Still Working !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Side Patio Time

This weekend was a hot one! Temperatures hovered around 108 both Saturday and Sunday and with Fathers day being on Sunday, I had a lot I wanted to finish but limited on the time and the energy to get work done. I played in a charity golf tournament on Friday with my Father and Uncle so I had had enough of the heat coming into the weekend. So Bickering aside I set myself a reasonable goal and went to work.

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After laying the bulk of the pavers the previous Saturday, I ordered another pallet of the 6x9 stone so I could continue with the side patio. That left me about 60 Sq ft to lay and no help this time to do it. Using the same technique, I screeded in the sand and laid the stone. The pattern did not alow me to bring the stone flush up against the side of the existing patio so that meant I would have to cut the stone to make it fit. Thank god a friend let me barrow his electric Mason Tub saw. This saves a lot of time to make straight cuts through the stone. You could rent one if you needed to but ask around and see if you may get lucky with a friend that may have one.

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After cutting in the stone to flush the pavers to the existing patio, it was time to start laying the border. Like I had posted before, I have a large amount of the smaller 6x6 stone so I am using it to border the patio. The radius of the curves can be kind of tricky but I used a suggestion of a college of mine and used some 'wedge' stones from what is known as a 'circle pack'. These stones are cut to make a circle when laid side by side. so using these stones I marked them on a 6x6 stone and cut them to make the curved radius. Six stones cut with the wedge template allowed for a true 90 degree bend. It turned out pretty well. Whats also cool about these stones is that if you alternate between a cut stone a square stone and a cut stone, you can make longer sweeping bends. This will work out perfect for the rest of the radius bends I will need to complete the border.

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So that was this weekend, I set a goal to finish the side patio and now the border is started. hopefully I will have this project buttoned up for the 4Th of July weekend so I can host the first BBQ on my new patio.

Laying The Pavers

So now that the Base is completed and I have moved all of the pavers into the back yard, the fun part starts. This next phase will be screeding in the sand base and laying the pavers.

As when I laid the DG base into place, I used a technique called 'Screeding'. The height of the paver is 2 3/8" and my base is 3" below the finish height. I used the same 3/4 inch PVC pipe to screed in the sand because the diameter is 1 1/8" wide. This will leave 1 7/8" left if this were a perfect world. The sand will level off from the pipe but actually will be about an 1/8" lower than the diameter of the pipe. What I am trying to achieve is that when the stone is placed on top of the sand it will be up to a 1/4" taller than finish height. This is because I will be using a rubber mallet to 'tamper' it into place. So using the same technique, completely screed the sand into place covering the are you will likely finish in a day. I did have some volunteers for this part of the project and I couldn't say no after enduring all the time in the heat the past couple of weekends. This Saturday was a perfect day to do this as it was only going to be a high of 90 degrees! Very Rare for June.

So now that the sand is in place, it's time to lay the pavers! I quick suggestion would be to lay a pattern of the stone off to the side of you project so that you may reference it while setting the pavers. Also take note of how the pavers pattern may effect any planters you may be installing as I am in the project. So Lets get started!

Start laying the pavers at one point along the existing patio. It is important to do this to keep from getting gaps in the pattern. I worked along the patio and then out from the center to keep consistent lines as you can see in the pictures. While setting the stones, tap the down into the sand bed with a rubber mallet and using a level to keep the stones on the same plane falling away from the existing patio. I used my string line to guide me in height from the center of the patio. Keep in mind to follow the pattern and if you think you may have screwed up the pattern, step back verify where the mistake was and then work back to that point and start over. This pattern seemed confusing at first but then became very easy as more of the stone was laid.

So as you can see from the photos and as in my last post, I ran out of the larger 6x9 paver. So this week I am ordering 2 pallets of the 6x9 pavers to move forward more in the project. We did knock out the bulk of the patio, but there is still more to do. Since I have a rounded edge and an abundant supply of the smaller 6x6 stone, I am going to use them to border the patio. It will give it more of a defined edge than the larger stone I planed on using.

Even though I would like to have more done at this point, I am very happy with the patio as it is evolving from nothing but and idea. More work to come each evening of this week. The best time of day to get work done without killing myself is from 6 to 8. My morale is higher now that I can see the patio taken shape.

