How to Install Pavers Patio in Your Backyard

Are you thinking to install a paver patio in Your Backyard? Patios are a significant element of every home. Nothing can compare to spending time in the fresh air with family and visitors or simply taking your time to read a book and drink a glass of wine alone.

But you’ll need a decent-sized, properly landscaped area for all of this to happen. Chairs and tables are difficult on dirt and grass. Landscaping rock and pea gravel are low-cost and easy to set up, but they tend to scatter. Concrete slabs are time-consuming and costly to install. But there’s a price to pay: patio pavers installed in conjunction with a handy product called polymeric sand.

Working With Polymeric Sand

Pavers are a relatively simple project for do-it-yourselfers to undertake. But how can you keep the gaps between the pavers tidy? Weeds will overgrow in dirt or loose-fill gravel. Exterior stone mortar effectively prevents those gaps, but an amateur mason may have difficulties putting it down correctly. Polymeric sand is a gap-filler that pours like sand but hardens and expands like mortar.

The idea behind polymeric sand is to lay the pavers on a sand and gravel foundation, then sweep the polymeric sand over them to force the sand into the cracks. Before wetting the pavers with water, remove any polymeric sand from the paver surface. Water reacts with the polymeric sand and produces a firm, cohesive mortar-like connection.

Polymeric Sand can be challenging to work with. If you make even one mistake along the way (removing sand from the surface), it will mar your pavers. However, if you do things correctly, polymeric sand is a long-lasting joint filler that requires little upkeep and few concerns.

Pros

• Filler that won’t come out easily
• Simpler than gluing down traditional grout
• Without trowelling, sweeps in.

Cons

• Joints must be strong
• Before being wet, it must be swept into all joints
• If not done correctly, the paver surface can be marred

What You’ll Need

Tools/Equipment

• 8 feet of two-by-four lumber to screed with
• 1-inch diameter PVC pipes of various lengths
• String, Twine, or lightweight rope
• Wood stakes
• Spade or shovel
• Wheelbarrow
• Plate compactor machine or Hand tamper
• Bubble level
• Measuring tape
• Broom
• Utility knife
• Dust mask
• Rubber mallet or Hammer
• Connect Hose and sprayer nozzle to a water supply
• Diamond blade circular saw or a Hammer and masonry chisel
• Leaf blower
• Landscaping edger tool(optional if building a patio in the grass)

Materials

• Pavers
• Paver base or Crushed stone
• Paver sand
• Polymeric sand, such as Sakrete PermaSand
• Landscape fabric
• Plastic edging and spikes

Instructions

Patio Design

Patio pavers are only as strong as their foundation. Minimum a 5-inch layer of crushed gravel or paver base is required, followed by a 1-inch layer of paver sand. The pavers sit on the sand; then, polymeric sand is swept in the seams between them. The overall width and length of your planned patio multiplied by the required material depths will determine how much gravel base and sand to purchase.

How many pavers to buy is determined in part by the length and breadth (width) of your patio. The amount of pavers used varies based on the design you select. The simplest grid or brickwork designs use the fewest pavers, while more intricate patterns like pinwheel or herringbone require more.

If you want to use full-sized patio pavers while still keeping the look of a traditional backyard patio, remember to size your patio so that it may be used deliberately. If you do this, make sure there’s a 1/4-inch gap between the pavers.

Check on Permits and Services

Call your local Call-Before-You-Dig hotline to arrange for a professional to visit your property and label the ground for possible electric, gas, sewer, or other sensitive lines. Talk to your local construction permitting office, to see whether you need a permit for this project. 

Stakeout work area

On the four corners of the patio site, drive a stake. Draw a square or rectangle with the Twine or string around the four stakes. To determine if your patio is square, measure two intersecting diagonals in your patio region with your tape measure to ensure that all four corners are at 90 degrees.

Dig Patio Perimeter Area

Remove the outside perimeter of the patio space by excavating a channel that is 6 inches beyond the marking string. If you’re going to cut into the grass, a landscaping edger like a flat, straight shovel that can make straight lines in turf is useful: it’s like a shovel but with cutting capabilities. You may also use a spade. Dig a 7-inch-deep channel.

Remove the marking string now that you’ve drawn a perimeter, but leave the stakes in place.

Dig Inner Patio Area

Remove the soil or grass from around the perimeter and dig down 7 inches to remove it. Place any unsightly items in a wheelbarrow and toss them in your compost bin or someplace else in your yard. Check the depth frequently; you want to keep it as close to the 7-inch mark as possible.

Add Landscape Fabric

Trim any stray tree roots. Large or sharp rocks should be removed. To compact the dirt in the patio region, use a manual tamper or a rented plate compactor. After that, spread two layers of landscape fabric over each other, with the top layer positioned 90 degrees from the bottom layer. Overlap the patio border by approximately 4 inches.

Add Gravel Base

Wear your dust mask. To the patio, add 2 inches of gravel base material.

As you add these successive layers, start lowering your patio area to aid drainage. The slope should be at least 1:4 (vertical to horizontal). Make sure the slope is correct using the bubble level. Make sure the slope runs away from home.

Add Sand Base Layer

The final layer is a layer of sand that serves as a comfortable surface to set and adjust the pavers. If you want to prevent the sand from sifting through the gravel, first spread out a layer of landscape fabric over the base gravel.

Screed Sand Base Layer

Place the scrap two-by-four across the tops of the PVC pipes, then screed it toward you in a smooth raking motion. The sand will flow to one side and over the screeding board as you go. Continue moving and screeding the PVC pipes until all of the space is tamped down. Finish by smoothing out the sand, working your way back to avoid leaving any footprints behind.

Lay Patio Pavers

Re-tie the marking string to the stakes. Place each paver stone flat in the sand base at the start of your pattern, with the edge of the perimeter.

Tap it gently with the rubber mallet or the Hammer, and then an adjacent scrap of two-by-four to avoid breaking the pavers.

Finally, lay the pavers out in a cross pattern approximately 1/4-inch apart from one another.

Avoid Paver Lippage

Ensure to keep adjacent pavers parallel to prevent lippage, resulting in trips and falls.

Cut Patio Pavers

You might have to chop some of the pavers to make them fit the border. If that’s the case, a masonry chisel and Hammer are your best bet for doing it inexpensively.

1. First of all put on your hearing protection and safety glasses.
2. With a straight metal edge and the chisel’s edge, trace an establishing line on the paver surface. Draw the chisel over the paver with a utility knife like you would cut the cardboard.
3. Remove the straight edge and carefully deepen the groove with a chisel and mallet to 1/8-inch.
4. Place the chisel in the groove.
5. Tap the paver lightly with the Hammer down the length of the groove until it separates.
6. Add Plastic Edging

Place the plastic edging along the patio’s edge. Attach the edging to the ground by pounding the supplied spikes with a mallet or Hammer, spacing them about 12 inches apart.

Add Polymeric Sand

Take the polymeric sand and evenly distribute it over the top of the patio pavers, sweeping it across them while you go. Continue adding sand and cleaning until all of the gaps between the pavers have been filled.

Add Water to Polymeric sand.

It’s important to remove all polymeric sand from the top of the pavers before adding water. The sand will adhere to the paver surfaces and damage them if you don’t. Blowing off the sand with a leaf blower is the best method for removing it without disturbing the gaps.

Set your patio paver under a misty spray nozzle and spritz it. Remember not to soak it with too much water; otherwise, the sand could fall out of the gaps.

Wait For Sand to Set

Wait for 24 hours for the patio pavers to be fully set. With the utility knife, cut away any overlapping landscape fabric.