Build with Roman - How to Excavate and Prepare a Paver Patio Base

before you start digging in the dirt make sure you call a11 so nobody gets hurt a petiole is all set we figured all elevation all the lines are laid all the lines are sprayed and now we're ready to dig that was gonna use this shovel now we're gonna use this shovel okay it's time to go I hope you go with these in your garage if not you could rent one or you can always call a professional don't worry I'm a professional you're gonna want to dig down eight inches for your patio that leaves about three inches for your sand and pavers and six inches for your base rock that's going to give you nine inches of material than eight inches of excavation which leaves you one inch above great for proper drainage that's it we're done Hey look I didn't even get dirty use your hand shovel to square off your edges and corners while you're at it clean out your loose dirt and your debris after all your hard work this is what you get hey what are you building my rock well the rocks finally here at least we can start fresh in the morning our first load of rock is here for the first layer or lift all we're gonna do is just spread it out evenly and make sure it's smooth we're not going to worry about elevation yet before you do your compaction you might want to wander down your base first it helps with compaction it also cuts down on that dust this is a vibratory plate compactor we're gonna use this to compact our base wing compacting start the other edges work in them then make overlapping passes back and forth and at 45-degree angles both ways when you finish you should have a somewhat smooth but compacted first layer our first layer of rock is down and compacted now that our second layers here we're going to take their time and make sure that this one's perfect before your pile gets low make sure you save a wheelbarrow full of base rock to fill in some spots that you might have missed let me break this down for you after I shovel all my rock the first thing I'm gonna do is rake it smooth with this gravel rake after you rake your gravel as smooth as possible you're gonna take a piece of wood make sure it's nice and straight about six feet long and you're gonna spread it out in a crossing pattern once you smooth it all out with the small one break out the big one and make it even more smooth compact again start at the outer edges and work inward then start at the lowest elevation making overlapping passes back and forth and at 45-degree angles both ways after all the compaction is done we're gonna use this longboard to check for any high or low spots this is obviously a low spot can you see the sunlight coming through the bottom not good now remember you only got one chance to make this perfect so take your time after raking your high spots into your low spots you may find you still have low spots if so use your board as a guide spray paint marks on both sides of any of the low spots do this along every foot of your base now you're going to connect the dots to define the area of your low spots in our case we get a low spot in the middle and it's fairly common it's a good thing we saved this will barely Rock we're just going to fill it in and then screed it off now that we filled our low spots on the rock we're just going to scree it level already plate compactor is gone gonna have to hand tamp this one once you've raked your high spots into low low spots are filled everything is compacted the grade has been double-checked and triple-checked you're finished when you don't see any sunlight coming from under that board we've graded and compacted and graded and compacted and we've double-checked everything a thousand times the next time you see me we're going to be laying pavers

Channel: Romanstone Hardscapes

Views: 192,921

Keywords: Roman Stone, Romanstone, Hardscape, Hardscaping, How to, DIY, landscaping

Id: KlWWFO0jRyo

Length: 6min 1sec (361 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 08 2016