drm
Silver Member
I finally remembered to document a project I completed this summer with pictures so I can share. After purchasing our house I put in a man door to access the garage. The garage is on the side of the house around from the kitchen and front doors and is the main way we enter. Originally I put in some stepping stones but they were a pain to shovel and it tended to be muddy around them. So after two years it was time to put in a proper walk and area for the garbage cans.
I used UniLock brand pavers since I have had good success with then in the past and I like the available patterns. They must have two dozen different pavers available and a lot of colors. This is phase 1 of a multiyear project that will be fairly extensive connecting our driveway/garage to our pool (an earlier project this year) and to our back porch and walkout basement with a patio/fire pit between them. Due to the total area that will be covered I opted to use a rather large paver. I like the undulated surface and weathered (nicked and chipped corners and edges) look to this pattern. The field pavers are Stonehenge with a soldier course of Brussels Block around the outside.
I made the walk a little over 6' wide to allow room for the tractor and to tie into the existing mulch bed. Since my tractor, bucket and box blade are 5' wide I felt this would be plenty. Oops, took out the drain pipe the second day of digging. I began by marking out the area to dig and running the BB scarifiers over to break up the sod and soil (see Excavation photo).
I attempted to dig down to firm soil. At the drive that depth was 6” down. I hit some very rocky dry clay and it was hard digging. Wanted to go at least 8” so that I could get a solid base capable of supporting the tractor. Got to clear the snow off and what do you think I am going to use. Towards the other end I ran into very wet silty clay with large sandstone shale rocks up to 24” wide. I had to go down 12” to get to anything resembling firm.
Compacted the excavation and filled in any areas that were low with 2A modified (crushed 1 ½” minus gravel with the fines). Built this up in 2 ½” lifts compacting each lift with a Stone SFP 3000 20”x24” plate compactor. This puppy is 200# and applies a 3,000# force. The “Base” pic is about the third lift prior to compacting.
I used 8 tons of gravel to bring the area up to the sand level. I was very carefull on the final lift to get the correct height and slope. Each lift compacted approximately ¾”
I then screeded a 1 ¼” layer of concrete sand for the setting base using 1” PVC pipe as a guide. Used 1 ½ tons of sand I believe. Finally after 6 days it was time to begin laying the pavers. It only took one day to place the pavers but moving and laying 6,500# of concrete was tiring. The 12x12 blocks weigh 32#. Good thing I had my helpers (pics below). Helper 2 moved most of the small rectangular blocks (7# each) onto the pallet himself.
I used UniLock brand pavers since I have had good success with then in the past and I like the available patterns. They must have two dozen different pavers available and a lot of colors. This is phase 1 of a multiyear project that will be fairly extensive connecting our driveway/garage to our pool (an earlier project this year) and to our back porch and walkout basement with a patio/fire pit between them. Due to the total area that will be covered I opted to use a rather large paver. I like the undulated surface and weathered (nicked and chipped corners and edges) look to this pattern. The field pavers are Stonehenge with a soldier course of Brussels Block around the outside.
I made the walk a little over 6' wide to allow room for the tractor and to tie into the existing mulch bed. Since my tractor, bucket and box blade are 5' wide I felt this would be plenty. Oops, took out the drain pipe the second day of digging. I began by marking out the area to dig and running the BB scarifiers over to break up the sod and soil (see Excavation photo).
I attempted to dig down to firm soil. At the drive that depth was 6” down. I hit some very rocky dry clay and it was hard digging. Wanted to go at least 8” so that I could get a solid base capable of supporting the tractor. Got to clear the snow off and what do you think I am going to use. Towards the other end I ran into very wet silty clay with large sandstone shale rocks up to 24” wide. I had to go down 12” to get to anything resembling firm.
Compacted the excavation and filled in any areas that were low with 2A modified (crushed 1 ½” minus gravel with the fines). Built this up in 2 ½” lifts compacting each lift with a Stone SFP 3000 20”x24” plate compactor. This puppy is 200# and applies a 3,000# force. The “Base” pic is about the third lift prior to compacting.
I used 8 tons of gravel to bring the area up to the sand level. I was very carefull on the final lift to get the correct height and slope. Each lift compacted approximately ¾”
I then screeded a 1 ¼” layer of concrete sand for the setting base using 1” PVC pipe as a guide. Used 1 ½ tons of sand I believe. Finally after 6 days it was time to begin laying the pavers. It only took one day to place the pavers but moving and laying 6,500# of concrete was tiring. The 12x12 blocks weigh 32#. Good thing I had my helpers (pics below). Helper 2 moved most of the small rectangular blocks (7# each) onto the pallet himself.
You sure are putting a very good base in with great compaction (tight lifts). Those pavers will be where you put them for many years. Most skimp on that and then wonder a few years (or less) later why things are moving. Solid ground, good base, and edge control is the only way to do it. 