Backyard Paver Patio

Our backyard used to slope right into our back door! In order to remedy the grade and make something useful, we decided to put in a patio. This project took 2 years to do as I started it last year, but then didn't have time after we had a newborn baby. This year, we picked back up and were able to finish it. I did all the excavation, and moving of gravel and sand with just my shovel and the cart on the back of the lawn mower. Be prepared for some physical exercise if you decide to do a paver patio!

Retaining wall:

1. Wall blocks
2. 3/4" gravel (the washed kind, you don't want the fines as part of it)
3. Filter fabric
4. Perforated drain pipe

Patio:

1. Pavers
2. 3/4" Gravel or road base (Road base would be preferred)
3. Sand
4. Filter fabric (Optional, I only used because I used 3/4" washed gravel)

Tools:

1. Shovel
2. Rake
3. Level
4. String
5. Stakes
6. Tape measure
7. Angle grinder with masonry disc
8. Plate compactor
9. Hammer
10. Chisel
11. Safety glasses
12. Respirator
13. 3/4" PVC
14. 2x4 reasonably straight

Here were my costs on the project:

1. Pavers - $320
2. Wall blocks - $280
3. Drain pipe - $35
4. Filter fabric - $60
5. Edging - $45
6. Gravel - $150
7. PVC pipe - $40
8. Wall block caps - $50
9. Delivery Fee - $89 (Home Depot delivered it all. I live an hour away, so it was cheaper than my gas with all the trips I would have made.)

Total Material Cost: $1,069

I bought a plate compactor from Vevor for $380. I only worked on the patio in the evenings, and the rental place is an hour away and charges $100 per day. I think I'm going to try and resell it now that I'm done.

In order to have the right amount of materials and dig out the right area for the patio, you'll need to plan out your patio area. You can see my sketch in the pictures. When you are planning your patio, remember straight edges are significantly easier. If you are doing curves or angles on the edges, you will end up custom cutting each brick to fit. I think some curve really adds to the depth of the patio and landscaping, so it was worth the extra cutting and time.

You will need to know the area of the patio in square feet (sq ft). To calculate this, just multiply the length by the width of the patio. If your patio is a unique shape, just split it into smaller shapes and add the area of each shape together. For simplicity's sake, I just split my patio into 2 squares, 16' x 16' and 3.5' x 3.5'. The little extra I'll be over should account for the extra I will use when cutting the edge pieces to fit.

16' x 16' + 3.5' x 3.5' = 268.25 sq ft (We will round to 270 for the future math.)

In the product details portion of the pavers, it should tell you how many sq ft each paver covers. My pavers were each 0.2 square feet. If you have to calculate it, just make sure you put it into feet not inches. Divide the patio sq ft by the paver sq ft and you will get how many pavers you need.

270 / .2 = 1350 pavers

For the gravel and sand, you will need to calculate the cubic feet and yards. You will order in cubic yards. Take the square footage from above and multiply it by the ft equivalent of the gravel or sand you will be putting down. I was shooting for 4 inches of gravel and 1 inch of sand. So I used 4"/12" = .3333 ft. (Replace 4" with the amount you plan to put down.) As I understand it, the thicker the gravel, the better it handles frost heaves and shifting. To go from cubic feet to cubic yards, divide cubic feet by 27.

270 sqft x .3333' = 90 cubic feet or 3.3 cubic yards of gravel for the patio

You will also needed gravel for behind the retaining wall. The wall is on the bottom side of the patio drawing, between the house and propane tank. I measured the wall at around 20 feet and averaging about 2 feet tall. The drainage stone behind should be about 1 foot deep.

20' x 2' x 1' = 40 cubic feet or 1.5 cubic yards of gravel for the wall

In total, I needed 4.85 cubic yards of gravel. I have a friend with a dump trailer and he brought around 5 ton of gravel, maybe a little more, and dumped it out front. 5 tons of gravel is roughly 4 yards. The gravel and delivery was $150 dollars. I used 3/4" washed gravel for all of the patio to try and keep delivery costs down. To supplement the gravel behind the wall, I used some various sized river rock that was left in a pile on the side lot when we moved into the house.

