Patio Design Tips...

~ If you're not sure how big to build your patio, try staging the type and amount of outdoor furniture you plan to use. Then just design the patio space around it. (If you don't have the furniture yet, use cardboard pieces that represent the appropriate sizes and shapes.)

~ Once you've placed and leveled your base of sand or crushed stone, don't walk on it until you compact the material. Otherwise, you'll have uneven places where pavers will not be stable.

~ To determine if your base is sufficiently compacted, press your palm with all your weight behind it onto the surface. If it leaves a distinct impression, continue to compact until you can barely see your handprint.

~ Take pictures of your house and the area where you plan to build your patio. When the time comes to pick out materials such as pavers and lumber, you'll have something to match your choices to. That means you'll be more likely to pick materials that compliment your existing structures and landscaping.

~ Always call utility companies before you dig. You can either contact your local services or access the recently implemented central call center by dialing 811 (which will automatically route you to the appropriate state services to have your utilities marked).

~ When laying out your paver area, mark it 6 to 8 inches wider than your intended dimensions. This will not only provide a firmer base but allow for any layout adjustments that might be necessary.

~ Always establish a 1/8" fall per foot. This will allow enough "slope" to the surface of your patio to prevent standing water. (For example, if your patio is 8 feet wide, one side of the patio would be 1" lower than the other.)

~ A 12' x 12' patio (144 square feet) will require approximately one ton of sand for every 2 inches of depth.

~ When compacting crushed stone, don't try to compact too much material at a time. To get maximum results, it's best to compact in 2-3" layers.

~ To make screeding of base material easier, create a level grid of 2" conduit pipes in the ground (the distance between any two pipes will be governed by the length of your screed board). This will provide accurate and level guides or "rails" for your screed board to ride on. Once you've leveled and compacted the entire base, the guide pipes can be removed and the gaps backfilled and packed down.

~ Back fill dirt along the outer side of your form boards before pouring cement. This will help hold the forms in place as well as prevent any cement from seeping out during the pour.

~ When laying pavers, use the method professional installers refer to as "click, click, drop". As you add each paver, keep it about an inch above the base material. 1) Click against an existing paver, 2) move the new paver until the second side clicks against another existing paver, 3) let the new paver drop in place. Once you get the hang of it, this is an extremely fast and efficient way to install pavers.

~ You can easily define curves that exist in your paver design by using common 1/2" PVC pipe as a guide. The fact that it's very flexible makes it a good choice to form even tight curves and S shapes.

~ Quality garden hose is a fairly good alternative to using thin PVC pipe to define curves (cheaper hoses have a tendency to crimp rather than curve).

~ If you plan to finish off your pavers by packing sand in between them a better choice than ordinary coarse sand is polymeric sand. Impregnated with a chemical binder which allows it to harden means it will stay put and not be as likely to wash out of the crevices between pavers.

~ When compacting pavers you'll need to protect their surface. This can be done by either attaching a pad (made for this purpose) directly to the compactor or placing some form of protective material over the pavers. You can also leave additional sand on top of the pavers until the compacting is finished.

~ If you've chosen to use brick pavers and you have a rectangular area to be filled, it's much easier if you choose bricks that measure the same as their length when placed side by side. For example, bricks that have a width of 4" and a length of 8" will work in a basketweave pattern, simply because the total width of two bricks (8") also equals the length of one (8").

~ Even if your patio is not adjacent to a structure, you still need to create an 1/8" fall per foot to allow water to shed properly off the surface area.

~ To make certain your concrete slab cures properly (especially if it's located in direct sunlight), you can cover it with plastic or wet burlap. Or, you can spray the slab with a liquid curing compound specifically intended for that purpose.

~ Using a garden hose, spray the ground and form boards with water prior to pouring the concrete slab.

~ When you screed cement during the pour, use a back and forth sawing motion to move and level the excess material.

~ If you plan to put sealer on your concrete surface, make certain it's intended for outdoor use and is slip resistant. (Some sealers have an additive that provides better traction.)

~ To prevent weeds from coming up through pavers embedded in sand, place landscape fabric over your layer of crushed stone and under your layer of sand.

~ When installing pavers, don't kneel directly on the sand or the pavers. This can cause uneven impressions as well as dislodge pavers. Instead, once you've installed a sufficient number of pavers, place a piece of plywood on top of them and kneel on that, moving and repositioning it as you go. (Roughly a 3' x 3' piece of plywood should be sufficient.)

~ If you don't plan to use a plate compactor to finish off your paver area, leave excess sand in place and continue to broom it into the crevices for several days. This, along with walking on the pavers will help settle and pack the sand in the joints even more. When you're satisfied with the results, go ahead and broom the sand off the pavers.