Today we're using some paver
edging to transform the backyard
from this to this.
I just finished in
closing the area under my deck
and it looks great, but
the landscaping will what?
Landscaping now?
We're going to class this joint up
a little bit here
in Anna Garden bed with Paver edging
along with some raised
planters and a walkway.
Now with my area defined in my head
I could start laying it out
with some steaks in string line.
I drove a stake down near the stairs.
I ran the line down
the front edge of the garden bed
which ended up being right around
65 inches from the deck.
And my house juts out
a couple feet past the deck on the side
and this made a great visual
stop for the bed, so
I ran another line
from the corner of the house up to meet
that first one at a right angle.
Now is trying to get
this perfectly lined up because you know
engineer and all, but
you just need to get it close
because then I sprayed the line
with spray paint which isn't
exactly a model of precision.
To get a nice rounded corner,
I measured in from
both sides of the string
about 15 inches at the corner
and I could get a nice pivot point
and then I use my tape measure
as a guide for this break in
and you might be able
to just do this by I,
but I kind of draw in spray
paint like a 5 year old.
So I do need the guidance
to keep it presentable,
so I followed the line
down the front of the deck
to the other stake to round.
Off the bed on that end.
And we decided to end the bed here
before this tree.
So I had to dig out a big
clump of daffodils first.
Now these things are just a mess,
only like 2 of them bloom anymore.
So don't get mad at me
for digging him up.
I use the same trick
here to make the corner, but
I made sure to put the raised
planter in place
so I could see how the spacing would
look there in between the edge
and the planner.
And now I could commit to the layout
and dig out the edge with a spade shovel
and instead of pulling up the dirt
at this point
I was just getting a good crisp
line, plus or minus 5/10 of a degree.
And a stab Lish.
The edge with my straight shovel.
Now I'm going to go back
and use the digging shovel,
and I've got to remove at least 2
inches off this entire area.
So I'm going to take the top layer
of the grass off and throw it on here.
On the tarp,
if you're ever digging in your yard,
make sure it's throwing
the dirt on a tarp,
because getting it out of the grass
later will be a huge mess.
After we do that,
then we can start grading it
and put a string line in here
and really start leveling it out
and getting it right where we need it.
And this is the first of many times
that you're going to see me
digging in this video,
and it's going to look about
1000 times easier than it really was.
So these are the bricks
I'm going to be using 7 inches
long by 3 1/2 inches wide
and they are one in
three quarter inch thick.
So I need to put these around the edge
but underneath each of these
I need 2 inches of paver stone
an an inch of sand to get a nice base.
So altogether that's
right around 5 inches.
So I'm going to do a 5 inch trench
all the way around the edge
and that's going
to set the stones in place
and make sure that they have a good base.
I used the aptly named Trenching
Shovel to dig out the small trench
and it's a lot easier
to use the full width of a shovel versus
digging in from the sides
with a wider one.
And to help me quickly
gauge the depth of the trench,
I made a 5 inch mark on a scrap of wood.
I also put a 2 inch mark on there
for the next section
that I'll be digging.
I'm setting the pavers
flush with the ground so it'll be easy
to roll bikes and lawnmowers across it.
I used the stick up against the side
wall to see where it hit on that
top edge of the dirt
to gauge where I was at
and I just got to digging.
I ran into a drain pipe here
and I just cut it off before the trench.
I hope I made the right decision,
but I guess we'll figure that out later.
Alright, we've got the five inch Trench
and now I'm going to level of this part
and what I want to do
is have it 2 inches deep.
But also I need to
slope it from the bottom here
so these doors were still open
all the way to this front edge.
I'll run some string line
in between here and there
and then I can use my little stick
at the two inch mark to make sure
that this is all dug down.
So we have enough space to build it
back up with the stone.
Now, after laying out the string,
I could see that I had a lot more
to remove on the front edge
and it was like that
pretty much the whole length of the bed.
And at this point I also realized
I was just causing myself more work
by putting the dirt on the TARP 1st
and I'm a big proponent of work
smarter, not harder.
So I started going directly
into my little rolling dump cart here,
which by the way this thing is amazing.
It's way more stable
and maneuverable than a wheelbarrow.
