Show Page 14 Salina Sun Spring Supplement April 25 2001 Gunnison Valley News Concrete Pavers are new wave in home outdoor decor Decks Porches and Patios: Paver Patios & Walkways Using concrete pavers for patios sidewalks and driveways is becoming more and more popular in the United States Here are the steps to follow to get a solid paver project: ‘Choosing a Design ‘Excavating ‘Preparing for the Base Mate- rial ‘Compacting the Base Mate- rial ‘Installing Edge Restraint ‘Sand Layer ‘Setting the Pavers ‘Tamping the Pavers Before you start a paver project call your utility company and have all the underground pipes and wires marked Choosing a Design One of the great things about pavers is that they come in a variety of shapes sizes and colors This gives you many different options for your design Excavating First you need to stake out the are o your project You can do this with stakes and strings You'll probably have grass that needs to be removed You can do this pretty easily with a sod cutter Then you need to dig down to a point where you want your base to start For this patio project we dug down seven inches That was to allow for a base a layer of sand and the pavers The digging process you use is called skimming This is where you try not to disturb the dirt at the bottom but just skim the top If you have loose dirt at the bottom it'll settle and you might end up with a dip in the patio For our patio we also slopped the base away from the house one inch for every four feet This will help drainage You can do this work by hand but if you have a large area you might want to consider having a subcontractor do the work with a Bobcat Preparing for the Base Material Once your excavation for the base material Mark along side the house the height for the base material Make sure this line extends beyond the house so you can still see it when it gets covered up with base ma- ready terial Before spreading out the main load of base material it's a good idea to put down what's called "geotextile fabric" This will help hold up the base and pavers if there's any movement in the soil under the fabricThe fabric should go up the side of the excavation and run a little bit up the side of the house this will help protect the siding Compacting the Base Material The base material we used was a crushed limestone called "class two" In some areas it's called r minus" AB3 Granular type 2 or 21 A The base material needs to be moist One way you can tell is to pick up a handful and squeeze it If it holds together in a solid clump it's just right IS SptIH0ime Come to Rasmussen’s Hardware for is all flat and at the slope you want you're tA & Find the line Mark off directions center point of end the an equal length in both Using two tape measures start at the two outside points and cross the two tape measures Pivot the tape measures until they cross at die same measure- ment You rental can get compactor at store — you need a 4 or a a compactor Anything less won't do the job It works best to put down only half of the base material at a time and compact it after each layer In our case two layers compacted down to the four inches of base we needed the Keep compactor running at full throttle If you slow it down even a little you reduce the effect a lot Let the machine pull itself forward you shouldn't have to push it to make it move First run the compactor around the edges of the area twice Then start on the low side and work across the grade moving uphill Then change directions 90 degrees and start going up and down Next do a diagonal pass Then repeat the whole process again If there are areas you can't reach with the big compactor you'll have to compact them by hand One way is to use the end of a sledge hammer After compacting each layer check for flatness and for the proper grade You'll probably have to do some scraping filling and more compacting to fine tune everything Installing Edge Restraint Before installing your edge restraint you need to figure out your end line for the patio and a center reference line To draw the end line we measure out from the house the length of the patio on both sides Then we snap a chalk line between the two marks to give us the bottom of the patio Now we need to draw a line perpendicular to this end line Here's one way to do this: Snap a chalkline from the center mark to the point where the tapes crossed Mark the ends of this perpendicular line on the edge restraint and the house so you can resnap them when they get covered up with sand For our paver project we used a PVC edge restraint that's de- signed specifically for interlocking pavers We joined the sections with a con- nector pipe and used spikes to hold the edging in place Sometimes it works best to put in all the edging In our right away (See Pavers on Page Xi me1 Ace Value s Pavers Staning at 590 Trees $1999 Bushes $1499 Best Value Seed Bulk Seed Country Fish Seed Fertilizer Hand Tools Sprinkler Parts Hoses Seed Power Tools Gloves & Much More! X Rasmussen’s Ace Check with us and compare! We carry Top Quality Parts at Discount Prices! Shop & Compare! Be sure to sign up for our lawnmower giveaway! HIM if nW Hardware 435 S Main Gunnison 3 Gunnison Implement 62 South Main Gunnison 528-727- 1 15) |