Paver patios, walkways, sitting walls, and fire pits built on a base that won't sink or heave. Gray & Sons Contracting designs and installs hardscaping for Southern Maryland homes the right way, the boring base work you never see is what keeps the surface flat for decades. Plan in winter, build for spring, and lock in your spot. Free written estimate.
Hardscaping is everything hard and built in the yard, the patios, paths, walls, and steps that turn a plain backyard into outdoor rooms you actually use. As a family-owned general contractor, we design and install it all as one project for homeowners across Calvert, St. Mary's, and Charles County, so the materials, colors, and levels tie together instead of looking pieced-in over the years. And because we obsess over the base underneath, our work stays put while rushed jobs sink and heave.
The centerpiece of most backyards. We excavate to depth, build and compact a proper gravel base, screed the bedding sand, and lay pavers tight with polymeric sand joints and a solid edge restraint so nothing shifts. Interlocking pavers give you a patio that flexes with the freeze-thaw cycles Southern Maryland throws at it, and if a section ever needs attention, individual pavers lift and reset without tearing up the whole slab.
A good walkway does more than get you from the driveway to the door, it sets the first impression of the whole house. We build front walks, side paths, and garden trails in matching or complementary pavers, graded to shed water away from the foundation and wide enough to walk two abreast. Walkway installation in St. Mary's County often means tying a path into sloped or wooded lots, and we grade and step it so it feels natural underfoot.
A low sitting wall doubles your seating without a single folding chair and frames the patio into a real gathering space. Pair it with a built-in fire pit and the backyard stays useful from the first cool spring evening straight through fall. We build both in coordinated block and cap so they read as one designed space, not add-ons.
Where the grade changes, you need steps that are even, solid, and safe in the dark and the wet. We build paver and natural-stone steps with consistent risers and proper footings, from a couple of entrance treads to a full flight connecting a raised patio down to the lawn. Even risers aren't a luxury, uneven steps are how people fall.
This is the part that separates a patio that lasts from one that fails. We assess how water moves across your lot, grade the surface to drain away from the house, and add channel drains or a gravel base that sheds water where it's needed. On the many Southern Maryland lots with heavy clay or a high water table, drainage is the difference between a patio you enjoy and a puddle you avoid.
Paver patios in our area typically run about $15 to $30 per square foot installed, with most projects landing between roughly $4,000 and $15,000. Four things move that number: the size of the patio, the paver type you choose (a basic concrete paver costs less than a premium tumbled or large-format one), how much base work and grading the site needs, and any added features like a sitting wall, fire pit, or steps. A flat, open yard prices lower than a sloped lot that needs excavation and fill. We measure the space, walk you through paver options, and put an exact price in writing for free, no surprise line items once we start.
The difference between a patio that still looks new in fifteen years and one that's heaving in five is almost never the pavers, it's the base and the drainage underneath. That's where we spend the effort.
We build with Belgard, Techo-Bloc, and EP Henry, the paver and wall lines that hold color, resist spalling through Southern Maryland winters, and come backed by real manufacturer warranties. From classic tumbled cobble to clean large-format slabs, we help you pick a paver that suits the house and the way you'll use the space. Whatever the line, we install to the manufacturer's spec on a base built to depth, because a premium paver on a lazy base still fails.
We install patios and hardscaping throughout Calvert, St. Mary's, and Charles County across Southern Maryland, including Prince Frederick, Solomons, Lusby, Huntingtown, Dunkirk, Owings, St. Leonard, Leonardtown, California, Lexington Park, Hollywood, Waldorf, and La Plata. See our full service area.
Because the backyard works best when one contractor plans it whole. A patio often meets a raised deck at one edge and a retaining wall at another, and the finished space isn't done until the landscaping softens the edges. Handling it together means the levels line up, the materials complement each other, and you're not coordinating three crews who each blame the last one. One call, one crew, one standard of work, and if you plan it over the winter, you're first in line when the ground works in spring.
Tell us how you'd use the space and we'll come measure. Pavers, walls, or a full outdoor room, you'll get a straight answer and a free written estimate.