Young House Love

Home Decorating & DIY Tutorials

| By | | 522 Comments

How To Build A Paver Patio

Hallelujah, the patio is done!

how-to-add-a-paver-patio

I’ve caught my breath a little bit and regained feeling in most of my muscles, so I’m back to tell you the end of the tale. Let’s see, where did we leave off? Oh yeah, with us me passed out on the mostly-laid pavers late Friday night.

Dirt Night With Us

As you know from Sherry’s post yesterday, we took Saturday off to have some family time / start Mother’s Day early. Then on Sunday afternoon, I decided to take an hour or two to finish cutting the pavers around the edge. Apparently my day away from patio made me forget how much effort each step of this process takes. My “hour or two” turned into “seven or eight.”

Allow me to demonstrate my process to explain why. Naturally, curved edges require lots of cuts. This I knew going in. But residual confidence from tiling our old bathroom had me ready to take on this more-than-beginner design.

Patio No Edges

So to determine where to place each cut, I laid my full stone in place against the border pavers (which I’ve learned is called “a soldier course”) and marked where my cut should go (the area that overlapped the border) with a pencil.

Patio Cut Stone Marked

To cut, I entrusted my brother-from-an-inanimate-object-mother: the wet saw. You may remember I fell in love with this guy during the bathroom project in our first house. But after all of the recent patio craziness, we aren’t so chummy anymore (we’re not “tight” or “aight” as the kids say).

Patio Cut Stone Wet Saw

It’s really not the poor saw’s fault. He just wasn’t meant for this type of job. But since he was free (aka, on loan from my dad, who paid $99 for it btw) I wanted to give him a shot, instead of dropping $700 on his big brother. The issue is that my blade wouldn’t cut through all 2.5-ish inches of paver (those suckers were thick). So I had to do 2 cuts per paver – one, then another one from the other side once the paver was flipped over. Some particularly long cuts even required 4 trips down ol’ Wet Saw Lane because part of the machine blocked the whole stone from sliding through all of the way. And even after two to four cuts per paver, I still had to break the stones apart with a quick chisel-like move (thanks to a hammer and screwdriver) to smash the piece in the middle that my blade clearly still couldn’t reach:

Patio Cut Stone Chisel

So multiply two to four cuts per paver by the 50+ stones that needed cutting and you’ll start to understand why it took me so long. That $700 big daddy wet saw was starting to look well worth the money by about hour three. But I’m cheap. So I stuck with the borrowed (free) one.

Assuming my cut was accurate (which it wasn’t always, unfortunately) all I had to do was lay the cut stone in place and tap it down gently with a rubber mallet (which we used when setting all of the pavers in the middle and along the border of the patio as well, just so they sunk slightly into the bed of sand and were level/secure).

Patio Cut Stone Mallet

Despite all of the hassle, when it works – it’s a beautiful thing (plus I later learned that the sand that I’d brush between the stones would camouflage some of the less perfect cuts really well).

Patio Cut Stone In Place

By the end of Sunday I had finished all of my cuts and even had enough energy to remove and re-attach one of our sagging gates (it threatened to scrape the stone a bit when closed).

Patio John Removing Gate

So here’s the patio in all of it’s pre-sand glory (the whiter edge pavers are just lighter from wet saw dust that hadn’t been hosed off yet).

Patio Pre Sand After 1

And here I amid all of my post-paver cutting sexiness. Happy Mother’s Day to Sherry, right? That’s spray from the wet saw all over my shirt and face (thank goodness for goggles, wish I had bought a mask). And notice the yellow hands? That’s some sort of strange stain from my work gloves (apparently they don’t like getting wet).

Patio John Dirty

Oh, and since I promised more info about the pattern – here it is a bit closer:

Patio Pattern Close Up

We’ve heard it called both an “I Pattern” and a “K Pattern” (so feel free to split the alphabetical difference and go with “J Pattern”). Although sometimes I see it as more of an “H” – made up of two 6 x 9″ pavers and four 6 x 6″s – and flanked by more 6 x 9″s on all sides. There’s a diagram here that might make seeing the whole H thing more clear than our pic above.

The reason we opted for this pattern in the first place is because it’s what the previous owners chose for the pavers in our driveway (and we wanted a cohesive look). Plus we like that it looks sort of like organized chaos. It appears random but there’s really a method behind it all. We’re nerds for that stuff. The lady at the stone yard warned us that it can be more difficult than some of the truly random patio patterns, but we honestly found it pretty straightforward once we got our first few pavers down. We just constructed one or two of those H-looking shapes and built out from there.