Preparing The Base

Sorry for the delay in posting. I could give you an excuse but their like assholes, everyone has one. It has been a lot of work moving into the next phase of the project and if you are still following thank you. If you are considering installing a paver patio for your home, I can tell you there is a lot of work to go into it. As the pictures show on this post, I had to move a lot of dirt and material to prepare the base for the pavers to lay on. All of this was done with my wheel barrow, shovels, and the strength of my back. The total amount of man hours put in over the past three weekends has totaled 44. So with that in consideration, plan your time wisely.

I would like to also mention another quick note about planning. As I stated in the last post about the pattern I am laying is a 'Muster K' pattern. I made a mistake when ordering the 3 pallets of plaza 1 pavers. The pattern calls for a ratio of 4/8 stones (4 being of the smaller 6x6 stones and 8 being of the larger 6x9 stones) to the lay the pattern. I made the mistake of reading in the brochure that there is a 70% to 30% ratio of stones on one pallet thinking that there are 70% of the larger stone and 30% of the smaller. OOPS! it is the other way around. Luckily I caught this as I started laying the patio and since there are more areas of pavers I am laying (i.e. the walkway and the border) I will be able to use the smaller stone. I will just have to change my orders to buy just complete pallets of the 6x9 stone. The brochure says that one pallet of Plaza 1 will cover 110 sq feet, but that isn't determined by any particular pattern other than a 'running bond' pattern. So keep that in mind when you are planning, budgeting and ordering your pavers.

OK so back to the project. Preparing the base consists of three phases. Excavation and fill, trenching in irrigation and sleaving, and installing the harder packing material.

I started the excavation and fill over Memorial day weekend. It was 103 Degrees that Sunday and i worked for 10 hours in it! The grade for the pavers are coming off an existing concrete patio. I decided on not overlaying pavers onto the concrete because the finish height of the pavers would have been so tall that I would have a lot more material to bring in and I would have to install steps to different parts of the yard. I wanted to eliminate any tripping hazards that could result from having steps. A little forward thought into whether or not I have children in the future or when reselling the house it could be an issue. So as you may be able to see I got out some wooden stakes, mason string, line level and my tape measure and got to work setting guide lines for the fall of the finish patio. The fall of the patio is for good water run off. We don't get much rain here in the southwest but when it does its usually fast and hard and turns into a river quickly. So the rate of fall is simple, the grade should fall a drop of 1 inch per 8 feet or 1/8 inch over 1 foot. My patio is reaching out 16 feet so there is a fall of 2 inches at the furthest point. This is easy to do. Drive two stakes into the ground and tie mason string between them. At the one end where your existing patio is level the line to the height of the patio. Using a line level, adjust the string at the furthest stake until the string is tight and level. After leveling the string, adjust the string on the furthest stake down by how much you fall should be over the distance it is from the starting point. Mine is a 2 inch fall over 16 foot so I measured 2 inches down on the stake from level and moved the string to that point. The String references the finish height of the paver patio. So from this point we will fill and excavate as needed. I found that the drainage in my back yard was only about 3 feet from my existing patio (resetting the drainage is another part of this project and will work on after this hard scape is installed) so I had to fill from the existing patio out to about 8 feet and then had to excavate from 8 feet to 16 feet. The measurement I was looking for was 4 inches below below finished height. I did this based on how hard our ground is here in the southwest. If your doing this in a different part of the country, you may need to excavate more and use the Portland cement base method.

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So now that the grade was finished, I used a trencher to run a 3/4 inch irrigation line for three planters that are near the existing structure. I also trenched in a 2" sleave for future irrigation for the lawn. Make sure to use some point of refenece for where the lines are located for when you do utilize the sleave. I used to pylasters on the perimeter walls to know where the sleave is in the future.

