How To Square, Screed & Lay a Paver Patio

how you doing everyone this video is going to show you how we Square it up leveled off screeded and laid this concrete paver patio I'm going to take you through my process follow it up with some tips and tricks and a little bit of entertainment along the way to start it off the pavers we're using are manufactured by TECO block the main pavers are called Blue 60 and the color tone is called Shale Gray the contrasting border pavers we're using are made by Unilock the style is called Treo and the color tone is called charcoal so the first thing we got to do here is level off our base Stone we have it close to height but we got to make a level so I'm using my screed rails or galvanized gas pipes you get these from Home Depot they're one and a quarter inch exterior by one inch interior and they're in 10 foot lengths so I'm just using that to gauge my my correct height any high spots I'm pulling material from and if there's any low spots I'm adding material to it for applications like this I don't need a laser or a string line to get my height proper I just need to use my screed rails start at the point where I'll be laying pavers first and from there I'll go one section of pipes at a time to get my base to the proper height all right we got our base layer spread out pretty good right now we're gonna have to uh plate compact this so we can settle it all in tight and then we're going to set up our screed rails okay so this paint line represents the wall we're going to build and it's going to pretty much make it a step up onto the walkway and Patio from the sidewalk about a five or six inch step that's going to go straight over in 90 in with matching the top of that uh overhang it's gonna go that way and that's going to bring us up to the height we need to keep this entire interior patio the same height we're a little short on stone for this area we're probably gonna need another half a yard or so tomorrow but from that pillar in our base level is exactly how we need it so we're going to use this plate compactor and just settle the the three-quarter into itself then you operate in the compactor nice Paul Paul if you're watching man thanks for the compact to hook up I appreciate it man foreign if you're a new viewer and you want to see how we got to where we are on this project there's a playlist Link in the description below and that takes you through our excavation and backfill and there's also a couple videos on how we built these pillars and sitting walls so check that out if you're interested but we use this three-quarter inch clean crushed stone otherwise known as open grade base for our base material and it only needs to be compacted in six inch lifts and that's about all the stone we have on this right now so we can bring the stone right up to the height where we need it to be level it off break it out and then compact it just once as compared to a dense grade system that needs to be compacted in two to three inch lifts so I'm setting this guideline in now for our main pavers and our border pavers we're going to start here along the edges of the sitting walls so that we don't have to make any Cuts along the sitting walls and then when we get to the house we can stop wherever it makes sense so that we don't have to make Cuts up against the house I'll explain all that stuff as we get going here in this project foreign bud ready to square this off all right so now while we got Ben holding it close to where it's going to be we're going to be checking two things we're going to be checking if all the Border pavers throughout are going to fit nicely inside this line with about a 3 8 a half inch Gap can actually probably go in a little bit more bunny all right a little more okay I want to check the squareness off the house now yes we got 142 and three quarter now let's go over here 143 Benny come out to your left just a little good all right so that's perfectly Square let's check where Benny is [Music] that is really freaking good 142 and a little less than three quarter again the outside [Music] we'll check it again now that we got it staked up see what it looks like and if we can trust it we can trust it 143. check the end 140 two and three quarter so that quarter inch uh variance can can come from even just a dip in the board against the house but within a half inch usually is is how particular I'll be with the square squareness of our string line because again foundations and the edges of the houses aren't always a true straight line but you want to get in within that quarter to half an inch window there to be square foreign [Music] we want this to be ever so slightly pitching that way and we're looking to pitch towards the walkway that's level slightly pitching that way a little bit less than an eighth of an inch but not level [Music] and that is exactly what we want there so when the bubble just touches the line on your level either side it's called a 1 8 pitch meaning it slopes 1 8 of an inch per foot or one inch per eight feet 1 8 of an inch pitch and that's good and that's good slightly pitched that way so these two pipes are good so here's a little trick if people have watched my channel before you might have seen it but the witness the width or height of most common levels is the same height or width of most common pavers so you can really use this as a guideline of what your height needs to be because these pipes the top is going to be the top of your bedding Stone in the bottom of your pavers so the laying your level on there is a perfect way to gauge Where You Are and that's what we're going to be doing with the string here this is going to be setting the string down so right where it needs to be at Just a Touch Above It oh it's an eighth that's an eighth I think I started with the level to make sure we're good like this right here needs to go down a little bit I think we're looking good bud all right the guys are setting me up with some trip Stone here if you don't know what chip stone is okay check out my channel because I explain it all the time but it's just a 3 8 crushed clean aggregate 3 8 inch or less and it allows for water to drain through it freely because there's no fines in it the fines in stone dust are the fine particles and sand is what holds on to water and prevents water from flowing it's really high right there definitely needs to come down definitely needs to come down all right just like a string there here we go you know I really can't say it enough about this backfill method the open grade base there's really not as many people out there that use it that I believe should but it really helps with the longevity of your project keeping water free from your base material so that it can drain into the subsoils is key it prevents heaving and sinking in the winter but it also keeps your pavers dry when pavers are sitting in moisture they deteriorate very quickly thank you once you finish screeding a section of pipes you can pull one out and then you fill that empty Channel with some chip Stone and trowel it off smooth and now I just wanted to mention how important it is to pick your starting point for laying pavers we're going to start in the corner of our sitting walls and pillars that way the way we lay the pavers out there won't be any Cuts up against either sitting walls making our job easier and we have a French drain installed up against the edge of the house so we're going to be able to stop our pavers where it makes sense along the house without making any Cuts we won't have any cuts on the outsides of these pavers here which makes a huge difference in your install what's up do you be able to work all day if I stood like this as long as you stay quiet