Almost every patio and walkway quote around Coquitlam comes down to the same choice: interlocking pavers or a poured concrete slab. Both work. They fail differently, though, and on this coast that difference is what should decide it.
The short version
Concrete is one rigid piece. Pavers are hundreds of small pieces sitting on a compacted base. When the ground underneath moves, and here it does, one of those responds better than the other.
What water does to each
Ground on the Lower Mainland is wet for a good part of the year, and much of it is clay. Clay swells when it takes on water and shrinks when it dries out. That movement is slow, seasonal, and relentless.
Concrete has to resist it. A slab is strong in compression and it does not bend. When the ground shifts unevenly beneath it, stress builds until it releases as a crack. Control joints are cut in to steer where that crack goes, which helps, but it is managing the outcome rather than preventing it.
Pavers absorb it. Each stone can settle a fraction independently, and the joints between them take up the movement. A paver patio that has shifted looks uneven. A concrete patio that has shifted is cracked, and a crack does not close back up.
Water also gets away differently. Joints between pavers let water down through the surface into the base, where drainage carries it off. A slab sheds everything to its edges, so it has to be sloped correctly or you get standing water and, in a cold snap, ice.
Repair is the honest difference
This is the part people usually have not thought about at quoting time.
Pavers come up and go back down. If a section settles, or a root lifts it, or a trench has to be dug for a line, that area can be lifted, the base corrected, and the same stones reset. Done properly the repair is invisible. Keep a few spare stones from the original pallet and you can fix damage years later with matching material.
Concrete gets patched or replaced. A patch rarely matches in colour or texture, and a saw-cut repair leaves visible seams. Once cracking is widespread, the real fix is removal and a fresh pour, which means the demolition cost as well as the new slab.
Where concrete is the better answer
Pavers are not automatically right.
Concrete makes more sense for a large uninterrupted surface where you want a continuous look, for a garage floor or shop slab, where a vehicle turns tightly and repeatedly in one spot, or where a structural slab is called for. It is also faster to install over a big area, and it gives a cleaner result in a modern design where visible joints would be a distraction.
If a slab is going in, it wants a proper base and reinforcement, and the site needs drainage sorted first. Most cracked concrete we are asked about was poured on ground that was never prepared for it.
Where pavers are the better answer
Patios, walkways, garden paths, steps, driveways, and anywhere a curve, a slope or a change of level is involved. They handle irregular shapes without formwork, they can be taken up if anything under them ever needs access, and a settled section is a repair rather than a replacement.
They also give you a finished edge at a wall or a planting bed without a saw cut, which matters when the patio is part of a larger yard build.
What actually decides how long either lasts
Not the surface. The base.
Both need excavation down past topsoil to undisturbed ground, a compacted layer of crushed gravel, and somewhere for water to go. Pavers additionally need proper edge restraint, or the perimeter stones migrate outward over the years and the joints open up.
A paver patio on a thin base will sink and rock within a couple of seasons. A slab poured on soft fill will crack. Neither problem is a material problem, and neither is visible in a finished-job photo, which is why the base is worth asking any contractor about directly before you sign.
We covered the same idea for walls in block retaining walls, and it holds here.
Picking between them
If the area is shaped, sloped, near planting, or anywhere you might one day need to dig, use pavers. If it is a large flat rectangle, a garage or shop floor, or a place you want an unbroken surface, concrete is reasonable. In a yard with drainage problems, fix the drainage first, because neither surface survives water that has nowhere to go.
We install paving stones across the Lower Mainland and the Fraser Valley, and we do the excavation and drainage ourselves rather than subbing it out, so the base under your patio is our work too. You can see patios and walkways we have built.
Send a photo of the area and rough dimensions and we will come measure it. The quote is free.