Paver Driveways in Boston, Somerville and Cambridge

A permeable paver driveway in the Boston area runs about $35 per square foot installed, so a typical 400 sq ft city driveway lands near $14,000. Removing and hauling an existing asphalt drive adds roughly $5,300 for an 1,800 sq ft surface, disposal included. Permeable pavers let water pass into a stone reservoir underneath instead of running into the street — which is why they earn Somerville Green Score credit.

We've been building driveways in this area since 1989. Thirty-seven years. Most of the work is in Somerville, Cambridge, Medford and the Boston neighborhoods — Charlestown, Dorchester, JP, South Boston — where the driveways are narrow, the lots are tight, and there's usually a triple-decker three feet off the property line.

Small doesn't mean you settle for a patch of asphalt. A paver driveway on a 10-foot-wide city lot can look better than anything on the street.

Permeable pavers vs. standard pavers

Both are concrete pavers. The difference is what's underneath and what happens to the water.

Standard pavers sit on a compacted dense-graded base with a bedding layer of sand or stone dust. Joints are tight, filled with polymeric sand. Water sheds off the surface the same way it sheds off asphalt — it has to go somewhere, usually the street or your foundation. That's fine when the grade cooperates and you've got somewhere to send it.

Permeable pavers are a system, not a product. The pavers have wider joints filled with small clean stone. Under them is an open-graded base — washed stone with no fines in it, so the voids stay open. Water goes through the joints, through the base, and sits in that stone layer until it soaks into the subgrade below. On a driveway that reservoir is usually 12 to 18 inches of stone depending on how the soil drains.

The phrase that matters is no fines. Regular base material has stone dust in it, and dust is what makes it compact tight and hold water out. Open-graded base has none of it. Put fines in a permeable base and you've built an expensive standard driveway that will pond.

More on the difference here: permeable vs. regular pavers.

The Somerville Green Score angle

Somerville's zoning ordinance includes a landscape performance standard called the Green Score (Section 10.4). It scores a lot's landscape elements — trees, planting beds, green roofs, permeable paving — and requires a minimum score depending on the zoning district.

Permeable paving earns credit under that system. It scores lower than a large tree does, but it counts, and on a tight urban lot where you can't plant a canopy tree in the middle of your parking area, permeable paving is often the only card you have left to play.

The city publishes a Green Score Guide through its Public Space & Urban Forestry division, along with a Green Scorecard calculator you can run your numbers through. Compliance is generally triggered by new construction or substantial renovation of a principal building — not by a homeowner simply repaving a driveway. If you're doing a gut renovation, an addition, or a condo conversion in Somerville, get the Green Score sorted before you finalize your site plan, not after.

We deal with this often enough that we wrote it up: Somerville Green Score help and the longer permeable paving and Green Score guide.

Cambridge is different. Cambridge runs its own stormwater and land disturbance regulations through Public Works, with thresholds aimed at larger projects — acre-scale disturbance, big gross floor area, ten-plus car parking. A single-family driveway replacement usually falls below those triggers. Check with Cambridge DPW anyway before you assume, because the city has discretion to require review if a project affects the drainage system.

Ripping out the asphalt

Most of these jobs start with an existing asphalt drive that's cracked, sunk at the apron, and holding water.

That asphalt has to come out and go to a disposal facility. For an 1,800 square foot driveway, remove and haul including disposal runs about $5,300. Smaller drives cost less, but not proportionally — mobilization, the machine, and the truck cost the same whether the drive is 400 feet or 1,800.

Once it's out we look at what's under it. Sometimes it's decent gravel. Usually it's clay, old fill, or somebody's 1970s cinder base. We excavate down to competent subgrade and build the base from there. Skipping that step is how driveways fail.

Curb cuts and aprons

The strip between your driveway and the street belongs to the city, not to you. Any new curb cut, widened curb cut, or curb cut reconstruction needs a permit from the city's engineering department, and in Somerville that's a Curb Cut & Sidewalk Construction permit through Engineering. Work can't start until it's issued.

We handle the application and the apron work as part of the job. Building permit is a $250 pass-through — we don't mark it up.

If your apron is the part that's failing — and it usually is, because that's where the plow hits and where the city's water sheets across — rebuilding just the apron and transition is sometimes the right call. We'll tell you if that's the case.

Parking pad conversions

This is the job nobody writes about and half of Somerville needs.

