Nice little project man. Good curb appeal. I love any kind of hardscaping. Just a note thst I like to add about 1/8" slope away from the house so any water drains away elsewhere. Other than that its likely fine
Good point, but as all the layers are draining water (absorbent), wouldn't it be counterproductive to raise the level close to the house? if it was a solid concrete e.g. it should've been lean away from the house, for sue. I rather asking it then stating :/
I was going to ask about drainage. Since that a big problem I have with mine. It’s a swamp when it rains, that’s also the side where my supply (water) line, gas line and electric meter, and lan line from phone route to the home. My concern is I’ve had the supply line replace several years ago, I’m not so sure how deep it’s buried as well as about 15 years ago I did a poor job of putting in a French drain and now debunk under ground sprinkler.
Yep. You should do about 1/8th inch per foot of slope. Some people do 1/4th inch per foot. Either is fine. It's probably more important for a patio, though.
I know the feeling of forgetting a step when installing pavers. In my case, I had forgotten to put down the polypropylene paver base panel. I was wondering why I had to use so much sand. Realizing my error, I took up everything and redid it. And, yes, it was extremely hot when I did this. Beautifully done, Brent. I always love your projects.
We all make mistakes sometimes Lisa but we just need to work through them. Sorry to hear it was HOT for you to haha! Makes the job harder that’s for sure :) thanks so much for the support,
Quick tip - pull the tail gate off when shoveling out bulk material. Saves you from shoveling the material that extra distance. Also, it will be less work to shovel from in the truck.
This is what I want for the front of my house. I do have to hire someone to do for me, for my hubby has Parkinson's and he cannot do it. You did an amazing job.
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Important to note that it should be sloped ever so slightly AWAY from the foundation, aka: positive drainage, to prevent water from going into the basement in areas with rain or wet ground.
Just did a similar project myself. A couple differences I did were: 1. Put the weed barrier underneath the crushed gravel. 2. Used 4 inches of gravel. 3. Used a tamper which is fun and works just as well imo. 4. Used an inch of sand. 5. Made sure it was level but with a slight decline away from the house as well. 6. Used edging that had holes for stakes to keep the line secure and straight. 7. Used 12"x12" permeable pavers and marble chips around them. (Looks great except for when the sun hits the white marble chips it's kind of blinds me... oops.) All in all well done. Thanks for sharing. Always good to see how others adjust for mistakes, which I thought you did very well.
(I replied with the below comment to a sub-comment, but felt it may be important to add to the general comments, so I added it here as well for more to see) Wondering where the water will go once it penetrates the top layer of rock? The gravel had fines in it, and compacted, limits the air or void between them. Plus the dirt under the gravel is compacted level. Any water penetrating down to the dirt, will fan out i'd bet, and that means water going towards the house. I am not sure what climate this is in, but where I live in the north, this can lead to issues getting into winter and in thaw, especially if there is no french drain around the foundation. But - even with the french drain - I would also like to add, you likely don't want humidity in your foundation/basement walls either, so I suppose even areas without freeze, you'd want to make sure you have a 1" drop per each foot away of the house, for at leat the same depth of your basement below grade. (So if you basement is 5 feet below grade, then a 5 foot grade drop of 5 " would be great to keep water away from the house)
We settled on this style of walkway a couple years ago. Here are a few tips. 1. Don't put the path so close to the house. You might be able to walk on it, but you cannot carry anything in the wall side hand without smacking the house. 2. Forget about plastic weed barrier. It doesn't work and you don't need it anyway. 3. Use steel landscaping border, not plastic. 4. Don't put sand around the pavers before the rock. 5. HD and Lowe's sell a polyprop paver base you can use instead of all that sand and rock. It's expensive, but it replaces a lot of steps and a lot of materials. I have about $800 worth of it in my garage waiting on the next project. 6. Get the ground sort of even and sloping away from the house, lay down the paver base, place the stones using a 2x2 to separate the pavers equally, then pour 1/2 or 3/4-inch chipped gravel (not rounded gravel) around the stones. Chipped stones interlock and stay in place while round stones never settle. I leave about 1/4-inch of the paver stones above the chipped stones.
In that type of pavers laying. Sand will not work in the long run. You’re better off using cement as your base. Remember, those are pretty much free standing pavers that are not compacted and they will uneven, even with moderate use. The sand will just eventually wash away.
This feels like a very nice approach which I'll be adopting in my yard. Only question is why even both with the weed barrier? The only growth you'll need to deal with will be rooting on top of it. If anything super aggressive does manage to come up through compacted aggregate from underneath it would probably defeat a weed barrier anyway. I think they're pointless in this application.
