The idea of building a patio is so brutish and so simple. Man dig hole. Man put rocks in hole. It is something that, on paper, a caveman could do. Hell they were doing it back in the 1700’s when men wore buckles on their hats. Yet there is more to it. There is the grunt work, yes, but the intricacies and precision needed to make an empty hole into a beautiful work of art is just that, a work of art. Nowadays anything can and is considered art. Music, painting, playing a sport, you name it and it can be spun into “an art form.” My art form is building a patio. To me, it is beautiful. There is a yin and yang of sorts to the construction of a patio. The “manly man” type work coupled with the finesse and exact detail needed like you’re working on a calculus problem is hard. But rewarding. When you finish building the patio you realize that what started as a barren pit is now something this family will enjoy for years and years to come. You created this work of art that is yours and yours alone, and the long, sweat-filled process was all worth it.
The design commences with a hole. A really big, really deep hole. 10 inches all around to be exact. Sometimes you strike gold and the digging is not too bad. Maybe a couple of tree roots here and there but mostly just hard dirt that can be moved away with ease. Or, sometimes (really most of the time), you wander into an area that makes you think you just committed the seven deadly sins and there’s someone out there making you pay. Having to remove hundreds of pounds or rocks, roots, and dense earth while not touching electric wiring or water pipes is an arduous task. This type of digging takes days to finish and weeks off your life. 90 degree temperatures and 100% humidity while you are swinging a pick axe, trying to ground up roots like they’re in a blender so you can then haul them into a truck to be whisked away is something nobody would willingly sign up for. Alas, it must be done, and be done by the grunts that thought they were going to have an easy day at work. The boss will check in every once in a while and ask, “How’s it going?” How the HELL does it look like it’s going? Is what runs through all our minds but we simply say, “Not bad.” The digging is the worst part of the process. It can, and does, take multiple days to finish. When you have finally dug to the mythical depth of ten inches in the whole area, you make sure it is flat and proceed to step 2.
Step 2 is where you start building up what you broke down. Similar to a person trying to get in shape must lose fat before they can build muscle, a patio must begin with a deconstruction of the earth, followed by building up that “muscle.” In each corner of the pit you hammer stakes into the ground like you’re John Henry. Then you must run strings that connect them together. This is the yin to the yang. All the stakes must be driven in the same depth so that the strings can be properly run. The orange, chalky string must run EXACTLY 10 inches from the bottom of the pit. If not, your patio will be uneven and resemble the Rocky Mountains. A simple process in theory, it takes time to ensure the measurement is correct down to the exact millimeter. Once you have done this you have the pleasure of hauling hundreds of pounds of crushed stone into your hole. 6 inches of it needs to cover the entire area of the pit. You need a strong base so that the pavers will not drop in depth when there is weight on them. The moving of the material is not the bad part; the shoveling it into a wheel barrow takes that crown. It’s too heavy for a big shovel, so you have a small, metal spade (shovel) that takes exactly 23 scoops to fill a barrow. After every inch laid a compactor is run over it to make the stone denser. This just makes you need more gravel. Thanks, boss. For bigger patios this step alone can take an entire day with a crew of 3. The monotonous routine of shoveling, dumping, shoveling some more and compacting actually makes the day go by faster somehow. And when you’re all done with the stone, and have built up 6 solid inches of crushed rock, you are ready for the next step.
The last step of the grunt stage is putting sand over your crushed stone. 2 inches of sand for the whole area. There is no compacting in this stage, but there is screening. You know that feeling you get when sand gets in your bathing suit and you question every decision you’ve ever made in your life? That pure anger and questioning of all that is Holy? Of course you do. It may just be the worst feeling in the world. Well that is what happens when you screen the sand; except instead of being able to jump into the ocean to clean yourself off, you get to keep playing in the sand until every inch of your body is somehow covered with enough of it to make an award-winning sand castle.
When the sand is dumped it must be even throughout. No area can be 1 centimeter higher or lower than the other. Once a section of the patio is screened, nobody steps on it until there are pavers over it. To do this you lay pipes vertically across the sand, making sure they are all at the same depth, so you can use a 2×4 piece of wood to carry the sand consistently across the patio. It is mesmerizing when you look at it and I almost don’t like moving to step 4, the final step.
Now is when the beauty of the patio comes out. You start to lay your pavers in a pattern that alternates the shapes of pavers laid so that the patio doesn’t look like coding, 1’s and 0’s all in a row. Once laid you take your concrete saw, something that sounds much more intimidating that it really is, and cut the pavers that lie on the outside of the patio in the shape that the client wants. Some want an “S” shaped patio, others want it rounded, and some square. Make sure to wear glasses and a mask- if you don’t the stone dust will fill your lungs and pierce your eyes so that you cannot breathe or see correctly for the rest of the day (still not as bad as sand down your pants and in your boots, though). The last step of this phase is to hammer in the edging, or the long, flexible pieces of plastic that hold the patio in place. When you get to this point you are almost done, so only one of you needs do it, while the others start to clean up the site. Gather up all your tools, pick up any trash, and clear the area of any substances with a leaf blower. When the edging is in you take a few bags of poly sand and a broom and fill in the crevices in-between the pavers so there are no visible holes in the patio. When that is done spray some water on it so the color of the pavers comes out, wait a few minutes, and spray again. And that is it. You have constructed your patio. What once was a chunk of grass and dirt is now a beautiful, well done work of art. Give yourself a pat on the back and even take a picture of what you have made. And, the best part of it all, is that tomorrow you get to start the entire, grueling process over again!
Bowles' Blog 