How to Install Paver Patios, Walks and Driveways

We get to experiment with a new brand of floating pavers today. No. Um, what we are going to be doing is setting up a paver base and we have water that's infiltrated the sub base. We used to have a swimming pool in this area. This used to be a swimming pool here and it looks like one again. But really what happened was because it's cut out and it started raining before we could get our class 5 base material in. This area is filled in. So you can see we've got the heavy duty pump going. We're going to pump this down. And then what we're going to have left behind is a layer of muck. It's it's actually still going to be pretty firm material cuz this thing was packed rock solid, but it's going to be a fine layer of just of tiny muck. We've got uh the skid loader with tracks here and we'll be able to kind of come right into this area, scoop out that little layer of muck, and then put class 5 base material down and then bring it back up to the proper elevation. Then put 1 in of sand in place. 1 in is the critical component. If you go an inch and a half with sand or if you go two inches with sand, what happens is is that sand has no cohesive material in it. And so it doesn't properly bind together. And if you put a patio chair on it and you get one point of impact, it's going to tip that paver up. So we want to make sure we limit the amount of sand we have in place. How deep is that water, Mie? Like a foot. Nah, it's not even that deep. Yeah, 6 in. Yeah, we'll have this thing pumped out in a little bit. So, that's the plan here. This area right here between this string line and that string line gets a new PA base. This area over here gets a deck, a wood deck. So, we're going to be completing the wood deck. We're going to actually be doing an extension off from that PA patio this way. So, we're going to document the process and show you how it's done. Okay. Okay. So, some of the technical things that I want to point out that uh Drew has already noticed is the pitch of the patio itself, which is really important. This whole project drains that way. Now, we don't want to get this big gigantic pitch on this patio, but we do want to have just enough that the water doesn't stay on this area. And then of course since the house is behind you guys, we want everything to shed away from the house and into the backyard. And in this case, we have we've got a 4ft level. And we might use an even bigger level. And the easier way to use a bigger level is just to use an 8ft straight a board or something like that. And this is a quarter bubble pitch going down. And when we install the new PA patio, when we take this extension going out this way, it's going to be pitched a quarter bubble down to match up. Now, we've got some batter boards set up along this line right here, these orange boards, in case we lose any of our stakes out there. It's all documented right here in these batter boards. It tells us exactly how far out we're going to go. and where the pavers end. Okay. So, what's happening is we're finding that we're getting a lot of rocks in this pump. And I don't have a screen width today. Normally, we'd either put a a pail and puncture a bunch of holes in it to kind of create a screen or actually use a pre piece of screening material on the bottom of the pump intake. Today, I'm using my flanges. I got to be a little careful because this is a really high pressure pump. Don't try this stuff at home, kids. I wish I had a piece of screening material. But we'll get this this whole thing mucked out, pumped down. Good, solid, sunny weather all week long, and we'll be back in business. We are back at the site. This is day two, and you see we've got it all dry. We dug a hole, pumped it out. That was the last thing you seen. What you What I want to show you is a technique that we use when we're in commercial construction. The Walmarts, the Targets, the Menard Super Centers, whenever they have a parking lot that is on even slightly questionable soil, they don't do a soil correction. A what a soil correction is is where you dig all the way down, you remove all of the soil, and you bring in rock or sand. You place it and compact it. It can cost thousands of dollars to do something like this on this patio. We know the subs soil is good, but because it was wet just yesterday, we're going to do a little trick. A trick I'm going to show you right now. We're putting roadbased fabric and then we deepen the base material itself. So, what you see here is class 5 about 10 in thick with a layer of fabric that separates the subs soil. This used to be water. yesterday from the class 5. It creates a bridging effect. So instead of having an individual paper go and settle, the whole thing floats on on the questionable soils underneath. The only reason these soils are questionable is because they were slightly wet yesterday and 12 in of water. What uh what our project foreman has done is he's taken all of that soil that that tiny top layer that was kind of squishy. He mucked it out using the T180 and dumped it in a pile over here. This soil is going to now be dried and then reused around the patio. Furthermore, what you see he's doing right now is he's got screed rails in place and he's getting the level. This is a great time for us to show up. He's got the level on the screed rails to match the exact pitch that's on the patio over there. Then he's going to put just these street rails, Drew, are 1 and an eigh inch. Correct. Correct. Okay. So, what he's going to do from that point is he's going to use the height of the screed rail