How to install PORCELAIN PAVERS // BACKYARD PATIO MAKEOVER DIY!

what's going on everybody i'm johnny brooke welcome back to another crafty workshop video and welcome back to part number two i guess of this kind of backyard patio project so in this video i'm going to show you how i installed all of these porcelain pavers which really finished off this patio area i think it looks awesome i learned a ton and hopefully you guys will pick up some knowledge here too also i want to say a big shout out to craftsman who is the sponsor of this week's video stick around to learn more about their v20 lawn and garden tools a little bit later in this video all right without further ado let's go and get started the first step in a typical paver project would be to get your sub base prepped but our situation was a little different here since we had already filled and compacted this whole area with compacting base material while building our retaining wall and if you want to see more on how we did all of that definitely go check out that video before continuing on with this one and if you're starting from scratch i'd also recommend checking out a video by my buddy mike from modern builds where he covers the process of digging out the area where your patio will be and removing any roots grass or other organic material that might cause settling down the line anyway since we had our base close to where it needed to be we could start getting prepped for adding the pavers but before we did that we had another item on the checklist that we needed to work on so as you might have seen in the previous video i added these awesome outdoor speakers around our patio area so that we could be surrounded by music while hanging out in our backyard and before covering up this whole area with the pavers and gravel i needed to go ahead and get the speakers wired and make sure everything was working as expected so once i have these cherry bomb speakers which are made by acoustics and mse audio wired up i can connect the lead to the amp inside the house and fire them up for the first time and man do they sound great so these speakers are wired as part of a 70 volt system which powers all of the speakers equally so the volume is matched between the three speakers and this amp which is also made by mse audio mixes everything to a mono signal so the signal is the same coming out of each speaker pretty cool once i had the speakers working i could go ahead and get back to prepping for the pavers starting by laying down some landscaping fabric and this fabric will do a few things here first it'll keep any weeds from growing up in our patio and fire pit area and second the fabric will keep sand and other fines from filtering down into the gravel that's against the back of the retaining wall which could eventually clog our drain pipe and lead to failure of the retaining wall to install the fabric we just rolled it out and tacked it in place with landscape stakes making sure to overlap the seams between the rows by a few inches we also left some excess at the ends of the run so that we could cut the fabric away later after adding our sand so this fire pit area won't have any pavers and will just be gravel so we could go ahead and spread some of the gravel in that area to get it covered up also burying the bottom part of that cherry bomb speaker while we're at it next we could start fine tuning the height of the base material before adding the final layer of sand using some of this bagged paver base and i used a rotary laser and grade rod to check this measurement as we spread the base material so this dewalt rotary laser also allowed us to set our slope since these pavers needed to be sloped for drainage and we decided to slope the pavers in two different sections from the center of the patio as otherwise one end of the pavers would have been much higher than our retaining wall cap blocks if you're building your patio against your house you could just slope all your pavers in one direction away from your house to keep water from building up around your house and causing foundation issues next we screeded and compacted that section of paver base and then we could repeat the process on the other half of the patio and i needed to change the slope setting on the rotary laser first so the laser was tilted in the opposite direction from the first half of the patio and then we could set our screed rails and these screed rails were just links of three quarter inch emt conduit in our case which is a great inexpensive option and we could set their position using the grade rod so we'd know how much base material we needed to add we actually barely needed to add any material in this area and actually had to dig down below the landscape fabric to set some of the screed rails we repeated the process moving one of the screed rails to finish that half of the patio and then i ran the plate compactor over the entire patio area to make sure everything was nice and solid also if you don't own a rotary laser or plate compactor you can rent both of these tools for projects like this and i was lucky enough to be able to borrow these tools from a contractor buddy of mine eric perkins and while i definitely wouldn't have wanted to do a patio project this large relying only on string lines and line levels you definitely could do it that way if you don't have another option once that was done we had our base layer dealt with and now we could repeat the entire process all over again to get our final layer of sand added and this multi-layer base system is what's recommended by atlas concord who's the manufacturer of these porcelain pavers and there are other methods for laying porcelain pavers including using a mortar bed but this dry laying method seemed the most straightforward as a diy project anyway once again we set our screen rails in place using the rotary laser and then filled the area with paver sand before screening it smooth and the one big difference here versus when you're installing concrete pavers is that we needed to pre-compact our sand layer and then screed it again before installing the porcelain pavers and the reason for this is because you aren't supposed to run a plate compactor on top of porcelain pavers which you can do with concrete pavers so you're really not able to compact porcelain pavers nearly as much after they're installed once we had the sand added to the first half of the patio we could remove the screed rails and fill in those voids left by the rails with a little bit more sand and there's something oddly satisfying about this process and