You've got a scrubby patch of dirt and weeds beside the house where a car has been parked for twenty years. No curb cut, no real surface, mud in spring. Converting it to a proper paver parking pad means three things at once: a legal curb cut if you don't have one, a real base so the pad doesn't rut, and — if you're doing other permitted work — a permeable surface so you're not losing Green Score by paving over open ground.

A typical 10 by 20 pad is 200 square feet. At about $35 per square foot in permeable pavers, that's around $7,000 plus the curb cut and permit. Done right, it drains, it doesn't rut, and it doesn't count against you the way solid asphalt would.

What a bad driveway install looks like a year later

You'll know. Here's what shows up:

• Ruts under the tires. Two shallow tracks where the car sits. That's an under-built or under-compacted base — someone used four inches where a driveway needs eight to twelve.
• The apron dropped. A lip you can feel from the driver's seat. The transition wasn't compacted in lifts.
• Standing water. On a permeable drive that means fines got into the base, or the installer never opened up the subgrade.
• Joints washed out. Sand gone, pavers rocking. Nobody swept in polymeric sand or the permeable joints never got the right chip stone.
• Edges spreading. Pavers creeping outward along the sides. No edge restraint, or the restraint was spiked into soft fill.

Every one of those is a base problem or an edge problem. Nobody sees the base, which is exactly why it's the part that gets cut. We build it properly because we're the ones who have to come back.

Related reading: why patios pool water and how drainage actually works, and patio repair and rebuild when it's already gone wrong.

Real cost numbers

No one else in this market publishes prices. We do.

Prices are installed, materials and labor. Curb cut work, drainage tie-ins, retaining walls and steps are quoted separately. Final number comes from the on-site measure.

Want the same math for a patio instead? See our paver patio cost guide for Boston and our cost and payment page.

Towns we work in

Somerville, Cambridge, Medford, Malden, Everett, Arlington, Belmont, Watertown, Winchester, Brookline, and Boston proper — Charlestown, the North End, South End, South Boston, Back Bay, Beacon Hill, Dorchester and Jamaica Plain.

We do a lot of driveways in Somerville and Cambridge, plenty in Watertown and Arlington, and plenty of full-yard work where the driveway is one piece of a larger masonry and hardscape project.

Get a free on-site quote

Call (781) 859-5304. Tell us the address and roughly how big the drive is. We come out, measure, look at where the water goes, and give you a written number within 24 hours — no charge, no pressure.

American Elm Landscape / Boston Patio Design, 150 Rivers Edge Dr, Medford, MA 02155. Fully insured. Building since 1989. 4.6 stars across 57 Google reviews.

Got a question first? Ask Allan.

Frequently asked questions

How much does a paver driveway cost in Boston?

Permeable paver driveways install at about $35 per square foot. A typical 400 square foot city driveway comes in near $14,000, and a wider two-car drive around 720 square feet runs about $25,200. If there's asphalt to remove first, budget roughly $5,300 for an 1,800 square foot surface including hauling and disposal.

Are permeable pavers worth it over standard pavers?

If you have a drainage problem, a stormwater requirement, or a Somerville Green Score to hit, yes. Permeable pavers put the water into a stone reservoir under the drive instead of pushing it toward the street or your foundation. If your lot already drains well and there's no zoning driver, standard pavers on a proper base are a fine choice.

Does a paver driveway earn Somerville Green Score credit?

Permeable paving earns credit under Somerville's Green Score standard in zoning Section 10.4. It scores lower than a mature tree, but on a tight lot it's often the only credit available. Green Score generally applies to new construction and substantial renovation rather than a straight driveway replacement — confirm your specific project with the city.

Do I need a permit for a new driveway?

For the driveway surface itself on your own property, often not. For anything at the street — a new curb cut, a widened curb cut, or apron reconstruction — yes, you need a curb cut and sidewalk permit from the city engineering department, and work can't begin until it's issued. We handle the paperwork. Building permit is a $250 pass-through.

Will a paver driveway hold up to a car and a plow?

Yes, when the base is built for it. A driveway needs a deeper, better-compacted base than a patio, plus solid edge restraint. Pavers flex as one surface instead of cracking like a slab, and if something ever does settle, we lift the affected pavers, fix the base and set them back — no seams, no patch.

Can you build a driveway on a narrow city lot?

That's most of what we do. Somerville and Cambridge lots are tight, the neighbor's triple-decker is close, and access is usually one gate wide. We work with small equipment, stage material on the street when we need to, and clean up daily. A ten-foot-wide driveway can be done properly.