Note: Something that I didn't think about until after is that you will also be compacting the gravel, so make sure you add 10 - 20% extra gravel. I ended up only getting about 3.25" of gravel down because of compaction, and I used a little more than 1 foot thick behind the retaining wall. I think the 3/4" washed gravel I used would probably fall more around needing the 10% extra.

For sand, you will need 1 inch thick, or 0.083 feet, across your patio. You also need some sand to fill in the spaces between pavers. The sand I used was bedding sand from the dairy my in-laws run, so I didn't have to order it. We made 2 trips over with our pickup, and that was enough to do the patio and a little sand box for the kids.

270 sqft x .083' = 22.41 cubic feet or 0.83 cubic yards.

Grading was one of the longest portions of this project! On the high side of the patio, we had to dig down about 3 feet. The low side was pretty much even with the rest of the lawn.

We also had to take out a random strip of sidewalk the previous owner had put there, for some reason. I used the the masonry cutting disc on the the grinder to score the sidewalk into smaller chunks. Then, I used the 4lb sledge to break up the chunks. It works good if you also dig out some dirt from underneath.

It's best to do most of the digging out in the spring or after a good rain storm. Otherwise, the ground is as hard as a rock. I hauled the dirt to other low spots in the yard, and then used a little to help even the slope and the downward side of the patio (where the raised garden beds will be eventually, see the sketch in step 1).

Once you have the ground roughly dug out, it is time to drive some stakes in a grid pattern and tie some string around them. I drove my stakes around 8 feet apart, width wise. That way, I could use a straight 2x4 to make the ground level.

The slope for a patio should be somewhere between 1/8" - 1/4" per 1' of patio.

I tied up my string on the stakes at the level I wanted the top of the pavers to be on the sides closest to the house (since we want the water to drain away from the building). Then, I made the string as level as I could. A laser level would be really nice here, but a normal level works too. I marked all the stakes with a Sharpie marker where the string should be, just in case it got moved. On the lower stakes (furthest from the house), I measured down 2 inches (16' * 0.125"), moved the strings down, and marked it again with a Sharpie.

Now as you are grading the dirt, you will measure in between the string and the ground. You will know you have the right slope when the distance between the string and the ground is the same everywhere. My dirt was sitting at 7" below the string: 2" for pavers, 1" for sand, and 4" for gravel. I leveled underneath all of the strings and then used a 2x4 and a level to even out the ground between the strings.

When you are close to the correct grade, you will run the plate compactor around the dirt to make it nice and smooth.

If you will have a retaining wall, dig down an extra 2 inches or so where it will lay.

The retaining wall should have some gravel beneath it as a base. I put down at least 4 inches of gravel beneath the first blocks of the retaining wall, and then compacted it. If your retaining wall blocks have a lip on the backside, make sure you use your chisel and hammer to remove it.

Lay down the filter fabric so the edge is just under the back edge of the blocks. The fabric will help keep the dirt and grass from plugging up the drain.

Start laying your wall blocks along the path of the wall. Make sure you leave space behind the block to fit the drain pipe and some gravel (about 1 foot). Double check that the blocks are level and at the same height as each other. Take your time getting this right, as the rest of the wall won't stack well if you don't. I gave my blocks a slight angle backwards so the wall would essentially lean back a little, 2 or 3 degrees is all.

Once you have have this first layer in place, lay the drainage pipe down behind the blocks. The pipe should slope downhill so the water can drain out of it. Once the pipe is in place, fill in behind and in front of the block with gravel about 75% of the way up the block. This will hold the base in place while you lay the second layer of blocks. Don't fill up the back all the way until after you put the second layer of block down, or the lip on the block will make it sit raised up. When you start the second layer of blocks, you will need to start it offset from the 1st. Usually, you will need to break a block in half. My blocks already had a score on the bottom side of the block. I used the hammer and chisel to break it in half.