Patio Pre Sand After 2

When Monday rolled around, I prepared for the final step by breaking out a broom and some leftover bags of paver sand (when I ran short on Friday and grabbed sand at Lowe’s, I must’ve overcompensated a bit so I still had a lot left). The purpose of this top application of sand is to fill the cracks between the pavers so they don’t shift. The process was pretty straightforward. Step one: dump sand on pavers.

Patio Sand Pile

Step two: Push it around with your broom ’til all of the cracks have sand in them (this was just from one bag so far):

Patio Sand Progress

Step three: lightly mist the surface with water so that the sand slides down into the cracks.

Patio Wetting Sand

Though it really is more like a twenty step process, because like shampoo-ing, it’s one of those “rinse and repeat” situations (or at least it was for me). See, my wet crack sand (wait, that sounds gross) did a lot of sliding between the pavers – making things not so pretty on top.

Patio Wet Sand Cracks

So I repeated. And repeated again. And then did some touch ups. This step seemed to take longer than I expected (consider it to be the theme of this whole project) but by Monday afternoon it all seemed pretty settled into place for a consistent and even look. And happily the yellow-orange tint to the sand disappeared when it dried out (it was really wet and clumpy when we applied it but it thinned and dried to a nice complementary gray tone).

Patio No Dirt Around Edges

Oh and here’s a note for all you fancy patio DIYers. If you have it in the budget you can splurge for Polymeric Sand (which basically gets brushed on and then misted with water, which turns it into a concrete-like consistency so it sets up hard to discourage weeds and all that good stuff). But thanks to our bursting patio budget, we opted to use standard paver sand which was about $100 cheaper (it was used on the patio at our last house which we enjoyed for 3+ years without much more than very occasional weeding so we knew it would work for now). And we can always upgrade to the good sand later (if we have $100 to spare down the road, it’s as simple as spraying the sand out of the cracks with the highest hose setting and switching to the fancy Polymeric stuff).

Anyway, with my sand step done, I jubilantly (yes, I was beyond excited to be almost done) moved on to my last task before handing things over to Sherry, which was backfilling the edges of the patio with dirt (since exposed plastic edging is akin to VPL). I forgot to take an “after” of my borders all filled in with dirt, so let’s fast forward to the real after afters. But first, let’s enjoy a look back at two liriope-filled before shots:

Outside Burger Potty

Patio Dig First

And now the patio-tastic after fest- complete with totally temporary furniture:

Patio After 2 Corrected

Since we sold all of our old patio furniture before we moved (which wouldn’t have worked well in this layout anyway) this is all random stuff that we had in the sunroom/basement/cluttered playroom. Actually a lot of it isn’t rain-proof at all, so Sherry just dragged it out there for fun (yes, after pics with temporary furniture is her idea of a good time because she thinks an empty patio reveal would have been “a real womp-womp”). I definitely agree that it helps with scale and stuff (and who am I to deny my wife of an hour of playing with already-owned pillows and random furniture?). I think we both just liked the idea of beginning to picture various ways that we can enjoy our new 300 square feet of added outdoor living space. And of course it’ll look a lot better with not temporary furniture when we can invest in some down the line.

Our long-term dream is to have some sort of daybed/loveseat with a coffee table to create a casual “outdoor living room” along with a spot for a sandbox slash baby pool for Clara. Because we have plans for a big outdoor dining zone somewhere else (but with an “outdoor living room” situation on the patio, we could still enjoy casual meals there).

Patio After 3

Of course Sherry went nuts with the whole fantasy world and played scrabble with herself to conjure up this cozy scene (and even got two water glasses to suggest that she wasn’t out on the patio alone playing against herself). Busted.

Patio After7

But speaking of playing, we do seriously hope this is a space that Clara gets a lot of use out of. Since we no longer have that huge driveway behind our old house, we’ve wanted a spot where she can be outside, minus the fears of her running into the road. So this gated-on-all-sides area is perfect for whenever she doesn’t feel like playing in the grassy backyard beyond. Because chalk just isn’t as much fun in the grass.

Patio After4

Although Clara may be a few developmental milestones away from actually enjoying a game of hopscotch, at least it’s not too soon to tap sticks of chalk together.

Patio After 5

And she only tried to eat it twice. That my friends, is progress.

