5 Ways Cutting Pavers is Easily Completed

what's happening hardscapers today we're going to be talking about five ways you can cut pavers let's get into this now these are five ways to cut pavers can be applied to whether you are DIY doing your own patio or starting out as a contractor trying to figure out which ways you're going to pursue to cut certain applications we'll also throw retaining walls into this different applications to use when cutting retaining wall and I thought it reasonable that we're doing a cutting video that throughout this video will play a song in the background that I'll have to speak over top of I'm just kidding the first one is the most inefficient and most high-consuming to do this it's going to be tiresome as well and this is actually using a hammer and chisel to Chisel that paver or retaining wall you can see in our video we are hammering and chiseling a wall unit and that's because we want to get that rock face from that wall unit to be used as a corner piece so you'll see us chiseling wall units but there is a more efficient way to do this as well that being said hammering chiseling you would just need a about a three pound hammer and a pulled chisel it's going to be less costly for you because you just need a hammer and a chisel it's going to be about 20 bucks and you would just move around that paver unit or that wall unit and slowly score it and then start to get harder and harder with your hits on that chisel eventually what's going to happen is that piece is going to fall right off and it's going to expose a rough rock face to it and like I said that's good for retaining wall units that have corners but it's not so good with pavers where that rock face might protrude a little bit and not be completely perpendicular to the face of that paver in that sense you're gonna have to Chisel more to get that off and then you finally have a piece that you can use but if you're off slightly with one of your hits especially on the top of that paper which is going to be showing that chisel Mark is going to show and like I said this is the most inefficient and time-consuming way to go about this a step up from this would be using a guillotine and this is a metal Guillotine that allows you to move it up and then put the unit underneath lining it up with the blade where it comes down and puts pressure on that wall unit or on that paver to then split it if you're opting between chiseling or using a guillotine I would opt for the guillotine because it does give you a nice perpendicular rock face for the most part it's also less time consuming it's a bit more efficient and it's definitely the way we go when it comes to rock facing retaining walls or in this case coping units now the positives with using a guillotine or with using a hammer and chisel is that there is barely any dust in the process of doing this when you get into cutting concrete pavers or retaining wall blocks there's going to be dust flying around everywhere or you can cut wet and reduce that dust but when you're using a guillotine or you are hammering and chiseling there's going to be barely any dust which is a positive additionally with Guillotine this is going to probably require you to rent it if you're DIY or invest into one if you are getting into hardscaping so the investment is a little bit more than just a hammer and chisel and the results are fairly Sim similar but you will be more efficient with the guillotine the next step up from this is using an angle grinder and I've never used an angle grinder for a lot of cuts I use it for those detailed cuts and shaving down pavers if need be but I've always got one on hand this is like a four inch angle grinder but you can get them up to about nine inches or so like I said I would never use an angle grinder for a lot of cuts these would just be for detailed Cuts I think cutting around objects like a downspout or certain conduit lines that are also coming down from the house using an angle grinder is going to allow you to get more detailed with those cuts to get the perfect cut additionally when you're cutting the smaller the blade the tighter the radius you can follow with your blade so if you need a very tight radius cut an angle grinder is going to provide you the best option to get that tight radius when it comes to cutting pavers as opposed to hammering and chiseling or using Guillotine using an angle grinder is the most inefficient and it also require you to be on your knees when you're cutting or to be really hunched over written using your back to cut those favors also angle grinders don't come with a hose hookup so that dust is going to be flying everywhere that being said I've always got an angle grinder on me just in case for those detailed cuts and the next option would be a demo saw and every hardscaper is going to have one of these and if you're a DIY you can easily rent one from your local shop if you've never used one before it does take some getting used to and learning a few safety tips with this will help you in the long run you can usually get a 12 14 or 16 inch demo side plus there's many more sizes to go along with that you can also get a little tiny battery operated ones that are about nine inches so really that can replace your angle grinder for the most part the best part about a demo saw especially for cutting pavers is that you can cut the pavers in place so you're not marking cut picking it up taking it over to your cut area and then cutting it you can mark your entire curve or straight cuts with a chalk line or a soapstone and be able to follow that line with your demo saw it is the the most efficient way to cut