Excavate and Roughly Level the Soil

got your area mark and figure it out start digging they recommend to dig between 5 and 7 inches of the topsoil to accommodate that though few inches of gravel makes the sand and the pavers themselves at the end of the day they want your pavers to sit leveled with your grass specifically the base of your grass you don't want it to be out of whack too high or too low and it's going to create a whirlwind of complications as the seasons change in the digging process specifically when you got a lot of roots it's probably a good idea to kind of recruit an extra set of hands to make this process a little bit easier once you got your area dug out and ready to go it's a good idea to take a rake level off the area and then take a tamper and tamp down the area to kind of give you a rough idea which way you have a slope you want a gentle slope to come away from your fence line and at the same time not to have any kind of high or low spots to prevent any kind of pooling later down the road this essentially is the last step before we start laying down the foundation of the