How To Build A Stepping Stone Path - Small Cost With Big Results!

how's it going you guys it's Scott with everyday home repairs and today I want to show you how to make a stepping stone path in your yard this is a super approachable project for most homeowners and for the cost you kind of get the most bang out of The Buck doing it this way compared to some of your other options like pouring a concrete sidewalk or laying down some kind of gravel path this is a great solution to get you a more defined walking path to a garden bed maybe a seating area along your landscape or like me from your driveway over to your deck now I need to run about 24 feet between my driveway and my deck and I'm going to be using simple pavers like the one behind me which are just a square about 20 inches by 20 inches but you can use this exact same application if you want something a little more natural or if you even want to go into the high-end like Flags down and get a really great look for your lawn so first up I'm just going to start laying out those pavers and get my pattern set and then we'll start insetting those into the lawn so just laying them out there's no pressure here you got time to move those around you're going to kind of be able to play with your pattern I'm just doing a simple Arc so it's not that complicated there's going to be 13 pavers and these are fairly large 20 by 20 inches and they weigh about 55 to 60 pounds per paver so they do have a little weight to them which can be a good thing from stability but also is a little bit to haul around so here is what the path looks like we have an arc all the way along but we do kind of get a little more aggressive with the Curve here at the end once we get close to The Landing Pad itself now what I really like about the paver stone type of project is you can get everything set in place you can really see your design see how it looks make changes make maybe you're making a winding pass so you're going to keep changing that around take some measurements making sure you are consistent with your spacing along the path and then making a final adjustments before we start actually cutting around these and then setting those flush with the ground surface which is what we're going to do right now starting with our first paver now if you're just doing a simple Square paver like this either a spade or an edger like this will help you cut perfectly around there obviously trying not to move the paver while you cut out that outline I'll show you an alternate method which is actually a little bit of a hack and if you have irregular flagstone it'll come in super handy then we'll just go ahead and take up the side you can take it up in one big piece or just multiple pieces I like to use a little tarp because I'll drag that side over and don't forget you can use that sod in other parts of your yard like that part there where you can see it's having trouble growing grass I can kind of transplant that right in that space as well to get the grass going then we'll clear things out and kind of measure up how deep this is the overall depth right here is about three inches and the depth of our paver is about two inches so that's great because now I can lay down some sand to give it a much better base nothing fancy here just basic paver sand and we'll level that out fill into the different corners and sometimes you'll have to do multiple different trials here and measure out to make sure you have the depth correct and that you have a nice solid foundation and no like teeter-tottering when you put the paver into space so once you're set you can flip that into space if you have a little bit of interference after you knock it around with the mallet then you can make adjustments taking a little material out of the corners and just adjust until you get that nice finish and you tap that and you have a nice secure Foundation under the paver now you probably have a good idea of what you want your pathway to look like now but this is not for everyone maybe you don't have enough time or baby it's just a little bit too much physical work that you're not prepared for I get it and I don't want to leave you behind I'll finish off this project but also below the video you'll see a link to a page that I put together which is going to help you estimate the cost if you hire this out so I'll look at different labor rates and then show you the material cost so you get a better idea if you're not going to do a DIY which we'll talk about that cost what are you looking like in terms of costs hiring that out then after looking at those costs if that's something you want to go forth with we are also getting a nationwide network of professionals to help you out so from that link we'll send you over you can select landscaper give a little more details on your project and then get rolling and get that accomplished and off your to-do list but if you are doing this DIY let's jump in and show how actually a Sawzall is pretty handy for cutting around each one of these pavers to get them inset into the ground now I just have a longer wood blade but obviously you don't need any specific blade here it can be rather dull I like to do a little bit of a sawing motion I let the blade do most the work but I saw it back and forth at a slight angle so it doesn't get caught up on things like dandelion roots and then you'll use that same Spade we'll work up that side again one piece or multiple pieces and then cut things down now depending on if you want your pavers to actually be level you should be getting your torpedo level out or something making sure all that Sands leveled up or like me if you're more following the Contour of the grass itself then you're not going to actually level up the pavers you're just going to follow the surface so I'll go ahead and continue to progress through this to give you an estimate on cost so I have 13 of these 20 inch by 20 inch pavers and I got about six bags of sand all in my material cost for this project is about 125 dollars so really not that bad at all now depending on if you get a lot fancier with your pavers that material cost could go up some multiple from there two times more three times more or even further and then from a Time perspective I averaged about 15 minutes per paver so if you add that out and the trip to Lowe's and a few breaks in between you're looking at for this 24 feet it's about a five hour job now for 125 it's kind of hard to beat the overall results it went pretty smoothly it is quite a bit of work and let me know down in the comments is this something you take on DIY or is this something you would prefer to hire out and get professional help only mistake I made is when you're hitting the pavers with the Mallet do be careful if you don't have your sand or your foundation level you could crack a paper so I did crack one paper and have to make a trip to Lowe's so I can get a replacement for that now if you guys want to take on another project outside check out this video right here and it's actually the ending point for this path just a small concrete pad here it's a landing pad for the stairs coming off the deck so thanks for joining me on this video and we'll catch you on the next one take care

Channel: Everyday Home Repairs

Views: 875,792

Keywords: stepping stone, paver in grass, digging a pathway, everyday home repairs

Id: bb2TW3WFfSM

Length: 7min 4sec (424 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 29 2023