Everyone shows you the paver samples. The part that decides whether it stays flat is six inches underneath, and it is where cheap bids cut.
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A paver surface is a flexible system, and virtually every failure traces to what is under it rather than to the pavers themselves. A patio generally wants around four to six inches of compacted crushed aggregate; a driveway carrying vehicles wants more, commonly eight to twelve inches, compacted in lifts rather than dumped and rolled once. The single most useful question you can ask is how deep the base will be and in how many lifts it gets compacted. A bid that will not answer that in numbers is not a bid you can compare.
Much of Studio City sits on or below the Santa Monica Mountains slope, so a hardscape project here is a water management project whether or not anyone calls it one. Paving over ground that used to absorb rain sends that water somewhere, and the two bad outcomes are water driven toward the foundation and water dumped onto a neighbor. Expect a designed slope away from the structure, usually around a quarter inch per foot, plus channel drains or a dry well where the grade offers nowhere for water to go. Ask specifically where the water ends up, and be skeptical of any answer that is just the word gravity.
Permeable systems use open joints and an open-graded stone base so rain infiltrates instead of running off, which can genuinely solve a runoff problem on a constrained lot. They cost noticeably more because the base is deeper and the aggregate is a specific washed material rather than ordinary road base. They also need periodic vacuuming of the joints or the surface eventually clogs and stops being permeable. Worth considering if you are paving a large area on a slope; usually not worth the premium for a small flat patio.
Pavers stay tight because they are locked at the perimeter and their joints are filled, and the two cheapest things to skip are the two that fail first. Without a proper edge restraint the outer courses migrate outward and the field opens up, which is what people are seeing when they say pavers spread. Polymeric joint sand resists washout and weed growth better than plain sand, though it must be installed dry and correctly or it hazes the surface. Ask what the edge restraint is and what goes in the joints; both should appear as named line items.
Setting pavers on top of an old concrete slab is a common cost-saving suggestion and it is usually a bad trade. The slab traps water under the new surface, the assembly ends up an inch or two higher than it should be, and any crack or settlement in the old concrete telegraphs straight up. It also raises the finished grade against thresholds and garage openings, which creates a drainage problem where there was not one. Sometimes an overlay is genuinely the right answer on a sound, well-drained slab, but the burden should be on the contractor to explain why.
Studio City is part of the City of Los Angeles, so permits go through LADBS. Replacing an existing driveway or patio in place often needs no building permit, but a new curb cut or any work in the public right-of-way requires a separate permit from Public Works, and retaining walls above a modest height, grading, and drainage changes generally require permits. Hillside lots draw more scrutiny on grading than flat lots do. You and the contractor you hire are responsible for pulling and closing any permit; Tegula Stone does not pull permits and is not a party to the work.
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