How To Lay Patio Pavers

Pavers Edge Restraints And Borders

Edging restraints and bordering of the paved area is essential for the durability, security, and aesthetics of the construction. Edging gives structure to the paved area, ensuring that the pavers remain locked in position. Edging and bordering also has aesthetic and decorative aspects that augment the character of the property.

How to Lay Pavers on Dirt

How To Build A Patio Foundation

Now that you know how to build a patio, you can start thinking of creative ways to use them around your home. One option is to use your patio as a foundation for a gazebo or pergola.

The process is basically the same. For this project, youll want to use 12 x 24 patio stones and make sure theyre approximately 1.5 inches thick. A patio foundation is ideal for structures that are less than 14-feet in width or length, like a smaller hard-top gazebo or a grill gazebo.

To create a larger covered space, you may consider attaching a carport to your patio. This is an inexpensive way to create plenty of shade without worrying about adding too much weight to your patio foundation.

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How To Level Ground For Patio Pavers

How leveled your ground is would have a direct effect on the finished work. Although, this can be corrected along the way when spreading sharp sand or gravel. However, it wont be easy if you are not a professional.

The main purpose of leveling the ground is to make it even you can use a compactor to make your work easier. Just follow the shape of the land and make it even to allow the easy arrangement of pavers.

The video below is a visual illustration of how you can level your backyard to prepare it for laying pavers. With this visual illustration, you should be able to prepare your land properly before laying the pavers.

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Building A Brick Paver Patio Without Cuts

• Pin

• Yield: 10 x 10-foot patio

• Skill Level: Intermediate
• Estimated Cost: $600 â $800

Patio bricks can be laid in a variety of different patterns. The pattern is strictly for looks, and the brick surface will perform the same regardless of the pattern. For beginners, it makes sense to use a simple pattern that requires little or no cutting of bricks. Perhaps the best option is the basket weave, which is decorative and eye-catching but also very easy to install. And if you choose to build a square or rectangular patio and size it to fit the bricks, you shouldnât have to cut any bricks at all.

The best bricks to use for this project are paving bricks or brick pavers. These are about 2 inches thick and have smooth, solid faces to create a nice walking surface. For a basket weave design, which has a checkerboard pattern, you want the widths of two bricks to equal the length of one. Therefore, an ideal size of paver is 4 inches wide by 8 inches long.

The easiest way to install a brick paver patio is the sandset method. The bricks are laid on the ground, over a layer of compacted gravel topped by landscape fabric and a smooth layer of sand. After the bricks are laid, you sweep sand into the cracks between the pavers to lock them in place.

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Compact With Stone Dust

Spread stone dust all over the surface of the pavers. Then use a plastic bristle broom to sweep it across the surface. The dust works by filling the small crevices between the pavers, and this provides a very compact design for durability.

Observe the crevices to see if they are fully closed with dirt. If not, add some more stone dust and sweep across. The presence of the small crevices is an indicator the pavers are far from being completely compact.

Some people might prefer sand but I insist on stone dust. Stone dust is finer and will thus easily fit into the crevices for a more compacted design. Sand, on the other hand, has larger particles that will be hard to fit into the crevices, and this leaves a shaky paver design. To prevent your pavers from shifting or spreading in future, install a paver edging.

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Plan Out The Order In Which Youll Lay The Pavers

Once you have the 4 of base layer, double check that you have a little more than 1½ from the top of that to the top of the marked paver line.

Take the two black pipes and lie them on top. Set them just in the base layer enough that they dont roll, but not so much that they are recessed. You can add a little paver dust to help lodge them into place.

Use a level to double check the slope angle that you set up based on your string lines.

Before putting down the concrete pavers, plan how you are going to place the paver stones. Typically you want to start from an outside edge or corner.

Be sure not to box yourself in because you cant walk on the paver dust one youve screeded it.