I'd give this thing to shuffle
blistered thumbs up
and since this was coming up on 2
days of that art being in the grass,
I decided I better move it
so that I didn't have a great
looking garden bed.
With a huge patch
of dead grass in front of it.
How?
But after working my way around the bed,
I had a pretty decent base
layer to work with.
OK,
so just when you thought
the digging was done, actually
we've got some more to do.
I'm going to be putting
in a couple of these pavers,
some do two rows of three of these,
and that's going
to lead right into the
under deck storage,
so I'm going to mark
that Allison spray paint and then dig
that down to 5 inches
and then then we will be ready
to put the stone dust in.
And I gotta say, I'm ready for that
because I'm tired.
Well, keep going.
I'm beginning to feel
a little bit like Andy Dufresne's
digging my tunnel for years,
but we're getting closer to freedom.
Now, after raking
and tamping down the soil
to get a fairly level base,
I put down some weed control fabric.
Now this will be really important
where I just have the rocks,
so I'm not going to be picking weeds
out of there all the time.
Everything cleared out
and the fabric liner
is down to stop the weeds.
Now I can start putting in the base
which I'm going to put in the
rock base for the pavers
and I'll put that along the trench
and all in this area right here
where the pavers are going to.
All the rocks and stones
that I'll be using our bags
from the home center.
You can definitely get it cheaper though
if you buy it in bulk
from a landscaping company.
It's just a trade off of.
Ease of use and getting
the right amount of material
since buying a few more
bags of stone board
planning is a lot easier
than going out to get
another yard of gravel
after pouring in the base,
I tamped it down with a 4 by 4 post
since my large tamper
won't fit in the narrow trench.
As I was filling the trench,
I spread the bags into the walkway
area here as well.
Remember that work smarter, not harder.
Well, that's me walking back and forth
around the dump cart a half dozen times.
Just getting in my workout.
I also added a 3
inch line on my wood scrap
and I was aiming at that level
which would give me an inch of sand
and then the pavers on top to be level
with the ground.
The big temper made short work
of compacting the stone in the walkway
and this part is important too
as it gives a solid
foundation to the pavers
so they won't leave or settle overtime.
Adding the stone
and tamping it down in layers
helps it get nice and tight,
so you're not trying to compact
two or three inches of stone
all at once by hand.
I work my way around the side of the deck
and I filled in the trench in the small
step stone recess is.
And now I could get to the fun part,
laying the papers in place.
Now the ground was pretty
uneven around the tree there,
so I set up another string line to help
give me a visual reference
for setting the stones.
I transferred a bag of
sand into a 5 gallon
bucket to make it easier
to manage and pour out,
and then I could put in a bed of sand
that was deep enough to bring the bricks
up to the string line.
And this is my first time
laying pavers like this and I didn't
screw it out or level
this and perfectly here.
I opted to just kind of lay the bricks in
and then pound him flush with a mallet
and I also started in the middle
and then I worked my way back
towards the deck
so that I could use the middle pavers
to level the back ones
because I couldn't hit that
string line all the way to the back
because of that concrete
footer on the deck.
And after laying that
straight line of bricks
I had to start making some adjustments.
So I'm getting to the corner now
and I've got a couple options here
so I could just go ahead
and curve that an leave a little gap
in between the edges of the bricks.
But I do have a wet tile saw,
so I'm going to go ahead and use it now.
You don't have to.
You can leave it open, but
I'm just going to basically
stack these down here,
see where they overlap,
draw a pencil line
and then cut them to fit.
Hopefully I can get it right,
but it will definitely look
better than a larger gap to mark the cuts
I laid in brick on
top of the last one installed
in, making sure that the
back corners were lined up.
Then I angled it to fit the curve
and I marked a line
where it overlap the brick beneath it.
Now using that line
I can make a quick cut on the wet tile.
Saw which this thing cut through
the stones like a butter.
And the next stones are a little trickier
because you need to make
a cut on both sides.
I used the same method,
lining up the back corners
and then I marked a cut line,
but I'm cutting the bricks
on both sides this time,
so whatever that overlap
was between them,
I would cut half off of each brick,
because if I cut the
full overlap of each one
then there would be
a big gap left in between.
I repeated the process and work
my way around the curve, making the cuts
and then setting the stones in place.
