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Checks
- Laid against the house, never fastened to it. Keep the paver top at least 2″ below door sills and below the siding, and slope it away from the house.
- 120 sq ft. Pavers: 567 (5% extra for cuts and breakage). Paver base: about 2 1/4 cubic yards, delivered. Bedding sand: 22 bags (0.5 cu ft each).
- Site rules shown are typical, not your town’s. Confirm with the building department before you build.
Shopping list
| Qty | Item | Est. |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2×4 stud, 8′ (board) | $4.80 |
| 567 | Concrete paver, 4″ × 8″ × 2 3/8″ (holland) (each) | $425.25 |
| 3 | Paver base / crusher run, delivered (cubic yard) | $165.00 |
| 22 | All-purpose / paver sand, 0.5 cu ft bag (bag) | $132.00 |
| 3 | Polymeric joint sand, 50 lb bag (bag) | $96.00 |
| 4 | Plastic paver edge restraint, 8′ (piece) | $48.00 |
| 2 | 10″ galvanized edging spikes (bag of 25) | $30.00 |
| 2 | 1″ steel conduit (EMT), 10′, used as screed rails (piece) | $28.00 |
| 1 | Wood stakes, 18″ (bundle of 12) | $9.00 |
| 1 | Mason's line (nylon string), 250′ (roll) | $6.00 |
| 1 | Marking paint, upside-down spray (can) | $7.00 |
| 1 | Landscape fabric, 4′ × 50′ (roll) | $22.00 |
About $973 · rough estimates, check the store
Parts
| Part | Qty | Length | Width | Material | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | Screed board The straightest 2×4 in the pile. Not cut: it rides on the screed pipes. | 1 | 96″ | 3 1/2″ | 2×4 stud |
Cut list
2×4 stud, 96″ → A 96″
Kerf 1/8″ included. Every cut runs edge to edge.
Steps
- Tape measure
- Speed square
- Pencil
- Drill/driver
- Clamps
- Safety glasses
- Hearing protection
- Dust mask
- Circular saw or miter saw
- Plate compactor (rent for 2 days: base and pavers)
- Wet saw (rent), or a diamond masonry blade for a circular saw or angle grinder
- N95 or better respirator
- Flat spade and square shovel
- Steel garden rake
- Wheelbarrow
- Line level
- Rubber mallet
- 4′ level
- Push broom
- Leaf blower
- Garden hose with a shower nozzle
- Knee pads and a scrap of plywood to kneel on
- Sander, 120 and 180 grit
1Before you start
Read every step once, start to finish, before you buy or cut anything. Each step names the parts it uses by letter; the parts list gives their sizes.
Set up somewhere flat with good light. A pair of sawhorses with a sheet of plywood on top makes a fine work table.
Wear safety glasses whenever a tool is running, hearing protection for saws, and a dust mask for sanding and for cutting treated wood or sheet goods. Tie back long hair and loose sleeves. Keep children and pets out of the work area.
- Tip At the store, pick straight boards: hold each one up to your eye and look down its length. Skip boards that bow, twist or have big knots near the ends.
- Tip Measure twice, cut once. Most mistakes are a misread tape, not a bad cut.
2Cut and label the parts
Cut every part on the cut list. Cut the longest parts first: if one goes wrong, it can still become a shorter part.
To mark a cut, hook your tape on the end of the board, make a small V with its point exactly at the measurement, and draw a square line through the point with a speed square. Put an X on the waste side.
Cut on the waste side of the line, so the blade's kerf (about 1/8″) comes out of the scrap, not your part.
Write each part's letter in pencil on a face that won't show, and stack the parts by letter.
Sand the faces before assembly while they're flat and easy to reach: 120 grit, then 180.
✓ Lay the parts out and count them against the parts list. Measure a few: if one is off by more than 1/16″, recut it now.
STOP. Let the saw reach full speed before it touches the wood, keep both hands clear of the blade's path, and never reach under a board you're cutting. Support long boards on both sides of the cut so the blade doesn't pinch.3Call 811 and check the spot
At least 3 working days before you dig, call 811 (or use call811.com). It's free. They send people to paint or flag buried gas, electric, water and cable lines near where the patio will go.
Check your property line on your survey or plot plan, and ask your town about setbacks, easements and whether this needs a permit.
Pick ground that drains: not a low spot where puddles sit after rain, and not over a septic field.
STOP. Don't dig until the marks are down. Hitting a gas or power line can kill you and is expensive to repair.4Plan the height and the slope
A patio must slope so rain runs off: 1/4″ per foot, away from the house. Across 120″ that's a drop of 2 1/2″ from the house edge to the far edge.
The far edge finishes flush with the lawn so a mower runs over it. The house edge finishes 2 1/2″ higher.