+1 sub. Most helpful video I’ve come across as a newbie DIYer. I’ve re-watched 10x times now, and I think my backyard will turn out a-ok. Wish I had your soil, though. CA Sonoma County adobe clay is no joke-especially with my maze of redwood roots.
I'm wanting to do something similar with my front walkway, but after putting together a test area a couple years back when I first bought the house, I've found that while the week barrier keeps weeds from poking up through, just having stone on top creates a dirt trap, and weeds constantly grow from just that. Treating the area with weed killer would result in going through several gallons of the stuff per week, at now close to $40 per gallon. Not sure what the solution is, yet, but hopefully I can find something!
John that is exactly what I want to hear from all of my BYOT supporters. Thank you so much for watching and sharing it. That helps the channel in so many ways.
We are new home owners. Thanks for this video. I wanted to ask would white rock be also practical to use. Also you used sand underneath tiles. Can you do without sand over the weed barrier. Again very nice video . Thank you
Question! Great vid! and I like the Pittsburgh level too! (my home town!) How do you feel about adding a slight pitch away from the house foundation to help water drain away from the house? Is that necessary?
I have laid my pavers. I ordered tuscan fines, which contains an excessive amount of dust. Should i use the tuscan fines after i have shook off some of the dust, and then water it??
It looks good but I see a few issues with your methods so going to point them out for anyone reading this. What was the point of screeding the sand and getting it level and then tamping it with the compactor? The compactor is not going to keep it perfectly level like you had it, there will always be dips. Use the compactor for the stone, not the sand. Plus you’re walking on the sand after??? You should never walk on it once it’s leveled... put a couple pavers down first and walk on those and stay off the sand. Also why did you carelessly throw more sand on top and spread it with your hands? Now the sand that you leveled “perfectly” is irrelevant because now you’re forced to level each paver individually (and they’re certainly not consistent with the other stones in the walkway). Seems like you made more work for yourself and wasted time… The professional method is to the put pipes right into the stone layer first, bang them down to the correct height and then level the pipes with a pitch away from the foundation. Then throw sand down, screed and hand tamp it once being careful not to hit the pipes. Top it off with more sand and then screed one final time (btw you should only have one inch of sand not 4). Don’t tamp again at this point. The leveling job is now done so you’re ready to start laying pavers. In theory, once the pavers are in you shouldn’t have to touch them at all. And also each paver will settle at the same rate so they’ll stay level with each other. You really shouldn’t have to use a mallet on any of them unless you have to make minor adjustments. Proper prep work is key with a job like this. Also, pretty sure the weed mat is supposed to go on the bottom over the dirt, not in between the stone and sand. Am I missing something here?
I’m undecided on slope for a paver walkway like this. For impermeable surfaces like concrete, 100% you need a slope away from the house. But the layers of absorption built up by sand, gravel, and more sand between the pavers, I could see adequate drainage away from the house to the sloping grass.
Good question and I understand your concern but I assure you there will be no problem with moisture in my situation. One because I have a concrete foundation and two having rain hitting the pavers and pour away from the house will do nothing for this small of space. If it was a large paver patio area I would for sure angle the pavers away from the house. Hope that makes sense and thanks for watching in any case.
@@BYOTools , You are incorrect about not needing to slope away from house. A concrete foundation is one of the reasons you need to slope away. Also, the best thing to do would have been to slope the dirt, then put 6 mil plastic, then put the road base, sand, etc. It’s really important to slope away and use plastic.
@@judyl.761 I'm curious about this. Since you suggest using base and sand on top of the plastic, weeds are going to take root in those materials. So what is the reason for the plastic? The only reason I can think of is to keep the base and sand from sinking into and mixing with the soil. Is that what you're thinking?
Great instruction guide. Just a question - The area I intend is not a flat piece of ground, it more like a low arc shape and wondered if it is possible to lay the paving stones on this type of land. It is diffficultto make it flat because the waste/water pipes are just below the surface.
@@BYOTools I would suggest an additional 18 inches away from the house as a minimum. Just because the gate is misplaced doesn't mean you should continue the mistakes made previously. Or you could open the gate to a larger paved area and bring the walkway out at an offset from the gate.
Yes they will shift if left on top of bare dirt. They’ll float around especially when rain comes. U can buy the wall anchor that hold the pavers in one spot but I would hurry it essentially
I dont have a slope like you do, so if I were to slope it away from the house, would I slope it with the rock base or sand with the pvc pipes? Oh and some solar lights would look great near the pavers. Great work. Thanks
Hey Brent, pretty neat job, again ;) Just a quick question (it is not related to the main project this time) at 11:46, I could spot a few bottles of epoxy/glue. Isn't direct sunlight damaging it's consistency or fluidity on a long run? Or you don't generally have that much sunlight for which you should care? :) Cheers and thanks for teaching us!