it was actually a lot easier than i expected just using a trowel with that our base layers were ready to go on this first half of the patio so we could finally get to laying some pavers and first we went ahead and got some string lines set up for reference so as you can see there will be a perimeter of gravel between the porcelain pavers and the retaining wall cap blocks and this not only gave us a little buffer for installation but also gave us an area to install the paver edging which you'll see a little later and i designed this entire patio layout so we wouldn't have to cut any of the pavers and this made the installation process a lot simpler after setting the first two string lines we used the 345 method to double check that our string lines were square and once that was done i could get the first paver dropped in place and this was really a pretty huge moment considering how many weeks of work had led up to this moment after setting the paver in place i adjusted its position to line up perfectly with the string lines and then checked it for level although it obviously wouldn't be level in the direction it was being sloped for drainage i made any adjustments with a dead blow mallet which also helped to set the paver into the bed of sand slightly and then i could get the second paper added this was pretty much the same process lining it up with the string line but i also needed to add some quarter inch spacers between the pavers to leave room for the polymeric sand which i used to fill the joints after adding the papers from there i continued on down the line laying more pavers by hand but very quickly i realized there had to be a better tool for this job and as it turns out there was so i was able to rent one of these vacuum lifters which hooks up to a standard air compressor and allows you to lift and place these tiles much more accurately and if you're going to be installing large format porcelain pavers like this which caulk in at about 35 pounds each i would highly highly recommend trying to find one of these as it was a total game changer in this process of laying the pavers and allowed me to be a lot more accurate with the vacuum lifter in action we were able to get in a really good rhythm laying these pavers and had a pretty large section of them laid in no time and we were running out of time on day one and wanted to make sure these pavers were really locked in place so we went ahead and added some of this paver edging to wrap up the day this was a pretty simple process of removing the excess sand from the edges with a trowel placing the edges up against the edge of the pavers and then pounding in the stakes with a hammer to hold the edging in place we repeated the process around the other two sides and that's where we called it a wrap for day one and i came back to a bit of a mess on day two so of course it's springtime here which means tons of pollen and other crap fallen from trees but thankfully this was an easy fix with this v20 electric leaf blower made by craftsman who is the sponsor of this week's video so as you'll see this leaf blower was really one of the mvps of this whole paper project and was plenty powerful enough to clear off the patio and the best part is that it runs on the same v20 system which i use on all of my other craftsman cordless power tools in fact craftsman has a whole line of v20 lawn and garden tools including a lawnmower string trimmer hedge trimmer and multiple chainsaw options all of which use these same v20 batteries so if you're looking to upgrade to battery-powered lawn and garden tools this season check out the links to all of the craftsman tools i used in this video all of which are available on amazon in the video description below and big thanks to craftsman for sponsoring this video anyway after clearing off the patio area my father-in-law came over for day two to help me with wrapping up installing the rest of the pavers and we started by getting the bed of sand added to the other half of the patio once that was done things started to get a little tricky as we had to figure out how we were gonna have these two sections of pavers which would be sloped in two different directions meet up in the middle and after racking my brain i figured the best thing to do would be to have the center row of favors kind of bridge that difference so after screening the other half of favors we started working on getting the bed of sand added for the center row and we started by adding sand to roughly the level we need it and i used a two foot craftsman level to help me get this area roughed in and then i hand compacted that first section since i didn't want to risk the plate compactor bumping into the already set pavers to screed this area i came up with what i thought was a pretty clever solution notching one end of a straight board so that it could ride along the already set pavers and using that level resting on this board to screed this section to notch the board i used my perhaps my jigsaw and just made sure to make the notch sections long enough so i could use this board between two tiles which you'll see a little later once i had a large enough section for two more pavers screeded we went ahead and continued on setting more pavers and i could also check the center row for level in both directions since it wasn't sloped we continued working our way towards the other end of the patio using those tile spacers to keep our spacing consistent and one thing i wish i would have known before this project is that there are actually specialty spacers designed for this type of paver installation these spacers are actually permanently installed below the paver which would have made my life a lot easier as these tile spacers had the tendency to pop out of place when i was making any adjustments with the dead blue mallet anyway we laid as many papers as we had sand base for and then we could get the last section of sand screeded and compacted where the pavers transitioned to gravel for the fire pit area once that was done i continued laying more pavers but i didn't lay pavers in that center row quite yet leaving that area for last so again i wanted that center row to help blend that transition between the two slopes and to accomplish this i've once again pulled out my custom screed board which i could reference off of the edges of the pavers i had already laid and this actually worked surprisingly well except for the fact that it turned out that that last kind of peninsula of pavers i had already laid were a little bit out of layout with the rest of the patio and rather