Local & Climate
Building Hurricane-Resistant Hardscape on the Gulf Coast
From June to November, New Orleans hardscape has to handle wind-driven rain and standing water. Permeable pavers, a deep base, edge restraints, and real drainage beat poured slabs every season.
Can a patio survive hurricane season? Yes, if you build it for our ground. From June to November, New Orleans yards take heavy, wind-driven rain that ponds fast over soft alluvial delta soil with a high water table. A well-built paver surface flexes with that water, sheds it, and stays put. A poured slab fights the same forces and loses, because once water gets under it, the slab heaves, cracks, and washes out at the edges.
Why pavers beat a slab in a downpour
A concrete slab is one rigid sheet. When the ground swells with rain and then settles as it dries, the slab cracks along the stress lines, and there’s no clean fix once it does. Pavers are a flexible system of individual units over a compac