That cheap paver base I laid 3 years ago is now a total nightmare

Back in 2021 I built a little patio in my backyard in Phoenix and used those cheap plastic grid things from the hardware store for the base. Last month after all that monsoon rain, the whole thing started sinking and shifting like crazy. I thought I was saving money at $40 for a pack, but now I'm looking at tearing out 150 square feet of pavers and starting over. The worst part is the grids cracked up and left sharp plastic pieces sticking out everywhere. My dog cut his paw on one last week and that's when I finally lost it. If I had just spent the extra $100 on crushed gravel and a proper compactor rental, I wouldn't be in this mess. Has anyone else dealt with these plastic grid bases failing after a few years?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_shane5d agoTop Commenter

My buddy in Tucson went through the exact same thing with those plastic grids. He spent a whole weekend last year yanking out pavers and finding sharp plastic shards everywhere, said it was way more work than if he had just done gravel and a compactor from the start. His dog never got cut but he did find a piece stuck in his tire later.

riverowens4d ago

Phoenix is the problem here, not the grids. I've had those plastic base grids down for almost 5 years in Flagstaff with zero issues. We get way less rain than Phoenix but way more freeze-thaw cycles and mine are still flat as a pancake. The trick is you absolutely have to put them on properly compacted dirt and use the right stakes. My buddy installed some without stakes in Mesa and they came apart in 6 months. Yours probably needed more prep work before you laid the grids down.