At the house, the patio top must stay at least 2″ below any door sill and below the bottom of the siding and any weep holes in brick. If it can't, dig the whole patio lower, or ask a landscaper.
Everything under the pavers adds up to 7 3/8″: 4″ of compacted base, 1″ of sand and 2 3/8″ of paver. That's how deep you dig below the finished surface.
Look where the downspouts empty. Pipe them past the patio or turn them away from it; never let a downspout pour onto the pavers.
- Tip Pavers are heavy: a pallet weighs over a ton. Have them delivered and dropped as close to the patio as the truck can get without crossing the lawn.
✓ You know the finished height at the house edge, and it is 2 1/2″ above the far edge.
5Mark out a square rectangle
Hammer a stake at one corner of the patio. Measure 144″ along the long side and hammer a second stake. Tie mason's line tight between them, a few inches off the ground.
For the first square corner, use the 3-4-5 rule: from the first stake, mark 3 ft along the string. Run a tape 4 ft out roughly at 90°. Swing it until the 3 ft mark and the 4 ft point are exactly 5 ft apart. That direction is square: set a stake 120″ out along it.
Measure the last corner from the other two (144″ and 120″) and set the fourth stake. Run string around all four.
Measure both diagonals, corner to corner. Nudge the stakes until the two numbers match.
- Tip For bigger layouts use 6-8-10 instead of 3-4-5: the bigger the triangle, the more exact the corner.
- Tip Batter boards (two stakes with a crosspiece set 2 ft outside each corner) let you take the strings down to dig and put them back in exactly the same place.
✓ Sides are 144″ and 120″ and the diagonals match within 1/2″. Spray marking paint along the strings, then pull the stakes you're about to dig around.
6Set the height strings
Drive a stake 2 ft outside each corner, in line with the sides. Tie mason's line between them along both side edges (the ones running out from the house) and across the far edge.
At the house end, set the strings at the finished patio height. Hang a line level in the middle of each side string and slide the far end until the bubble is centred. Then lower the far end 2 1/2″: that's the slope.
Mark the string heights on the stakes with a pencil line, so you can put them back after digging.
- Tip Measure every depth from now on down from the strings, never from the lawn. The lawn isn't flat; the strings are exact.
✓ On each side string, the far end is 2 1/2″ lower than the house end. The strings are tight, with no sag.
7Dig out the patio
Spray a line 6″ outside the patio on every open side: the base runs past the pavers so the edge restraint has something solid to grip.
Strip the sod and dig everything inside that line to 7 3/8″ below the strings. Near the strings that's about 4 7/8″ below the lawn at the house edge and 7 3/8″ at the far edge. The bottom slopes the same as the finished patio.
That's about 84 cu ft of soil, over 35 wheelbarrow loads once it's loose. Decide where it goes first; a dumpster bag or a corner of the yard both work.
Tamp the bottom with the plate compactor, two passes. Soft spots that squish: dig them out and fill with base.
Roll landscape fabric over the whole bottom, overlapping strips 12″, and run it a few inches up the sides. It keeps the base from sinking into the soil.
- Tip Don't dig or compact wet clay. Wait two dry days after heavy rain: wet soil smears instead of packing.
✓ Measured from the strings every 3 ft, the bottom is 7 3/8″ down everywhere, within 1/2″, and firm.
STOP. Rent the plate compactor from a tool rental store; it weighs about 150 lb, so load it with a helper. Wear hearing protection and steel- or composite-toe boots.8Build the base in 2 layers
Spread paver base (crushed stone with stone dust) in layers no thicker than 2″: 2 layers to reach 4″. You need about 2 1/4 cubic yards, delivered.
Rake each layer to follow the slope, mist it until damp (not muddy), then run the plate compactor over it in overlapping passes, three passes per layer, the third crosswise to the first two.
Finish the top 3 3/8″ below the strings everywhere, within 1/4″. Check every 3 ft with a tape measure from the string. Scrape high spots, fill low ones with a little base and compact again.
- Tip The base is what holds the patio flat for 20 years. Sand can't fix a lumpy base: it only copies the lumps.
✓ Your boots leave no prints, a straight 2×4 shows no dips over 1/4″, and the base is 3 3/8″ below the strings everywhere.
9Screed the bedding sand
Lay two 1″ screed pipes on the base, running away from the house, about 6 ft apart, the first about 1 ft in from one side. Pour sand between them and spread it a little above the pipes.
Rest the screed board (A) on both pipes and pull it toward you in a side-to-side sawing motion. Fill low spots ahead of it and pull again. The result is exactly 1″ of loose, flat sand.
Slide the pipes out carefully, fill their grooves with sand and smooth them with a trowel. Move the pipes over and repeat.
Screed only what you'll cover with pavers today, and never step on screeded sand. Don't compact it: the pavers do that later.