I forget you there uh you can put it right here bud right up in that pile we're moving these pavers are good size they're pretty big but it does help things go fast foreign ERS you really want to get them hammered in make sure they're all nice and tight with each other [Music] thank you come on all right so a little basics of the random pattern we're going with here it's a three piece set you got the large rectangle here the square and then the small rectangle and we're laying it in a random pattern there's a few things we're looking out for and that is breaking up long joint lines making sure you don't stack too many of the same size pavers with each other and we're also looking to never have a four-way a four-way is when four pavers meet together actually they're on the pallet here you can see this would be a four-way on the corner of four pavers touch each other we try to never have that in any of our pavers paver patios or paper walkways it's very it stands out a lot and it's very cheap looking in our opinion big one foreign [Music] looking good see that Bond's broken and there's no four ways in any of this and there won't be that's the worst thing that I can see in a patio in my perspective is a four-way they really just don't look good to me and they stand out I can see them from a mile away thank you that's good [Music] foreign [Music] that's where I will stop for now so as you can see I left those two screed rails down the left side of the pavers so that I can add more screed rails onto that so when I set these new ones in I just have to get them to the correct height and I'll be good to go for another section good morning everyone back here again beautiful day it's about 70 degrees right now cloud cover Skies God's canopy and boy does it feel good to be under a canopy this job's full sun all day every day if there's no clouds so happy to see those Morning Drive Chad's grabbing us some more chip Stone because we're going to continue laying pavers what do you guys think about this techoblock blue 60. and the Unilock Trail charcoal it's really good really really good color uh combination in my opinion we got some more pipes set up so we want half of this patio area the first half of it we want to drain towards our French drain along the house and then as we get closer to the front door we're actually going to be switching our slope to pitch towards the the road and towards the side yard so over here we're pitching this way we've got slightly less than an eighth of a pitch [Applause] and then we're also an eighth of a slope her pitch whatever you guys want to call it I don't know what you guys call it it really causes something different pitch slope angle whatever whatever you're gonna call it we're sloping towards that way and this right here is about half of the patio we're out a little bit less than an eighth of a pitch towards our drain once again but when we get to the end of our patio here this is where you can change the slope we got our eighth going the other way now and what that's going to do is Vegas or not all the surface water is coming in One Direction we can divert half of the surface water to our drain and then the other half of the surface water will naturally just go off into the road or into the side yard here and just kind of helps helps to uh distribute the water a little bit better in my mind morning bud hey how you living it's a nice day today that's for sure nice day nice car Benny I'll tell you what Bro you've never owned a car that fit your personality better than this one dude oh yeah what do you think I guess I just don't know myself [Music] [Applause] [Music] thank you [Music] bro you remember that time we got the load of Chip stone with like three wheelbarrows of River Rock in it bro I do remember that literally I've never sent a load of chipstone back that was the day there's no way we were using that dude yeah that was when we were working with Mike right yep it was in Big Red got it yeah dude I was like there's absolutely no chance dude you wouldn't get six inches without pulling out six rocks dude yeah all right so I want to be able to pull these pipes out and lay this whole area and for us to be able to keep our grade right I'm gonna put a temporary screed rail in it actually might be the way we screwed we might switch and start screeding this way after so I'm going to set a pipe in going this way that meets these two just right it's like I was showing you before we'll switch to our slope this way now so how we're going to put this in is we're gonna use our level this way let's see where a little a little high right now so we're just gonna set it down [Applause] all right there's our eighth of a pitch that way and this is lined up with the height of both of these pipes which is what we discreeted at so now that this is here we can pull those two pipes out [Music] thank you [Music] thank you [Music] [Music] and he's got itself spraying water system set up for his cut this little pump sprayer we bought actually has a little lock on it so you can squirt the water I hit the blade as you cut and you got to fix that nozzle so it shoots there it is Imagine That dude that pump spray is meant to yeah to be able to just set that up like that and just shoot it right at your blade dude come over here do it by yourself [Music] [Music] [Applause] all right laughs [Applause] [Music] 100 bucks goes out to any viewer who can find a four-way other than the Border in this patio that's the number one key to a really nice random looking lay pattern no four ways and no really long joint lines um you got to point it out first before you get your money where no 100 for you then you'd have to do that without me knowing and then even if you did those things stick out to me like a sore thumb I'd find it and then switch it and then if it's in the video I'll edit it out okay so now that we got the pavers laid up to where we wanted to stop on the joint line so we don't have to make any Cuts Benny's laying the Border pavers in higher than the main pavers and he's going to use his dead blow hammer to set the Border pavers into place at the correct height this helps with preventing the Border pavers from sinking in the future and in the next video you guys are going to see how we hold these pavers back we install concrete along the edge of our border pavers and that's going to wrap it up for this video we're going to finish this patio and install the step up around the walkway and the edge of the patio with concrete blocks in the next video and I'll take you through all the process that we go through to make that happen but I hope you guys enjoyed this video let me know in the comments below what you think of the materials let me know if you learned anything from the video if you're a do-it-yourselfer or you're just a regular viewer of the channel that enjoys watching this work I appreciate you guys support and I always appreciate the comments so hit me up with whatever kind of feedback that you want and you guys know the deal until the next video God bless peace thank you [Music]

Channel: The Christian Hardscaper

Views: 1,471,357

Keywords: how to screed for a paver patio, how to lay concrete pavers, how to screed, how to install a paver patio, laying concrete pavers, how to screed for concrete pavers, screeding for concrete pavers, how to lay pavers, how to lay a paver patio, how to square off a paver patio, how to screed for pavers, diy paver patio, how to build a paver patio, techo bloc blu 60 paver patio, techo bloc paver patio, techo bloc patio, screeding a patio, screeding for pavers, laying pavers

Id: JJvIb05mmGw

Length: 29min 12sec (1752 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 19 2023