The only item in our 100% temporary patio layout that will be permanent is the grill. It’s been hiding in my basement workroom since we moved because I had no other spot for it (it lived in the carport for a while but that was just weird). So from the moment we first started talking about Project Patio I had an area all planned out for this baby. And although I’m talking like I’m some big macho grillmaster, I’ve probably used the darn thing less than a dozen times. Hopefully its beautiful new home will inspire us to get better acquainted. Especially when we get some permanent outdoor furniture to go with it.

Patio After8

As for Sherry, she’s more excited about the “crowning jewel” of the patio as she likes to call it: a ceramic bird feeder that she snagged at Marshall’s for $9.99 a few weeks back. It’s been sitting on the counter next to our bathroom sink (away from roaming Clara hands) just waiting for a new patio to preside over. And it looks a heckova lot better out here than it did near the sink.

Patio After 6

So there you have it, the end to our patio-building party. And it’s just in time to start setting up for the real party (Clara’s birthday on Saturday). Perhaps we’ll challenge our guests to some hopscotch?

Patio After 8

We wouldn’t mind a few crossed fingers for good weather this Saturday. It rained on Clara’s birthday last year so we unscientifically decided that it couldn’t rain again this year (although the odds are probably the same every year). And as soon as we finished the patio I turned to Sherry and said “You know what this means right? We finished the patio in time so it’s going to rain on Saturday. We jinxed ourselves.” Here’s hoping I’m wrong.

Oh and here’s a rarely seen angle taken from the new lower patio looking up at the upper patio (which was always there) and the sliders in the living room and sunroom that lead out to it. That area was too small to accommodate our grill (let alone any larger seating arrangements) so we’re so glad that we expanded our outdoor living space with the addition of the paver patio below.

Patio After 9

We estimate that we spent about 30 hours on the whole patio project, from planning to clean-up (but we did mess around with lots of curves and hit some crazy concrete during the demo phase, so it won’t necessarily take everyone that long). And now for the big ol’ budget breakdown:

  • 300 square feet of Cottage Stone pavers (from Southside Building Supply): $621
  • Heavy duty plastic patio edging and spikes (from Southside Building Supply): $69.00
  • Paver sand (from Southside Building Supply & Lowe’s): $107
  • Gravel (from Southside Building Supply): $240
  • Delivery for pavers, sand, and gravel (from Southside Building Supply): $145
  • Miscellaneous supplies (wood stakes, line levels, nylon string, and hand tamper from Home Depot): $40
  • Weed blocking fabric & crampons (from Home Depot): $30
  • Grand (ouch) total: $1,252*

*We actually paid $1,332 but got an $80 deposit back when we returned the bags that our gravel and sand came in.

We already chatted about how our original under 1K budget was blown here (well, in the waaay beginning Sherry proclaimed that this would be a two-day-under-$500 project, how wrong she was). But in the end we’re happy to have spent what we did and to have worked our buns off to save nearly 4K instead of hiring a pro (estimates for a patio with curves of this size started around $5,000). Totally worth the blood, sweat, tears, and creepy orange glove-stained hands. But if you’re asking me if I’d do it again tomorrow, the answer is: chiiiill. Let me relax for a hot second.

Psst- Want to look back on the entire patio process from beginning to end? Here’s the first post (about planning), the second post (about prepping the area), the third post (about unexpected budget breakage), the fourth post (about further prepping the area), and the fifth post (about adding the gravel & sand along with the majority of the pavers).

Comments

  2. Carla says

    I was showing my dad your beautiful patio just a few minutes ago, and we both agreed that it looks like a basket weave pattern. I love that effect.

    Reply

  3. Bella Daylight says

    Really nice Patio :)
    You probably don’t remember but at some point like half a year ago I posted on your Facebook profile that I dreamt that you helped me build a patio and yours looks just like the one I dreamt of :D How weird is that?

    Reply

  4. sara says

    ok, so I saw your comment about removing the extra steps being nightmarish and I want to know why…are there boogie monsters living under there, or just part of the foundation or what?

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Haha, there are just some foundation issues we’d run into and behind the steps is all sorts of ugliness that would be another challenge to conceal so embracing the steps is muuuch easier.

      xo,
      s

  5. Cate says

    One question–It lookes in one of the “during” photos like there was a down spout that would dump water on the patio. Did you guys have to mitigate that in any way, or will the slope of the patio allow the water to drain off of it?