- Tip Use coarse concrete sand, not fine play sand or stone dust: it drains, and it shifts just enough to bed the pavers.
- Tip If rain is coming, cover screeded sand with a tarp. Rain-pocked sand has to be screeded again.
✓ The sand is an even 1″ deep, flat, with no footprints or pipe grooves.
10Lay the pavers
Start in a corner along the house. Stretch two strings just above the sand along the two starting edges, square to each other by the 3-4-5 rule, so the first rows run dead straight.
Lay the first row tight along the starting edge, long sides along it, each paver pushed against the last.
Start the second row with a half paver, so its joints land in the middle of the pavers in the first row. Keep alternating: full, half, full, half.
Set each paver straight down: touch it to the one beside it and drop it. Don't slide it into place, or sand piles up in the joint.
Most pavers have small bumps on their sides that set the joint. Butt them together. Square-sided ones get a 1/16–1/8″ gap.
Work from the pavers you've laid, kneeling on a piece of plywood so you never stand on the sand. Every 3 rows, stretch a string along the joints and tap any wandering paver back in line with a rubber mallet.
Lay all the full pavers first. Leave the edge gaps for the next step.
- Tip Pull pavers from 3 or 4 pallets or bundles at once. Colours vary between batches, and mixing them avoids blotches.
✓ Joints run straight along a string, every paver sits flat and even with its neighbours (no lips you can feel with your hand), and the pattern repeats without mistakes.
11Cut the edge pavers
Expect roughly 24 cuts. Hold each paver over its gap, mark the cut with a crayon or pencil against a straight edge, and number it.
Cut with a rented wet saw (about $60 a day): a diamond blade with a stream of water over it. Or use a circular saw or angle grinder with a diamond masonry blade, with a helper spraying water on the cut.
No edge piece smaller than a third of a paver: it won't stay put. If one would be tiny, shift that row and cut two medium pieces instead.
Set the cut pieces cut-side out, against where the edging will go.
- Tip Let the saw do the work. Pushing a diamond blade hard overheats it and chips the paver.
✓ Every gap is filled with a piece that fits within 1/8″, and no piece is smaller than a third of a paver.
STOP. Cutting pavers makes silica dust, which scars your lungs for good. Always cut wet, outdoors, away from people and open windows, and wear an N95 or better respirator, safety glasses and hearing protection. Never use a wood blade.12Install the edge restraint
Lay the plastic edge restraint around every open edge, 32 ft in all, the upright lip pressed tight against the pavers and the flat flange on the base.
Drive a 10″ spike through the flange every 12″: about 32 spikes. On curves, snip the back of the flange so it bends, and spike every 8″.
Its top sits below the paver top, so soil and sod can cover it later.
- Tip Without edge restraint, pavers creep apart a little every year until the joints open and the sand washes out.
✓ Push hard on an edge paver with your foot: it doesn't move outward. Every spike is driven flush.
13Compact, then fill the joints with polymeric sand
Sweep the pavers clean. Run the plate compactor over them with a urethane pad or a piece of old carpet strapped under it, two passes, the second crosswise. This beds them into the sand and evens out small lips.
Pour polymeric sand on the dry pavers (3 bags) and sweep it into the joints from several directions. Run the compactor over once more to vibrate it down, then sweep in more until the joints are full to 1/8″ below the paver tops.
Blow every grain off the paver faces with a leaf blower held low. Any left on top hardens into a permanent haze.
Wet it exactly as the bag says, usually three light mistings on a shower setting a few minutes apart, until water stands in the joints for a moment.
Keep off it for 24 hours and put furniture on after 48.
- Tip Sweep the leftover soil back against the edging, tamp it and lay the sod so the lawn meets the pavers flush.
✓ Joints are full and firm when you scratch them after a day, and the paver faces are clean with no haze.
STOP. Pavers and joints must be bone dry before the polymeric sand goes on, with no rain forecast for 24 hours and temperatures above freezing (check the bag). Wet joints set too early and crumble.14Finish
Ease every sharp edge and corner with 120-grit sandpaper so nobody gets a splinter.
Sand all over with 180 grit, always along the grain (the direction the wood fibres run). Scratches across the grain show through stain.
Wipe off the dust with a barely damp rag and let it dry.
Paint, stain or a clear coat (water-based polyurethane is the easiest). Apply thin coats with the grain, let each dry fully, and sand lightly with 220 grit between coats.
Let it dry for the time on the can before using it.
- Tip Try your finish on a scrap of the same wood first: stain looks different on every board.
Conceptual layout, material estimate and assembly guide from the sizes you entered. Not engineering, not a building plan, not stamped or approved. Confirm measurements on site; follow local codes and product instructions; anchor tall pieces before use. Using this plan means you accept the Terms of Use.