The last four days have been a whirlwind in Patio Land (not to be confused with Temptation Island). The good news: the patio is nearly finished—about 90% done. I’m a little low on energy right now and we’re waiting for better light to photograph the final results, so I’ll summarize the four-day patio push now and save the final photos and finishing details for a later post.
To recap, the area had already been marked, leveled, and dug out before we started this stretch of work.
On Tuesday our delivery arrived on a flatbed—a nearly 10-ton pile of materials for a roughly 300 square foot patio. Aside from a brief delay when the forklift developed a flat tire, everything made it into the carport in one piece: three large bags of fill gravel, one big bag of sand, and three pallets of cobblestone pavers (two pallets of rectangular pavers and one of square).
We chose a paver called CottageStone from a local manufacturer. The color is a gray tone called “Jefferson,” which matched the gray cobblestones already in our driveway and kept the overall look cohesive. Cost was an important factor: this local paver turned out to be the most affordable option we found. But rather than focus on design choices and pricing, here I’ll walk through the physical work.
Wednesday was rained out, so Thursday was my first full work day. Following guidance from a reliable DIY video and the advice from the stone yard, the first installation step was to lay down landscape fabric to discourage weeds. I used a roll of weed-block fabric and ground staples to secure it. Cutting the fabric to fit and securing it took about forty-five minutes and was straightforward with scissors and staples.
Next came three tons of gravel. Because our wheelbarrow wouldn’t fit through the gate between the carport and patio area, I transported the gravel bucket by bucket using a spare 5-gallon paint bucket we had on hand. It was slow and exhausting, but carrying the gravel in buckets allowed me to keep my nylon guide strings in place so I could maintain the correct slope away from the house for drainage.
After spreading the gravel I lightly misted it with water to help the particles bind, aiming for a cement-like clumping without making the base too wet. Then I tamped the gravel with a hand tamper. We chose the inexpensive hand tamper instead of renting a plate compactor, which meant more manual labor but gave a satisfying, flat, semi-solid base that looked almost like asphalt. That wrapped up over seven hours of work on Thursday.
Friday morning I finished a quick family task and then returned to the patio to lay a one-inch layer of sand. A great tip I used was placing two parallel 1″ PVC pipes as screed guides, dumping sand over them, and then using a straight 2 x 4 to level the sand to exactly an inch. After pulling out the PVC pipes, I filled in the gaps to create a smooth, paver-ready surface. I ran out of sand near the end of the initial session, but a short trip to the store solved that.
The final preparation before placing stone was installing flexible plastic edging to hold the pavers in place. While some installers do this after laying pavers, we found it much easier to shape the curves with the edging in place first. The edging will be nearly invisible once we backfill with soil and mulch along one side and pavers along the other.
By late Friday afternoon we were ready to start laying pavers. We focused on the entry area first so we could start to see the patio take shape. Laying the initial pavers and fitting the pattern took a couple of hours, and we decided to postpone cutting pavers until the next session to avoid operating a wet saw in diminishing light. Using whole pavers to fill the central area let us make significant progress even after evening crept in.
We worked until about 9:30 p.m., finishing the last full paver at the far end of the patio. The borders still require many cut pieces, but the central area now shows the overall pattern and layout. After tidying tools and showering off an exhausting day, we relaxed with a movie to cap off the night.
Overall, the project moved quickly once we had materials in place: fabric, gravel, tampering, sand screeding, edging, and the first course of pavers. There’s still work to do—cuts, final joints, and cleanup—but the patio is coming together and we’re excited to share the finished photos and final steps soon.