DIY Project: Paver Patio
As I mentioned in an earlier post, several big life changes have occurred in the past few years. One was construction of my dream home out west. I decided to take on the landscaping myself, because I enjoy working with my hands. Also, the quoted prices for doing the work were astronomical! A word of advice: do not move to one of the fastest growing cities in America unless you’re prepared for sticker shock.
The yard is flat and surrounded by mature trees, so it’s mostly an exercise in planting and irrigation and hardscaping. Last summer, one of my projects was to build a paver patio, complete with gas firepit. I had the construction materials delivered – decomposed granite and sand for leveling the site, concrete pavers that looked like slate for the surface – and got to work. I drove stakes and strung plumb lines and shoveled and pounded granite (and shoveled and pounded more granite) and leveled sand and carefully set the pavers in position. Hard work, but the patio was slowly taking form.
The only glitch I encountered was a malformed paver with a rounded back (which I didn’t spot). No matter how many times I leveled the sand, I could not make it lie flush with the other pavers. First the right corner was too high, then the left corner, then the right corner again, plus it kept rocking. After hurling a string of expletives following my fifth or sixth failed attempt, I noticed the defect – and promptly hurled that paver across the yard, where it broke into pieces. Problem solved.
I stopped at the half-way point so the plumber could run the gas line to the center of the patio (there are limits to my DIY skills, especially when failure results in a fireball), then continued shoveling and pounding and leveling and placing. I filled the joints with polymeric sand to hold the pavers in place, surrounded the perimeter with river rocks, installed the concrete firepit (built by a local artisan), then stood back to admire my handiwork. Not bad!
I finished the project the day before I headed back east, so I haven’t used it yet – but I’m looking forward to the first cool evening when we return.
h.
