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 bit low on energy right now and we’re waiting for better light to take final photos, so here’s a recap of our four-day patio marathon. I’ll share the final details and after shots once everything is 100% complete.
To catch you up: last Monday the area was marked, leveled, and dug out.
On Tuesday almost 10 tons of material arrived on a flatbed (a 300-square-foot patio weighs more than two elephants). Delivery went smoothly overall, though the forklift driver had to deal with a flat tire and stepped away briefly to get it fixed. Eventually everything was offloaded into our carport: three large bags of fill gravel, one large bag of sand, and three pallets of cobblestone pavers (two pallets of rectangular pavers and one of square).
We chose CottageStone pavers from a local manufacturer, Eagle Bay, in a gray tone called “Jefferson.” We picked them partly to roughly match the gray cobblestone already in our driveway. Price-wise they were a great local find—about $2 per square foot at our stoneyard, which was cheaper than the big-box options and saved a decent chunk of change over 300 square feet. But enough about costs—on to the hands-on work.
Wednesday was rained out, so Thursday was our next real work day. Following advice from a Lowe’s how-to video and the stone yard, the next step was to lay down landscape fabric to deter weeds. I used a 300-square-foot roll of Weed Block and ground staples (called crampons) from Home Depot. Cutting the fabric with scissors and securing it with staples was straightforward and took about forty-five minutes.
After the fabric, it was time for gravel—three tons of it. Laying all that gravel consumed my entire Thursday. A narrow gate prevented the wheelbarrow from passing through, so I hauled gravel bucket by bucket in a 5-gallon paint bucket we had on hand. It was tedious and tiring, but carrying smaller loads let me preserve the nylon guide strings I’d set up to ensure a consistent slope away from the house for proper drainage.
Once the gravel was spread, I lightly misted it to help it bind into a firmer base. The goal was to make the gravel cling and compact—moist enough to clump but not soaked. I used a $30 hand tamper rather than renting a plate compactor. It was hard work but satisfying: the compacted gravel formed a solid, level base that almost resembled asphalt. By the end of the day I had a flat, semi-solid surface ready for the sand layer.
Friday morning, after taking Clara’s weekly photo, I returned to the patio and installed a 1-inch layer of sand. A simple trick from the Lowe’s video made this quick and accurate: two pieces of 1″ PVC pipe laid side-by-side serve as spacers. Dump sand over the pipes, then screed it with a straight board—a 2×4 or spare trim board works well—scraping off the excess to leave a uniform, 1″ deep sand surface. Pull out the pipes and hand-fill the grooves for a perfectly level finish. I ran out of sand near the end, made a quick trip to Lowe’s for a few more bags, and finished the layer.
Before setting any pavers, we installed flexible plastic edging to hold the perimeter in place. There are differing opinions about whether to install edging before or after laying pavers, but we found it much easier to plan and follow curves with the edging in place. If you have curved lines to follow, consider installing the edging first.
By mid-afternoon on Friday we started laying pavers to get a visual sense of the patio taking shape. We focused on the entrance area first and reserved all cutting for the next day so we could avoid operating a wet saw in fading light. With patience and teamwork—Sherry cared for the baby and passed granola bars and water—I managed to lay a large portion of whole pavers before nightfall. We wrapped up around 9:30 PM after placing the last whole paver in the center area.
We only managed a few blurry photos before the camera battery died, but you can still see progress: a solid sand base, edging in place, and a growing expanse of full pavers across the main area. We stopped cutting and trimming for the night and capped things off with a much-needed shower and a Netflix movie to recover. The patio is almost done; next I’ll cover cutting, pattern details, and the finishing touches.