, flip over a loose one. Most Tremron pavers have a product code or name stamped on the underside. The color and the edge profile (beveled vs. square) narrow it down further. When it comes to OEM versus aftermarket, concrete pavers are somewhat forgiving. A quality aftermarket paver in the same dimensions and color family will interlock with the existing field, though color match will never be perfect after years of UV exposure fading the original surface. We’re honest about that before any work starts: a repaired section might look slightly newer for a season or two until it weathers in.
Beyond pavers, we stock common edging systems, geotextile fabric, bedding sand, and polymeric joint compound. For interior work, our showroom partners include KraftMaid and Cambria, and our surfacing work frequently involves Silestone.
Styles & brands we work with
Signs Your Tremron Driveway & Pavers Is Failing
- A single paver rocks underfoot. The bedding sand has washed out or the base has settled unevenly beneath that one unit. Left alone, the rocking paver will crack along its edges from concentrated pressure.
- Sand is washing out of the joints after rain. In San Francisco, this is most visible on sloped driveways or anywhere a downspout empties onto the paver surface. Once joint sand goes, pavers start shifting against each other and the interlock weakens.
- A low spot holds water for more than an hour after rain. Paver driveways should shed water, not pond it. A persistent puddle means the base has settled in that area, and the subgrade under the base likely wasn’t compacted properly originally.
- You can see a crack running through several pavers in a line. That’s a base failure telegraphing upward, usually along a seam where one compaction lift met another, or where a trench was cut for utilities and backfilled too quickly.
- Edges are spreading outward at the driveway borders. The edge restraint has failed. Without a solid border holding the field in compression, the outer pavers push outward and the whole surface starts losing its interlock from the outside in.
See the difference
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After
Before
After
Before
AfterReplacement Cost & What’s Included
For a partial repair in San Francisco, where we remove the failed section, correct the base, and reinstall the pavers, expect $2,000 – $6,000 depending on how much base material needs excavation and recompaction. A full paver driveway replacement runs $8,260 – $21,240, and a paver patio installation is $4,130 – $12,980. The range exists because every job differs in square footage, access, slope, and what we find once we open the surface. If the original base was never properly engineered (which we see often enough on older San Francisco homes in the Sunset District and Richmond District, where driveways were poured over whatever was there in 1950), the repair is more involved.
Every quote is written before work starts, and it breaks out materials, labor, disposal, and base work as separate line items. You’ll know what the pavers cost, what the sand costs, and what our time costs. No number changes once we’ve opened the surface unless you ask us to expand the scope. And the work itself falls under our 365-Day Done Right Promise: if the repair fails within a year, we come back and make it right.
DIY or Call Us?
Concrete pavers are heavy. A 60mm driveway paver weighs roughly 15 – 20 pounds each, and a repair section can involve moving fifty of them twice. That’s a real physical risk for a weekend DIY attempt, especially if you don’t have a plate compactor for the base and a rubber mallet and level for the reinstall. We’ve been called to fix plenty of DIY re-levels where the homeowner got the sand right but skipped the base compaction, and the dip returned within a year.
What you can safely do is diagnose. Note which pavers are rocking, where water ponds, and whether the joints are losing sand. Take photos after a rain. That gives us a head start when we walk the site. But if you’re not comfortable moving several hundred pounds of concrete, call (831) 480-4497. We’ll bring the compactor, the right sand, and the time to do it once.
FAQs
A properly installed Tremron-style concrete paver driveway lasts 25 – 40 years in San Francisco’s climate. The pavers themselves rarely fail; what fails is the base underneath them, which typically lasts 15 – 25 years before it needs recompaction or partial replacement. Call (831) 480-4497 if you suspect base failure.
Yes, in most cases we lift the affected pavers, correct and recompact the base, and reinstall the same pavers if they’re intact. This is the standard repair for isolated settlement in San Francisco. For an exact assessment, call (831) 480-4497 for a site visit.
A partial paver repair usually takes 1 – 2 days including base work and compaction. A full driveway replacement typically runs 5 – 10 working days depending on square footage and whether we’re replacing the subgrade. We set quiet hours during the work so your family isn’t chased out of the house.
We stock common edging, sand, and joint compound on our trucks, and we order pavers by product code for each job to match your existing field as closely as possible. We do not keep pallets of every Tremron color on hand in San Francisco. Call (831) 480-4497 and we’ll confirm availability and lead time for your specific paver.
Written by Graham Stein, Owner, Elmstead Remodeling San Francisco at Elmstead Remodeling San Francisco, serving San Francisco and nearby areas.