to determine the height of his sand. Right. That way, we know for sure we have an 1 and 1/8 inch of sand. Not 2 in of sand, not any more, not any less. You don't want more sand because you get that weird effect going on. And so he uses the the bottom of the screed rail is the bottom of his elevation. The top of the screed rail is his top of elevation for sand. And he knows exactly how much sand to put in place. The next step you'll see is he's going to start laying this pattern out and bringing it out as the to match the customer's expectations. So let's visit it the next time. All right, we're back at the site and as you can see, we've got all the sand now in place. You can actually see right now where the screed rails were pulled out and the precise depth of the sand that we're using and how the field we call this laying the field in here. And that has all been laid out. One of the things that we're doing is we're pulling a string line on this edge. So we've snapped a string line along this side of it. So we don't have to make any cuts on half of the patio which saves time, saves money. But what we do do have to do at this point then is along this edge you can see we've got full pavers and we want a nice clean semicircle. So what'll happen is we'll actually draw a line on the pavers and then we'll take the chopsaw that we have over here and we'll just we'll just zip it right along so that we get this nice perfect semicircle. What you'll notice is we have a soldier course. It gets a little tricky here. We have a soldier course that an existing soldier course that outlines the patio, but each one of those blocks are going to have to be cut. In fact, here's a great example. This unit right here, this side has been cut to make a perfect seam. And that's what we're going to continue to do. Now, one of the things you don't see is the PA edging. Okay, this goes in place and this keeps everything locked in place. So the the entire patio gets boom firmed up between the PA edging and as we're packing it everything settles in place. We're going to show you that next. We won't worry about it at this point. So I do want to point out you can see how intricate some of the cuts do get. Cutting the length of it is actually one of the easier portions of the job because we just run that string line on it and then we just zip snap that semi-ircular nice soft curve all at one time. We don't cut each individual block. We don't pull it off and cut it and then put it in place. We let it flow over and then cut it after the fact. But that soldier course, that's a different story. And when you have a long stretch, you may have to cut those to get a tight seam. And in this case, we anticipate it being every other block. And so we got we're to the point where after we're done laying the field, then we're going to come back in on this job and we're going to use our masonry sand, which is somewhere around here. I don't know where it went to. Um, and we're going to put that in all the joint spaces. And at that point, you can use poly sweep, which is a polymer sand, or you can use just regular sand. I prefer the regular sand. I've used poly sand in my own place. Um, I don't think the results are that much better. Personally, every area varies. Every job is different. There's times and places when you do want to use polymer sand. On this particular project, I'm going to recommend that we use just the regular sand and and uh pack it in place. So, we'll show you that process next. Okay, job is wrapped up just in time. Mother Nature's not cooperating. It's starting to rain on us. we we were able to get all of the finished grades established. And so you can see not only were we installing the PA patio, but then we had to match up the backyard, the grades in there with the new PA patio. So here it is done and complete. Now, the deck itself, the the timber deck is going to be uh extending on over right to about this level and covering up this area in between. Um it's been it's been tamped. The sand has been swept into the joints and I am not going to walk on it because I don't want to get it. I don't want to get any dirt on this uh the new PA deck. But you can see how seamlessly he was able to blend it in with the other one and then tamp the sand in place just in time. Got it wrapped up. I hope this video's helped you guys understand the process a little better. A lot of times when you get into these pa projects, they're not always going to start out or go the way that you want them to. In this case, a week ago today, there was standing water right where that patio is. But you can work your way through it. And I think um you can see how we've done with this. I'm walking down the grade right now. And we can get we can see everything flows from the patio right to the point where I'm at here. So, this job is wrapped up. I hope it's helped you guys. How do you guys handle situations like that? How when you come into water or squishy soils, what techniques do you guys use to help you bridge it? Do you do soil corrections? Do you put fabric down? Do you deepen the base? What else do you do? I would love love love to hear how you guys handle it. Cuz hey, it's going to help all of us. I hope this has helped you. I hope you subscribe. I hope if you enjoy this video, I hope you tell your friends. I have a lot of hopes, don't I? I hope you guys know how important you are to me. That's what it boils down to. I make these videos for you guys. So, go out and get them. Make a make a living. I hope you make a killer living. Things work out well for you. Take care. God bless. Get to work.