When you are about 6" from the top of the wall, pull the filter fabric over the gravel. Now, you will use dirt to fill in behind the blocks. The fabric keeps the dirt and organic material from precipitating down, and clogging, the drainage pipe.

If you want to, you can add cap blocks to your retaining wall. My wife and I haven't decided for sure if we like the look more with or with out, so we just set some on top to see for now. If we decide to put them on, we will use construction adhesive to glue them into place.

I had a friend with a dump trailer bring me a load of the 3/4" gravel. He was able to drop it out front, so it wasn't too far of a haul to the patio. However, I am glad I had a little garden cart for the lawn mower. It took a good chunk of a day to haul all the gravel over, level, and compact it.

Make sure you run the compactor occasionally as you build up the base. Every 1-2 inches of gravel you put down should be compacted.

Before I put sand down, I laid some of the filter fabric on top of the compacted gravel. Since I used 3/4" gravel that didn't have any fines, it would take a ton of sand to fill in all those gaps between the gravel. That was probably not the best way to do it, but we will see how the fabric lasts.

This step and the next step will be happening somewhat together, because you'll have to walk on the sand to lay the pavers down. Pick your starting edge for the patio, mine was the edge of the house. Lay your PVC pipe on the fabric. The PVC should be running perpendicular to the edge you are starting on. I had 3 pieces of PVC laid down, spaced so I could use a 2x4 to spread the sand out level between them. Level a couple feet of sand, then start laying your pavers down. Don't leave the PVC pipe under the pavers, because it won't settle right when you compact it later. I cut the pipe out in sections, and then used a smaller section of 2x4 to blend the sand into where the pipe was laying.

This is the part where it starts to look like you are making progress on something! Pick your favorite pattern for the pavers you bought. I used a herringbone pattern, with pavers side by side for the border. To start a herringbone pattern, you will need to have some blocks cut in half. I used a masonry blade on an angle grinder to cut the blocks, and a chisel and hammer to break them apart at the cut (since I couldn't cut all the way through with the grinder). The grinder puts off lots of dust, so protect yourself and wear a respirator.

On the wall side of my patio, I needed to custom cut each paver to match the shape of the wall. It is kind of a pain, but not too bad. It doesn't have to be 100% perfect, because you can fill smaller gaps in with sand.

When placing the pavers, make sure you are not sliding them into place sideways. This will disturb the sand and cause bumps. Place the pavers directly down vertically.

On the lower edge, I wanted something a little more than dirt to keep the pavers in place. I used some of the no dig landscape edging, and staked it around the outer edges of the patio. I placed it just about the same height of the pavers, so would help retain the sand better.

I installed the edging backwards of normal, so the stakes were on the outside of the patio. I then covered them with dirt.

The last thing to do is sprinkle a couple shovelfuls of sand onto the patio, and then take a broom and sweep it around. You want to push as much as you can into the cracks between each paver. Once you have all your sand swept in, make another round with the plate compactor over the pavers.

This will help all the pavers settle into place and be level to each other. You may have to add more sand and recompact the pavers a couple times, but you will notice a change in how the compactor feels while once the pavers are all packed in.

Well, now we have the patio and the wall complete! We found some tables and chairs on clearance since it is the end of the season. We are happy with it, and our little girl has been riding her bike around and around on it for a couple weeks now! Overall, this project turned out better than I expected (and I got lots of good workouts in)!

We have had a couple rain storms since we finished it, and I had to add some sand where the water runs off the roof. We will see how it survives the winter. Either way, it is better than it used to be, both in looks and functionality.

If I could go back and change anything, and I wasn't on a budget, I would have made the gravel base 6 inches thick and used road base for under the pavers instead of 3/4" washed gravel. That just wasn't in the cards right now, so we will just hope this lasts for lots of years as is! Thanks for reading!