than try to adjust those pavers i just moved them to the center row which was really only doable since i had that vacuum lifter and then i worked my way back to that area once i had a better reference point with all the spacers added and with that all of the pavers were in place and the last thing we did to wrap up day two was to finish adding the rest of that paper edging to keep everything locked in place and after that was done i could take a step back and admire our work which i've gotta say i'm pretty darn proud of considering i had never done this kind of hardscape project before also once again these porcelain papers are made by atlas concord and this color is called sea stone gray and i think they're gorgeous with this kind of blue stone look to them and i'll link to the specific pavers i used in case you're interested thankfully i still had a 24-hour window with no rain on day three so i really needed to get that polymeric sand added next first i went around and inspected everything tapping on all of the pavers with a dead blue mallet just to make sure they weren't wobbling around because they weren't set well enough and overall things were looking really good but i noticed that one paver in that center row was a little bit low thankfully with that vacuum lifter still rented this was a pretty simple fix as i could remove the paver add a little more sand screed it with my screed rail and then drop the paver back in place after fixing that paver i checked everything over one more time and then got all of those spacers removed so that i could start on the polymeric sand before adding the polymeric sand i needed to get the patio cleaned off really well making sure there wasn't anything in the joints between the pavers that would keep them from being filled with the sand of course because again spring there was a ton of stuff to remove so i again whipped out that mvp the craftsman blower and got things tidied up next i could finally get the polymeric sand added and in case you're not familiar with it polymeric sand is a mixture of sand and additives which harden once they're exposed to water this is why it's super important to check the weather before adding polymeric sand as the surface of the pavers need to be totally dry before adding the sand plus the sand will need time to cure after wetting it and this needed to be 24 hours in the case of the sand i used adding the sand is kind of similar to grouting tile and the joints between the pavers needed to be completely filled with it and the best way to do this was to sweep the sand into the joints making sure to sweep from multiple directions to evenly fill the joints after filling the joints with sand initially i came back and tapped on each of the pavers with a dead blow mallet to help the polymeric sand settle into the joints further and then i repeated the process of sweeping the sand into the joints and again if these had been concrete pavers i could have just run the plate compactor on top of them but that wasn't possible unless i had a specialty roller compactor which i couldn't find locally so i had to do this the hard way i repeated this process of sweeping and tapping the pavers a few times and then i needed to get all the excess sand off the surface of the patio once again i called on the craftsman leaf blower for this making sure to leave it on its lowest speed setting and run it pretty much parallel to the surface of the pavers to avoid removing too much sand and it's super important to get every little bit of sand off of the surface before watering as the polymeric sand will leave a haze similar to a grout haze on the pavers otherwise finally with the pavers as clean as i could get them i could water the sand making sure to set my nozzle to the shower setting to keep from washing the sand out of the joints and unlike concrete pavers these porcelain pavers don't absorb water so any excess water has the tendency to pool up on the surface and thankfully i could call on that leaf blower another time to move any of that water off the surface into the joints and then i let the pavers sit for a few minutes just to see how the water absorbed and it seemed like the sand was really pulling in the moisture so i repeated the process with another round of watering then i could step back and check out the pavers in all their glory with the sand added and they looked awesome thankfully the rain held out for about a day after adding the sand and then i could wrap up the patio by spreading the gravel which really helped tie everything together in case you're wondering this is just three quarter inch washed gravel sometimes called drainage gravel and while it's not really meant to be decorative i think it looks great against the retaining wall cap box and the porcelain pavers the last thing to do was to add a few items to fill out this area including this sweet new fire pit i just picked up from solo stove and this concept of a smokeless fire pit really appealed to me and i think the stainless steel looks great out here also man did this help make the space all the more awesome once i fired it up and with that after about two solid weeks of back breaking work i could officially call this patio and retaining wall project complete at least for now [Music] all right hopefully you guys enjoyed this one i am really really happy with the way this whole patio project came together we've already been using it almost every night since i finished it and it has just totally transformed our backyard so again if you guys want to learn more about those craftsman v20 tools i use throughout this video check out links to those down in the description below also want to say a huge shout out to all my supporters on patreon as well as my youtube members and last if it's your first time here why not go ahead and get subscribed and ring that little notification bell so you don't miss my future videos alright thanks for watching y'all and until next week happy building

Channel: Crafted Workshop

Views: 288,476

Keywords: porcelain pavers, porcelain pavers installation, porcelain pavers outdoor installation, porcelain pavers patio, crafted workshop, porcelain pavers vs bluestone, workshop, woodworking, diy, diy patio makeover, backyard makeover, patio ideas, do it yourself, backyard makeover 2020, outdoor living, backyard makeover time lapse, pavers installation, patio makeover diy, home improvement, backyard transformation, landscape design, how, diy patio makeover on a budget, Diy projects

Id: uhFN9aBCLWo

Length: 16min 59sec (1019 seconds)

Published: Sun May 23 2021