Place Urethane Pad Over The Pavers

Sweeping the pavers with stone dust is not enough it needs to be compacted if at all the pavers are going to last for long. A urethane pad is a panel that reduces impact while compacting the already laid pavers.

The need for reducing impact is to prevent breaking the pavers. It also allows for use of controlled force to drive the bricks into the ground, while the stone dust settles firmly between the bricks. This is a critical step because compacting the paver bricks without the pad would be too dangerous.

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What Is The Best Material For Outdoor Steps

Pavers are the best material to use, especially outdoors. Pavers can last for hundreds of years. Also, the wide variety of shapes and colors allows you to be creative in your design and favors installation in any space. Pavers match the design of your patio, or even your garden, especially if you choose a more natural color.

Pavers are, by far, your best choice for patio steps. However, understanding what your alternatives are and why not to use them can help reinforce that decision.

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Excavating And Leveling Your Yard

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Cost Of Pavers Vs Concrete

A concrete slab costs$4 to $8 per square foot and is cheaper than pavers unless you add coloring or stamping. Installing pavers costs $10 to $17 per square foot or about twice as much as laying concrete. Pavers are easier to repair, and concrete slabs are more affordable.

Cost of Pavers vs. Concrete

Consider the long-term costs before deciding. A concrete slab has a wider variety of colors and stamped patterns, but needs to be cleaned and resealed every two years. Plus, concrete slabs are prone to cracking.

With pavers, any cracks are easily fixed by replacing the broken pavers rather than re-pouring an entire slab.

Build A Patio Like A Pro So It Will Last For Years To Come

Its important to be prepared for all the hard work and effort required to build a paver patio but to not allow it to overwhelm you. If you follow all the steps and do everything right, this can be a very satisfying project, and what better time to do it than now? With that in mind, we think youre really going to enjoy this tutorial on which explains everything you need to know to be able to install pavers like a pro so you can build a patio that will last for years to come.

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What Materials Did I Use

You might be wondering what materials did I use? Many were in the pricing chart at the start but not everything. So here is a list of everything I needed and used during this DIY project. Yes, this is a DIY project because I did this all by myself.

Here is every item I needed and used to build a concrete paver stone 10×10 foot patio:

Make The Most Of A Small Space By Planning Your Paver Patio

Even a small patio can take a lot of time to plan and then to build. Naturally, the cost of the project varies depending on all sorts of things, like the materials involved, the tools required, the overall proportions of the patio, etc. Youre already saving quite a bit by taking care of this project yourself so thats a big plus right there. To make the project even more cost-efficient, stick with a simple design and avoid complicating things more than necessary. The project featured on diychatroom is a good example in this sense.

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Add The Polymeric Sand

Sprinkle the polymeric sand over the top of the patio pavers, alternating by sweeping the sand across the pavers. Keep adding sand and sweeping until the gaps between the pavers are filled.

Before adding water, it is critical that you remove all polymeric sand from the top of the pavers. If not, the sand will bond to the paver faces, marring them. Running a leaf blower is the best way to blow off sand without removing sand from the gaps.

Set your spray nozzle on a light mist and spray your patio paver. Do not drench it with too much water otherwise, you run the risk of dislodging sand from the gaps.

Wait about 24 hours for the patio pavers to fully set. Cut away the overlapping landscape fabric with the utility knife.

Leave The Heavy Lifting To Greenearth Your Patio Paver Expert

If laying your own pavers sounds like more work than you want to do, or you want to make sure it gets done right the first time, give us a call. The experts here at GreenEarth can provide a plan and cost estimate for what you want to create in your patio area as well as maintenance suggestions once the project is complete.

If youd like a consultation or want to know what we can do to help you, give us a call at our Panama City Beach office at 236-1959, or call our Santa Rosa Beach office at 267-0010 to set up an appointment. You can also fill out the online form on our website to schedule a consultation.

We have the experience and equipment to build you a patio without the problems mentioned earlier, saving you time and frustration and giving you a patio youll enjoy for years to come.