Once the excavation and fill was completed, I brought in the material for my base. I used a 1/4 minus Decomposed Granite. This stuff alone makes great walking paths by just wetting it and compacting it. The material will compact very well giving a truer level and solid base. I decided that I would make the base pack of 1" above grade so I used a method called 'screeding'. Screeding is a method of using two pipes equal in diameter, filling the material in between them and then using a cut 2x4 with a straight edge and planing off the material. Take a look at the photo's to see what I mean. Since the material needs to be at 1", a filled it to a height of 1 1/8" and then compacted it to the 1" height. I used 3/4" PVC for this as the outside diameter was 1 1/8". This took quite a long time as the heat of the day really took a lot out of me. Remember to take your time, the turtle definitely wins this race. The base is very important to how the pavers will lay over time so be patient and do it right.

After laying in the DG, I used a gas powered plated tamper. You can rent one from a local rental house and it doesn't take much to run one. It is a lot like running a lawn mower. Make sure that you wet down the DG with water before running the plate tamper over it and keep wetting it and compacting it until you feel that it wont compact any more. It will feel very solid to walk on.

After completing this part of the preparation for the pavers, I took a shower and went to the pool for an hour and then had A beer. It has been quite a while since I had worked like this in these conditions. So I was rewarded by having to move the pavers into my back yard each night of the week after work so they were ready to lay the next weekend. If you are at this point in the project, you will feel a little beat down but don't get discouraged your closer than you think to being completed.

Making a Plan

It has been several days since starting the blog and I actually did start moving dirt on Sunday morning for my interlocking paver patio. The only thing is that I winged it after spraying some marking paint on the ground in a shape that looked like I wanted to have the patio lay.

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This is a point that I want to make. A landscape could be completely planned out and installed in a short period of time if you wanted to contract someone to do it. But this is a complete 'Do It Yourself" Project and I am not limiting myself to just one plan. I believe this project should evolve into itself over time. The placements of what I would like, where I would like, and when I would like. This is my home and I am creating the landscape for me.

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So my plan will change as I move forward and move into different phases of the install. Plan pictures will be updated before, during and after a project. I intend to link websites of the manufactures and vendors of products I am using in this project to footnote the information I access to perform different parts of the install.

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So the first stage of my plan is to install the interlocking paver patio. My drawing posted here is how the final product will look. I plan on using Pavestone manufacturers 'Plaza 1" pavers consisting of two different sized stones and laying them in a "Muster K" pattern. It is a repeating pattern that is quite broad and gives it a sense of structure without being as noticeable as some patterns.

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Visit www.pavestone.com for product information if you are interested. There is also a great "How To" Video that is 15 minutes long and gives a lot of great info on installing a paver patio from preparation to completion.

Why I created this Blog

It's Memorial Day weekend and after looking out at a barren back yard, I had inspiration to start my landscape. After living in my newly built home (2007) for over 2 years, I think it's about time to dust off lawn tools that I have owned since moving in and actually put them to work.
What could inspire me to do this? Good question! I live in the desert southwest of Arizona in a sleepy little town called Casa Grande. The spring has been long and very gentle on the temperatures it has given us all the way through the month of May. The summer is upon us and even now at 11:00 am it is 90 degrees outside on the way to a for casted high of 101 degrees. So the reason to do this going into the hottest part of the year??
Well the reason for it is that here in Arizona we get to enjoy the late fall winter and spring. During these times of year I like to host friends over for ball games, fights, holiday weekends, and of course BB Q's! It makes quite a difference to be able to add a place to enjoy the outdoor weather during these events. Also I would like to be able to enjoy my own private sanctuary to relax and enjoy coffee and read the paper in the mornings.

After sitting down and starting my plan for how I want to landscape the yard, a number of friends have asked the question "You know how to do that?". The answer to that is vaguely "somewhat". I work for a large company that is a wholesaler of landscape products and work with commercial contractors and maintenence contractors every day. It makes it difficult to know what they may talk about as far as an install of landscapes if I have not done it myself. So armed with a novice back ground of installing only one other landscape before in my life, I am venturing to complete my own.
I have always had the attitude that if I don't know I will ask or I will find the answer. That is the reason behind me blogging about the experience of creating my own back yard landscape. It can create a source of knowledge for those that may want to learn to 'Do it Themselves'. So please if you would like to share a little bit as I move forward or even offer a little encouragement, it would be greatly appreciated!