This is going to sound like an ad for Arizona Pavers, but the truth is they earned it. And we're really customers, not Rob's brother-in-law or the like. <br /> The original, base job was to tear out an approximately 1400 s.f. drive and entry walk, which were about 50% asphalt and 50% concrete, and replace the areas with pavers, for which the bid was $8950 (this also included a tiny area that had some pavers in it which we removed so everything would match). In the end, we were so happy with the outcome that we expanded the job by another ±1000 s.f. for which Rob actually lowered the s.f. price in order to make it feasible. As it happened, the stone we chose happened to be one of the less expensive styles, which certainly helped the bottom line (not the way my luck usually goes). <br /> We began the exercise by selecting four pave-stone companies from Angie?s list. Our criteria were A-rating from prior Angie?s users, and a clean AZ Registrar of Contractors record. The spread of bids was remarkable, the highest being almost $20,000 for the same job! <br /> Rob?s bid was so much lower that we were skeptical. While he had an A-rating, he also had the fewest comments posted, so we asked to see other work he had completed. That work was excellent to our eyes, so we decided to give Rob a chance. It turned out to be the right decision. <br /> Rob does the work himself with his helper Rola, which probably accounts for his ability to bid as he does. Both of them were incredibly personable, friendly people and were very easy to work with. As a result, not only did we get to know them, so did many of our neighbors. <br /> The work was done with great care, and the result surpassed our expectations. And Rob never nickel-and-dimed us. There were a couple of small special circumstances that arose, and Rob graciously offered to simply take care of them for us. <br /> Would we hire him again? Recommend him to neighbors? We already have. Our neighbors were so impressed with the outcome that two of them had their driveways done by him, too, and others are considering having him do theirs in the future. We live off of a private drive, and the HOA has decided to hire Rob to do the entire drive. <br /> If you are considering installing pavers, we would make one suggestion. There are two kinds of sand that can be installed between the finished pavers: natural sand and polymeric sand. We went with the poly-sand. <br /> The pluses: <br /> 1. Poly-sand comes in colors, so it could be coordinated to work with the pavers, whereas natural sand is the typical light tan color. It's like picking the grout to go with your floor tile. <br /> 2. Importantly, unlike natural sand, poly-sand hardens in place, not as hard as grout, but hard enough to resist your fingernail pushing into it. Natural sand acts like sand everywhere: wind can blow portions away and rain can wash it away, so natural sand has to be supplemented over time. Poly-sand, being hard, isn't eroded by wind and rain. Plus, it keeps weeds from growing between the stones. <br /> The minuses: <br /> 1. Natural sand allows rainwater to percolate between the stones, poly-sand little or none. So if rainwater drainage is an issue for you, go with natural sand. <br /> 2. Poly-sand costs more (a) as a product, and (b) is more difficult to install (Rob's not a fan), so it's an upgrade, though not an expensive one. <br /> Bottom line: Rob's a find. We recommend him, and we wish him well. <br />