pavers by far and that's why most hard tapers are going to have a demo saw on them at all times and then a good part about having a demo saw is that most of them actually have a water hookup to them so you can cut wet or you can cut dry we'll talk about that at the end of the video here the downside to demo size is they're more expensive than anything else that we've already talked about here on the list though they're easily accessible to rent and I recommend to rent if you're just doing a one-off project there but definitely an investment into a demo size worthwhile the downside to a demo shot would be that they're heavy at least heavier than the other options that we've already talked about on this list and that would be the only downside that comes to mind here and then the final method to cutting pavers or retaining wall block would be a table saw and personally I have an IQ power tools table saw it cuts down the dust with its integrated vacuum system so we can cut dry with it you don't cut wet with it but that dry cutting is going to vacuum away all the dust collected and you can dispose of it it's extremely effective in being able to collect that us and we really love our IQ saw now we won't use IQ saws for many paver Cuts as we'll likely opt for our demo saw in that case but we will use our IQ saw for any coping Cuts or any retaining wall block Cuts that's because the main benefit to a table saw is that you get those perfect perpendicular Cuts prior to having a table saw I would be using my demo saw it has built-in wheels on it and I would set up my cuts on an actual skid and just wheel my way into that cut it worked fairly well but I just prefer the Perfection that comes with a table saw now most table saws besides IQ power tools do come with a water hookup so you can cut wet with them as well so that will also help in cutting down that dust the downside to table saws is that they're less portable than anything else that we've talked about on this list and they're likely the most expensive option than anything else on this list and because they're the least portable we'll offer a demo soft for paper cuts when we can cut in place and we'll use our table saw for those coping Cuts or for those retaining wall block cuts and finally we're just going to talk about cutting wet versus cutting dry the benefits and cons of both here cutting wet is ideal especially for the client that you're working on the project on or the neighbors because cutting dry will throw dust everywhere and it's a significant amount of dust that will be spewed everywhere so cutting wet cuts down on that dust it also protects our health as installers and it'll increase the longevity of your diamond blade as well as that water will cool down that blade and provide a little bit of lubrication to the blade as you're cutting being said the con to cutting wet is that there's slurry everywhere and what's slurry is is that dust mixed in with water and if it stays on the surface of your pavers it'll Harden it'll be a complete pain to get rid of if you're cutting wet you're going to want to cut and then rinse off the surrounding area as much as possible especially if you're cutting along a foundation or something important is behind you when you're cutting you're going to want to protect that with like a piece of plywood or something there because that slurry will spew out from behind your blade and attach onto anything and Harden like I said this is a major con to cutting wet and why most people don't like doing it not to mention you're likely going to get wet in the process cutting dry on the other hand saves you from that slurry mess and any other mess that slurry will cause you to have to clean up the problem with that is you've got another mess which is the dust that has flown around everywhere makes you look a little less professional also it's a health hazard if you're not wearing your dust mask and it will get everywhere so you're going to want to take a blower and blow everything off you can have dust all over your pavers and if water gets on that that becomes slurry and that will harden and cause a mess as well cutting dry though not ideal will save you in that mess and it's much more efficient and quicker however a lot of regions have a dust slot where you actually can't cut dry unless you've got a vacuum integrated system like the IQ power tools saw and those are our methods to cutting those are five ways that you can cut pavers retaining wall blocks or whatever you need if you want to learn more about cutting pavers or the installation of interlocking concrete pavement if course is available on our members only platform that's members.hatterheartscape.com link will be in the description below and in addition to that if you're a business owner along with that members only platform is a subscription to our project management software and the how to Hardscape headquarters which will help you budget estimate and so much more comment below anything else that you would want to add to this list any changes that you would recommend to anything that I've talked about here leave a comment in the comment section below as well as any questions that you have like this video if you found it helpful for whatever reason then subscribe to our YouTube channel for more hardscaping content like this thank you so much for watching

Channel: I Am a Hardscaper

Views: 48,785

Keywords: hardscape, hardscapes, hardscaping, hardscaper, hardscapers, installation, paver, pavers, paving stones, paving stone, contractor, contractors

Id: vJeUZJBB9m8

Length: 9min 55sec (595 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 03 2023