The Beginning of My Patio Project

This past weekend I jumped headlong into the patio paving construction process. I mentioned this project in my August project post and here’s how it all begins. My first step was laying out the edging stones to figure out the layout of the patio. Now you might ask “wouldn’t it be better to draw a layout of the patio first?” You might be right but this worked pretty good for me. I laid the stones (which are about 12 inches long, six inches deep and four inches high) in the general shape I wanted the patio to be. Then I adjusted the patio in different ways until the edging stones fit with what we wanted. We probably changed its shape about 3 times, but all were minor changes.

Then on Friday my gardening partner (my almost three year old daughter) and I began excavating the grass from the area. The edging stones around the patio area helped to mark the turf area we needed to clear. My partner lasted about 30 minutes but it was the thought that counted, she just wanted to help!

This is where we are now. Saturday I unloaded a cubic yard and a half of limestone gravel. I had them mix crushed gravel and regular gravel together when they loaded it into the truck. The crushed gravel will pack down better and makes it easier to lay the paving stones. The gravel allows water to drain through the stones. While the gravel is spread it still needs to be evened out and the edging stones need to be leveled. I’ll do that gradually over the course of the week. After those steps I’ll pick up a load of sand and cover the gravel then set the paving stones. It’s good to finally see some progress on one of our major projects!