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      The slope of the patio probably would have been fine, but we worried about it washing away our sand. We chatted with two patio guys and decided the best way to go would be to remove the end of the drainpipe (which diverted water onto the patio). Then we bought one of those long flexi-spouts (those plastic tubes that divert water) to redirect the drainage into that mulched planting area beside the patio (we buried it so it’s not noticeable, and it empties a few feet from the drainpipe location into the mulched shrub area). Now we don’t have to worry about any water washing away our patio sand, and it’s a good three feet from the house’s foundation so we’re not worried about excess water collecting at the base of the house. It’ll just water those bushes. Haha.

      xo,
      s

  6. Jeremy says

    A question for you guys about drainage. I see a downspout in the corner by the carport that unless directed elsewhere, would empty onto a small area between the patio and the house foundation – neither good places for large amounts of water. Did you have to pipe the drain away from the house, or was that already done with the previous brick sidewalk?

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Ack we meant to post a picture of that update. We chatted with two patio guys and decided the best way to go would be to remove the end of the drainpipe (which diverted water onto the patio). Then we bought one of those long flexi-spouts (those plastic tubes that divert water) to redirect the drainage into that mulched planting area beside the patio (a few feet from the drainpipe location). Now we don’t have to worry about any water washing away our patio sand, and it’s a good three feet from the house’s foundation so we’re not worried about excess water collecting at the base of the house. It’ll just water those bushes. Haha.

      xo,
      s

  9. Barb says

    John:

    This is the first time I have had a chance to get to the computer as I am recovering from GALL BLADDER SURGERY from yesterday. BUT…..I have to say Bravo to you. It looks so great!!! Job well done!!! Bravo to the builder!!! Yahooo to you!!! Sherry thinks YOU’RE SIMPLY THE BEST!!! I could go on and on, but alas and alack…..I am feeling kinda tired, so I think I will go back to bed and rest this surgery off!

    We are all so proud of you. It is F.A.B.U.L.O.U.S!!!

    And I hope I didn’t steer you towards my “PITY PARTY”….didn’t mean to. It’s the drugs talking.

    Pat yourself on the back for doing such a bueno jobo!!!

    Back to recovery!

    B.

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Oh my gosh. Comment of the day goes to Barb! To be commenting on YHL within 24 hours of surgery takes some serious dedication. Haha. Love it. And hope you feel great!

      xo,
      s

  10. Katie S. says

    Beautiful!! I’m always late to the comment-posting party, so everyone has covered everything. I just admire your ability to keep going after hitting such big bumps in the road. AND, I love that you share those bumps with us =)

    Reply

  11. Shannon says

    I think I gasped at the after pics. SO GOOD.

    May I suggest T-O-N-G for your next Scrabble play? T-O-N-G-U-E if there’s a U on the board.

    Reply

  19. Trish says

    WOW!!! So Jealous..It’s like having an exta room in the warmer weather. You will get so much use out of it!! Lucky to have such a clever hubby Sherry!!!!!

    Reply

  20. Lisa says

    You’re making my husband and I think we could definitely replace our current patio ourselves! It doesn’t really need to be replaced, but I wouldn’t mind it if it was….

    Reply

  21. Jessica says

    That looks awesome! That would have been a good place to hide a note for a future owner! There’s no way anyone would tear that up anytime soon, but maybe like 100 years from now and then it would be all the more awesome to find!

    Reply

  22. Donna Huebsch says

    The patio looks really, REALLY great! Congrats on a job well done! And now the mama in me has to say, John, next time go buy a mask, and don’t be breathing in all that dust!! Sorry, I couldn’t help myself :o)
    Also, the staging is so cute, although I find myself oddly fascinated with trying to think of words made from the letters “G-N-L-O-T-E-E”!

    Reply

  23. Michelle says

    Absolutely wonderful job!!! Thinking about doing something similar on each edge of our driveway (2 minivan family and I can’t quite seem to get all of the outside wheels actually on the driveway – OOPS)!

    I see that your driveway is also like your patio – is it the same actual material or do you think your driveway pavers are granite and not concrete… or are your patio pavers granite too?

    Again – wonderful job!!! I would also just sit and stare at it all day.

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      They’re both concrete cobblestone pavers (in the driveway and patio). They actually look really similar but don’t appear to be from the same stone yard, which is funny. So glad we got a decent match.

      xo,
      s

  24. Kristi @ Addicted 2 Decorating says

    Wow, Wow, WOW!!! This looks absolutely amazing. The before and after are a day and night difference. The new patio is beautiful, and I’m sure y’all will get TONS of use out of it. Now got take a loooong nap! You deserve it!

