How to install your own paver driveway: part 4 ordering the pavers

In the last blog I discussed paver selection.  As was mentioned there are a lot of factors to consider when selecting pavers like roof color, house color, paver color, paver size, paver pattern and surrounding landscaping color.  all these factors can bog down the decision making process or if they are not considered the end result may be sub par.  One thing in my favor is that I am the only one making the decision and therefore it is less complicated.

So initially I was set on a white / tan paver, but after considering what color my house would be I realized there would be too much similar light colors and I needed some contrasting colors.  I have decided that my house color will be a shade of white with teal paint on the doors, window frames and maybe the gable ends.  Its kind of what the house color scheme has been for a long time but it will be slightly different coloring.

For pavers, I decided on the Abacoa color pattern  which is a red, charcoal, tan mix.  To settle on this color I made a second trip to Coastal an old castle company in Orlando (link). and looked at their in ground paver display.  This time instead of looking for light white tan pavers I looked for darker pavers and found the pavers pictured below

In the picture brick pavers are used but I'm purchasing a larger paver known as Appian Stone.  I tried going even larger by purchasing Appian Grande link but it was not available and I think it has become a legacy paver.    In the very bottom of the picture is different colored Appian stone.  The Appian stone is a two paver system with pavers of dimensions 6" x 6" and 6" x 9".  The reason I wanted the Grande is because I thought that I might want to roll a jack on the driveway and this would offer less resistance.  Also tiles in housing have trended to bigger sizes and I wonder if the same trend will happen with pavers but maybe not.  Anyway Appian Stone it is.  Here is link where someone used Abocoa Appian Stone for a pool deck.

Additionally, I like the charcoal colored paver border in the picture and I am going to attempt that as well.

I calculated that I need 804 Sq Ft of pavers and about 135 feet of border.  It is recommended that when ordering, an extra  10% to 15% is added on to account for the pavers that are cut.  That comes out to be 9 pallets of Appian Stone and 1 Pallet of the black brick where a pallet is 103 square feet.  I'm not to worried about running out since the small pad for the garbage cans can be adjusted in size depending on what I have left over.


To get the best price, I called a local installer that sells the pavers and Old castle in Orlando.  The local installer had paver left overs for sale but was not a dealer of pavers so no dice.  Old Castle of Orlando would sell everything to me for $2696.

However, I had another trick up my sleeve.  I learned this when shopping for cedar for my cedar covered porch project discussed in this link.  I called Lowe's.  Now Lowe's does not have these pavers in their store or online but they do have a different offering of Belgard pavers.  To get stuff from Lowe's that is not their standard offering you have to call their pro desk.

My first call to the pro desk resulted in no one answering.  My second resulted in the statement "we don't have Belgard as a supplier."  But after about an hour I thought to myself, wait a minute they have Belgard pavers in the store.  I got out my red bullshit flag and threw it on the ground.  In my third call, I challenged their statement and then educated the staff about the pavers in their store.  They then wanted to transfer me to the lawn and garden store to talk with them.  I said no I'm not talking with them they wont be able to help me and then I told them my story on how I got some really nice cedar through the pro desk and I would like them to find out if it is possible to get the paver's from the Lowes as well.

Turns out they could get them, from old castle for a slight higher cost per square foot but a much lower delivery cost.  But when I asked for the QSP discount the price cam out to be $2345.  Adding on the 1% for the cash rewards credit card I used resulted in $375 savings or more than one pallet for free.   Nice!

Unfortunately, I have to wait 6 to 10 weeks for Belgard to make the pavers.  This might have something to do with the non standard color causing them not to be in stock.

Since I now have down time other house projects are now in focus.  I will discuss what mammoth project I have just started in my next blog.  For the continuation of the paver driveway blog see this link

Happy Building,

The Dr.