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How To Lay Patio Pavers In Florida

10 October, 2010

Laying a new patio can offer a fresh look around the outside of your home, but it won’t happen overnight. While it takes time to dig and install patios, you may need to work a bit harder if you live in Florida where your soil will be sandier than other areas of the country. As long as you dig deeper than traditional instructions, you should be able to lay patio pavers in Florida without trouble and have the main job done in a day or two.

Measure the area you intend to turn into a patio. Mark off the area’s perimeter with a line of flour or by driving stakes into the corners of the patio area. Remove the sod layer from the ground inside the area you marked, using a shovel.

Dig the patio area 8 inches deep. If your soil is mostly sand, then dig to 10 inches deep. Smooth the bottom of the area flat with your shovel head when you reach the right depth.

Add 4 inches of gravel to the entire bottom of the patio area. If you dug down 10 inches deep, add 6 inches of gravel. Smooth out the gravel with your shovel to level it.

• Measure the area you intend to turn into a patio.
• Remove the sod layer from the ground inside the area you marked, using a shovel.

Spread landscaping fabric over the entire surface of the gravel and up the walls of the dug area. Place a few extra pieces of gravel over the fabric to hold it in place. Pour builder’s sand over the fabric to 2 inches deep.

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Tips

Warnings

Laying Pavers Without Base

You can also lay a patio paver without a base this does not come with the same stress as the normal process. However, this can only have a smooth finish for a short time. This is the only bad side of making use of this process. On the other side, it is cheap and less stressful.

To lay pavers without base comes in different ways depending on the availability of resources. You can choose not to use any form of the base use a single base with a weed barrier.

Installing paver without any base

For this process, there is very little to do, and it includes

• clear the area and compact and level it
• Install edge restraints
• Install the pavers
• sand joint and sealer

However, this type of walkway would lose its evenness and have a weed growing with the paver in a short period.

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Pavers Over Concretecan It Be Done

Yes, it can be done but there a few things to consider before carrying out such a project. First, it is a good idea to get professional advice. So contact a licensed contractor and ask as many questions as you may have. Basically, installing pavers over concrete has its limitations. If money and time are not an issue to you, it is best to get rid of your concrete slab and start your new project from scratch. However, if this is not an option for you there are varying opinions on how it should be done. There are two trains of thought on installing pavers over concrete:

Measure Slope To Allow For Patio Drainage

So that your concrete paver patio drains away from your house, youll need to account for the slope of the space.

If your patio is on a hill or against a retaining wall, for instance, you will slope in two directions: away from the house and also away from the wall or the hill.

The angle of slope that allows for proper drainage for your patio is 1 per every 4 feet. For instance, my patio was 9 deep, so I created a slope of 2¼.

The way to mark the slope is to start at stakes that will be your low end. Take the strings youve tied onto those stakes and lower them by the number of inches required to meet the correct slope for your patio base on its depth.

Next, use a marker to mark a line where you pulled the strings to .

The new string locations now mark the height of the 4 base layer with the slope included.

I also found it helpful to mark the top of where the paver will be. Its important to note that depending on what your top base layer is made of, it may not actually add any height to your total.

The paver dust I had compacted down to maybe about ¼. You may want to test yours to see because if yours doesnt compact like that, you may want to add it into your calculations.

If you are using the same pavers I used, these are just over 1½ thick. If your paver dust/sand compacts to almost nothing, you will want to make your last mark 1½ above the base layer mark just made.

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Make An Informed Decision With Gardening Channel

Now that youre equipped with the right information, laying your patio pavers should be a piece of cake! Browse through online retailers for pavers to find something that suits your preference.

When youre ready to buy, be sure to look at customer reviews first. Each customer review provides a useful insight into the product and its seller. Bookmark our Gardening Channel blog for regular, informative articles on all things gardening.

Here at Gardening Channel, our aim is to help you create the home youve always wanted.

So catch up on the latest techniques, product reviews, and innovative ways to improve your outdoor living spaces!

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