    Reply

  26. Karla says

    That looks so amazing!!! Excellent effort John!

    Savings are one thing but you must have just increased your home by at least $20,000?!

    Reply

  28. Michael says

    Can I make a suggestion for part 2 of your paver project? If the upper patio and steps were made from the same pagers, it would look fantastic from both levels. Just a thought since you’re the paver master now :)

    It looks fantastic…really great job!!

    Reply

  30. Michelle says

    Wow- congratulations! That looks like so much work and it looks fantastic!
    I just wanted to let you know that because of your post a long time ago about the Jig, we bought that tool, and then it helped us make a large outdoor table and sectional inspired by west elm via Ana White.
    Here is the table:
    http://brickandbrack.net/2010/06/29/if-you-build-it-they-will-come/
    And here is the sectional:
    http://brickandbrack.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/garden___outdoor_-_2.jpg
    The pillows for the sectional are from IKEA, and they fit pretty well. We bring them inside when not in use.
    Both have withstood weather (granted we are in CA).
    Eesh- sorry for the long comment!:)

    Reply

  31. Claudia says

    That looks A.M.A.Z.I.N.G!!! 1,000 points to John for such a wonderful Mothers Day gift. And 1,000 points to Sherry also for not minding spending Mothers Day with John out working for hours! Congrats! :)

    Reply

  36. Lea says

    Wow, wow, wow. That’s the kind of patio where I’d like to set up a small bistro table and chair, sit down at in my robe, and sip some coffee while nibbling on a pastry.

    Replace that with a small dish of balsamic vinegar and olive oil, a baguette and a glass of wine in the evening.

    Congrats!

    Reply

  38. Cassie says

    The fact that you say things like, ” wet crack sand” and then admit it sounds dirty perfectly sums up why I love your blog, lol!!

    Reply

  40. Liz says

    You make it look all so easy!! I wish my husband was a handy man! Congrats on the great new outdoor space! Can’t wait to see the bulbous twinkle lights in the trees! ;)

    Reply

  41. Ana Silva says

    It looks amazing guys! WOW, for real. I don’t know if I would have the guts to start such a project. Major props for you John.

    Reply

  43. Kel says

    As soon as I saw you in those gloves I knew you would comment on orange hands. My partner wears the same gloves for work and he too has the orange tint. It’s like you applied fake tan on your plams only.

    Reply

  44. Colene says

    Congrats guys! I’m amazed by all your hardwork in getting this down DIY style. Extra kudos to John for doing so much of the heavy grunt work :)

    Reply

  45. Kathy says

    It looks just GREAT! I have a smaller area than yours outside my kichen door that I want to use pavers on, but I’ve been hesitating for the last couple of years. It’s that part where you have to get the surface really even and flat first that makes me nervous, but you guys have inspired me. Do you think that if I follow John’s instructions I’d be able to tackle this?

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Definitely! And the Lowe’s video that we linked to in a few of the progress posts was super helpful for us, so definitely refer to that for more info. Just take it one step at a time and work on the grade and the flatness until you’re confident it’s great. Taking your time and knowing you can work at it until you’re satisfied will relieve the pressure. Good luck!

      xo,
      s

  46. Among says

    John, you are just so amazingly talented! It’s astonishing how sincere you are–learning to code, make furniture, patio making… etc. they may not be rocket science but it does require patience and dedication. You guys just makes me happy every single day (except on weekends:D) tell me, do you even fight? but for what?! :)

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Oh yeah we get into it! Well, it’s more like I yell and John very quietly and sternly disagrees. And he usually ends up getting his way. Haha. Although I bet he’ll say I get my way more. Haha. I think we argue about a lot of normal things. Parenting decisions like if Clara needs a nap or a bath. Or purchasing decisions like how much to spend on a gift for a friend’s wedding. Or project timeline stuff (ex: I want John to whip up a 6′ privacy fence for the patio by this Saturday and he thinks there’s no way we can do it before Clara’s party). The jury’s still out on who’ll win that one. Haha.

      xo,
      s

  49. Nikki says

    OK, so those questions marks were supposed to be hearts…whoops : ) Here ya go <3 <3 <3…OK that's still lame, well you get the idea!

    Reply

  50. Wendy says

    I haven’t gone through all of the comments, but I saw some really cute solar string lights at Target yesterday. I can’t stop thinking about them for our patio – you should check it out!

    Reply

Stuff We Love

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *