The Patio Beginnings - July 28 to July 30, 2014

Pavers Arrive

Skreeting Sand

Laying the Pavers

Monday, July 28, 2014

Pavers and sand arrived around 11am.  Right at the start of the hottest part of the day.  As you can see we have 3 palettes of pavers and more sand than we ordered.  Soon after we skreeted the first section of sand and laying the first soldier course (course that surrounds the patio) and a row of pavers Bruce realized that there weren't enough of the middle size. The pavers are 12 X 12, 9 X 12 and 6 X 12.  Figuring close to the same amount of each on a palette he had laid out the design.  While he moved more pavers; trying to get down to more of the 9 X 12s, I called Prime Masonry.  Turns out the pavers come 60/40/60 respectively on each palette. Back to the drawing board.   After a 15 minute rework of the design - got to love a man who knows his way around an excel spreadsheet - we got back to work.  At the end of Monday this is how many we had gotten in.  The colors are deceptive because of all the dirt on them.  The narrow trench is where the skreeting pipe had been. Since the sand is 1" deep.  We lay out to 1" pipes about 5 feet apart.  Using a board Bruce can pull the sand smooth.  Can only do a length of 8 feet before moving the pipes down to do the rest. The patio size is 19 X 19.  In a later picture you can see where one of the pipes is still buried in the sand near the edge of the sand.

Tuesday, July 29:  By noon we had this much more finished.  At this moment, Bruce is out moving pavers to the back.   Walking back and forth in the shade seems better to him then working out there in the sun.  We may wait till 4 to start skreeting and laying again.  It's a slow process.  You don't want to leave skreeted sand over night....there's always cat prints in it in the morning and other "gifts".   The pattern below is where we are when we stopped at noon.   The first quarter of this pattern is on the previous page..finished.  All the red squiggled out lines are ones we've put in.  It's a  mind game keeping track.  Even though it's color coded, you can't do all one color at a time.   At the end of the day Bruce moved a pile of pavers so we'll be all set for in the morning. --> 

Wednesday, July 30
Started at 8:30 this morning and got the rest of the sand in and skreeted.  Still a huge pile left. Guess someone is going to be getting a sand box built for them!  It's 10:30 now and Bruce is moving the last of the pavers from the front to the back.  The heat and lifting are taking it's toll on him.  Wish I was more of a help to him.  He's bound and determined to get them all laid today. We won't have shade again until 4 this afternoon.  You can see how much sand is left over in the picture to the right. -->

At 11:25 the last paver went in.  YEA!  Bruce said his legs will never be the same.  Hoping we'll take the rest of the day off (knowing him, that's unlikely).  Still have to put the polymeric sand in and rent the compactor again.  Only had one small and one medium paver left over.  Had to use one chipped large paver, but that will be under a stone "table" Bruce plans to build.

Patio from the sliding door.