Patio project

[law]

The patio is 6 feet by 11 feet

Nine inches deep

The following materials were used :

Fabric - Its purpose is to keep the stone base from working its way into the soil underneath, reducing the possibility of settling.

Stone base - 3/4 inch modified stone.

Bedding sand - coarse concrete sand at 1 " deep.

Pavers - 12 X 12 and 6 x 6

Edge restraints - This helps to maintain the integrity of the base.

Once the 9 inch hole is dug the soil is compacted. The next step is to cover the area with the Fabric.
Next step is to put the Stone base in and compact it.
Next step fill in the Bedding sand ( 1 inch )
Set the Pavers on the bedding sand.
Next step set the Edge restraints with 18 inch landscape nails.
Use Masons sand to fill the joints. Polymetric sand for the joints is acceptable as long as it is comparable in size to masons sand.

The whitish deposit you see on the pavers is a natural and common occurrance in concrete and brick products. Efforescence ( whitish deposit ) is the result of salts in the materials used in the production migrating to the surface of the pavers. This will weather away in time , approx two months. If not a cleaner is available to do the job quicker.



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[dcarter636]

That looks absolutely professional.

Won't the bedding sand eventually percolate down into the base stone or did you use a vibrator to work the sand in before laying the pavers?

[autobodyman]

Looks really good.
What did you use for all the compacting, one of those plate vibrators?

I need to do something similar around my house where the wife had some bushes we are going to pull out, though I'm not doing the gravel and sand just landscape fabric and the brick, leave spaces for some ferns, bleeding hearts and tulips. We had colored gravel but my pine tree sheds a lot of needles and cleanup has become a problem, needles get caught in the bushes and gravel and using a leaf blower blows the colored gravel out too.

Thanks ~Mike

[gomer]

Nice yard, Law. The patio looks great. I have a 20'x20' patio that needs covering. I keep putting it off. Wife is getting impatient w/ me. I need some of your gumption juice. Now, I just tell her it's gotten too hot, already. This excuse will not hold up much longer.

[law]

Dave,
I "hand tamped " the stone base to a hard surface, then laid a 1 inch bedding sand. I then laid the pavers on top of the bedding sand.

The next step is to tamp the pavers into the bedding sand.
I used a sheet of plywood on top of the pavers and tamped down the pavers.

The bedding sand will be compacted to about 1/2 to 5/8 inch thickness.

Hope this helps to answer your question.

Larry

[sawduster]

Great job!!

Might dad has had pretty good luck with putting in pavers dry like that, tamping them down well, then dumping a bag or two (depending on size of area) of dry premixed mortar mix on top. Then he sweeps the dry mix around working it into the joints between the pavers, compacts that some and repeats with more dry mortar mix until he has fill in the spaces between them. Then he swept the remainder of the dry mix away and and wet down the area so that it is quite damp, but not puddling and let it set for several hours, occasionally sprinkling more water lightly on as it started drying a bit to extend the cure time. With the good solid base underneath and the mortar mix, things get locked in very snugly. He's had to take out a couple of areas later to make changes to stuff (mom sometimes has new ideas) and the pavers come back up and clean off fairly easily for reuse.