Building a Paver Patio on Open Graded Base 

You sure are gettin em on material

Question. You have been helpful in the past so thanks. I just finished an about 20x20ft paver patio at my house. Turned out great except for two things. 1, I sunk it because it built into a hill so I have a short wall retainer on the uphill side and along the sides and the downhill side it's about 10 inches below the lawn level. When we get a heavy rain, it holds water but does flow away because of the grade. I think I have a fix for that. So to continue with my problem, I gave the patio a slope 1in per 8ft. so problem 2, I don't like it. Sitting at the table I feel off so I'm thinking of pulling up the pavers. The base is 3/4 minus...about six inches deep, with 1in sand and using plain old sand in the joints. My thought is to pull up the pavers, remove the sand, put down another layer of fabric then a layer of 3/4 or something clean crushed gravel, leveling it to "level" then bringing in some 1/4in chip angular gravel for the final 1in leveling, then relaying the pavers and using plane old sand in the joints. I'm wondering if this will cause problems. I'm hoping because of the exsisting base, it will still drain the way it should, especially if I drill some holes or something through the down hill side of the "sunken" below grade patio wall. The grass side and all of the retainer of the patio has clean gravel on the outside of the wall, so i think the water will flow much better away from the patio and into the lawn if i make these holes. What thoughts or advice do you have?

What type of mortar did you use as your edge restraint? How do you prevent the cement from cracking and failing causing the pavers to move? In my mind because the mortar edge is not very thick it would be break easily.

How awesome is the quik cut!! thats what we call them here, I forget what you call it. Is that the 14 inch ?

Well done! Is the Portland used to harden the saturated soil for excavation? I was trained like 33 years ago using clear for base on steps or stairways but not on patios. I now use 5” of 5/8 crushed and 1”-2” of hpb for final grade. ✌️🇨🇦

Two questions if you wouldn’t mind. 1. Was that Geogrid that you put down on top of the fabric before installing the rest of the 3/4 base? Is that stuff a must have for this type of install? 2. My local landscape supplier has washed limestone chips 3/8-1/8”. Will that work for the hpb?

Hello, I sm doing my pavers in the back of our house and I happen to order too much of hpb and less gravel. Is 2 inches of hpb bedding layer too much? Thank you

Rather than put HPB on top of larger crushed rock, any reason you can’t use just HPB (or similar) throughout? Meaning: lay down 6” or 7” of small aggregate like HPB, screed the top of it, then put down the pavers?

Hi! I’m replacing a flagstone walkway with pavers. The flagstones themselves are still in great condition. Can I use them as part of my base, meaning compact them into the dirt, cover with 4” of crushed aggregate, then with 1” of HPB? This way I wouldn’t have to haul them away. Thx!

Hello my friend, I'm a big fan of your channel and work. I did have a question that i keep going around and can't seem to find the best answer. I live in Georgia, and the climates always pretty warm year round except for the winter. I am almost finished with my own Flagstone patio project, and i was wondering to fill in the gaps between the flagstone. I've got Gator dust ready when im done with everything. However, i have been reading a lot that Gator dust tends to wear out a lot quicker than the warranty time expected. I've thought about not using Gator and instead using M10 granite fines between the flagstone. Is this a good idea based on your experience? Thank you so much! Many blessings.

Is there any reason you did not use the geogrid on this project? Im doing a 9x10 patio and was debating whether or not i needed it.

Dont understand why you didnt lay that out on a 90 degree angle .