6 Pro Tips to Keep in Mind When Building Your Own Patio
By doing it yourself, you’re going to save a lot of money but what sort of result you end up with will depend on how much homework you do.
Don’t just watch a video on YouTube and then go outside and start throwing pavers on the ground! That can be dangerous, as you don’t want your family or children tripping over improperly placed pavers.
To help give you some more knowledge so you get a great end product, we put together this list of pro tips, so you get a patio that looks great and is safe!
Let’s begin:
Do be precise! We’ve all been there, you are doing a job and early on you notice that you’re off by a little bit maybe just a few millimeters, no big deal, right? Wrong! Just put yourself in your position when the job is done, and you’re looking at your pavers and they are all crooked. Let’s face it, you are going to be disappointed with yourself and you will have wished that you corrected the mis-alignments earlier. So, take your time, don’t be afraid to re-do sections in the beginning, and this way you’ll end up with a much better-looking patio.DON’T force pavers together if they don’t fit. For one thing, it is going to look weird, because ALL pavers have some margin between them (about a quarter of an inch), therefore pavers should never actually be touching, and so, you should never need to smash them in so they fit.
Do use paver edging. Do you know what happens when you lay pavers? Bit by bit, year by year they move outward, creating large gaps, grass grows in, people trip, and it is just a bad show all around. In order to combat this, you have to put a barrier on the outside of your paved area. This is called edging, and it can be done in a few different ways, visible and invisible. If you’re going to the trouble of doing your own patio, take the extra step to get edge restraints put in so your patio lasts and doesn’t have to get re-done.
DON’T neglect to use paver sand! At first glance it looks like you’re all done! You laid the base, you laid the pavers, you even did edge restraints! It looks like you’re all done but there is another step, and that is adding sand between all the pavers. This allows the pavers to be fixed in their position and not move around over time.
Do think in terms of decades. Paved patios can last over a hundred years if don’t correctly. That is a long time! Because it only needs to be done ONCE, when you do yours, make sure you do it right from the beginning. For example, if you are also planning a home addition or a pool down the road, take that into consideration so that when you build your paved patio, there is space for your future projects, otherwise you may have to tear out your patio, which no one wants to do.
DON’T think small. You might be surprised to learn that one of the most common complaints with home owners when they get their new patio is: “wow, I thought it would be bigger”. Once you add a fire pit, a few Adirondack chairs, you’d be amazed to see how much patio space gets used up! Therefore, when you get YOUR patio built, always make it a bit bigger than you think you’ll need. For instance, if you know you want a pergola down the road, make the patio big enough to accommodate that, or any other outdoor living structure.
Summary
That wraps up our DIY Pro Tips on laying your own patio. We hope you found it helpful!During this hardscaping adventure, if you get stuck and give up, we want you to know that PVM Pavers is here for you and we’d gladly come out, take over and build you a space you’ll love, at a price you can afford.
Just give us a call: (800) 495-0148