Guide
Eleven questions that separate hardscape contractors
A short list you can take to any quote in New Jersey. Most of these have one right answer, and a contractor who cannot give it straight away has told you what you needed to know.
This is the list we would use ourselves. It is deliberately short, and every question has an answer a competent contractor gives without hesitating.
What is your New Jersey Home Improvement Contractor registration number? It is required by law in all advertising, so it should already be on their website and their truck. If you have to ask, that itself is the answer.
How deep are you excavating, and what is the compacted base thickness? You are looking for 235 mm and 150 mm under foot traffic, 300 mm and 225 mm under vehicles.
How many lifts does the base go in, and are they compacted separately? Two lifts minimum. One lift means the bottom half was never densified.
What are you using for base stone? ¾″ clean, open graded. Not recycled concrete, not quarry process with fines in it.
Where does the water go? They should be able to answer this pointing at the ground, not in general terms.
Is there geotextile between the subgrade and the base? Yes, always, on anything but rock.
How are you cutting? Wet, on a table, off the patio. Dry cutting with a grinder chips the edge and coats your beds in silica dust.
What restraint are you using at the edge? Spiked polymer on a compacted shoulder. A bead of concrete along the edge is a repair waiting to happen.
What is your insurance, and can I see the certificate? A certificate naming you, not a photograph of one from three years ago.
Who is actually on site, and are they your employees? Ask who runs the compactor. The answer tells you whether you are hiring a builder or a broker.
What does the warranty cover and for how long? Settlement and joint failure, in writing, with a number of years on it.
Questions this raises
- What if a contractor gets one of these wrong?
- One wrong answer is a conversation. Two is a pattern. Base depth and drainage are the two where a wrong answer should end the meeting, because they are the two you cannot see and cannot fix later without taking the whole thing up.