My husband and I recently moved into a new home (well, in September). Since we haven’t been in our home for a full year yet, we are excited to get started on summer projects around our home and begin making it more of our own. I have always loved being outdoors and doing projects over the summer. One of the things we want to do at our new home is landscape one section of our backyard to be suitable for a firepit, surrounded by paving stones and decorative stonework so that we can enjoy campfires in our evening. However, neither of us know much about properly landscaping a yard so that it is suitable for paving stones that will withstand the prairie weather for years to come.
For my learning project in EC&I 831, I intend to learn the process of installing paving stones to go around our backyard campfire. From my initial research, this will entail several important steps over the course of the next few weeks:
- proper measuring and grading
- prepping the area
- creating the base
- leveling the top layer
- laying the pavers
- edge restraints (if necessary – we are still deciding)
- tamping, and
- sealing the paving stones.
I plan to learn and complete 1 to 2 steps of this process each week, with the hopes of having the project finished by Sunday, June 18th. I’m excited to begin working on this project but hope I haven’t bitten off more than I can chew. If anyone has any advice/tips about landscaping and laying paving stones, I’d love any suggestions along the way.
Here are a few pictures of the current layout of the spot where the firepit and paving stones will be going (and one of my dog, Belle, wondering what I am doing):
This sounds like a cool project, Mike! I wouldn’t have thought that laying paving stones would entail so many steps, but that is usually the nature of the beast in any do-it-yourself project – haha! I’m sure you will enjoy all of your hard work when your backyard is looking in tip-top shape this summer!