The leveling them on a downward
slope around the curve was a bit tricky,
but I just made sure
it stayed fairly flat
and I was gauging it with my 2 by 4
and trying to transition from that
string line on the side
to the one in the front.
But once I hit the front edge,
things went really fast.
I would lay down a bit of sand
and smooth it out with my trial
or the two by four
and then set the papers in place
and I just smack him
like whack a mole until they submitted
and were level on my line.
When I got to the other corner,
I put the side string line back up
so that I could transition
around the curve
to the side of the house.
Now the last break in
that run needed to be cut,
so I figured I'd try splitting it
with a cold chisel just to show you
an alternative way to cut the papers.
I scored a line across it
and then kept hitting it with my chisel
along that line until it snapped.
Let's just say this
method is not as precise
or as clean as the tile saw.
I probably recommend using
a circular saw with a masonry
blade over this method, especially
for angled cuts.
All the papers are installed now
and they're in that bed of sand.
And then you saw
I was compressing them down there
so they were pretty solidly in there,
but they could move side to side.
So I'm going to use some polymeric sand
and that goes in between the joints
like a mastic that will harden
after I put some water on it
and it's going to help
to hold those together and resist them
from moving around.
Now honestly, this is probably
the worst use for polymeric sand
since the connections between
the stones are very minimal
and it's not going to be nearly
as effective as it would be
if they were touching
along the long edge.
I used a little chip brush to help
move the sand into the gaps
and I tap the brakes with my shovel
to help the sand settle
all the way down into try to give it
just a little more umph
and sticking power.
I did build up a little beveled
layer on the inside of the bricks
and I also filled in the gap
between the dirt wall
and the stones there, and
I honestly don't know
if this is going to help at all, but
I figured it was worth a shot
and it was better than nothing.
And to activate the polymeric sand
and get it to harden,
you have to wet it down.
Basically, you're
just trying to get it fully wet
without washing it out of the joints.
Before moving on,
I added a little bit more weed
barrier to the back of that main
bed to cover the spots
that I missed before
because I ran out of fabric.
Where my cloud is it?
Now I can start laying in the large
16 by 16 pavers.
I'm going to six of them
right here in the center
to give me some easy access
in and out of the storage area for things
like my lawn mower
and things that have wheels on it.
So I'm going to lay down the sand bed
and then start laying those in.
Adopt a few bags in and I leveled it out
with the back of a hard rake
to get it spread out before
leveling it off.
Now I was feeling pretty confident
about my ability to just scream this out
level by I, so I did.
I mean, how hard could it be
to get it close to level right?
And after meticulously eyeballing it,
I'd lay down the two
by four along the centerline
to act as my guide for the papers
I put a stone on either side,
and then I threw a level on them.
And apparently my pupil level
is not as good as the real deal,
and after a few attempts
at adjusting the pavers, it was clear
this was not the way.
Mistakes were made.
All right didn't work very well.
I thought I could just read it
and kind of do it by eye,
but moving that 16 by 16 pavers
not like these little breaks
where you just found him and they move
the 16 by 16 is a lot harder
to actually push down into the sand
because of all the surface area.
So I'm going to do it
what I should have done in the beginning.
I thought I could get away with it.
I'm going to put some pipe in the sand
and screen off of that
and get a nice level surface.
So then I can just put him down
and have minimal back and forth
and having to adjust them do it right.
Do it like do it wrong.
Do it long.
I sought the conduit pipes into the sand
and then I leveled him off one another
so that they both have the same slope
from front to back,
and then I added in more sand
and I used the two by four discrete
it flat across the whole surface,
now added in sand
whenever there was low spots.
Now this is the way
I wonder if the Mandalorian
never uses his beskar
spear for screening,
but that worked pretty well.
The second go round worked way better
and screening this
and made this part easy
as I could just lay down the pavers
and make some very minor adjustments
to get them level with each other.
The next I brought over
the raised planters that we're using.
We opted for metal versus wood
just for some longevity.
I cut out the liner
in the center of the planner
so that the veggies that we're putting in
can have access to the soil beneath.
And then I dug out
some soil on the backside
to make the planner
a little bit more level
and now it was finally time
to add in the rocks
and I'm using a river rock
or technically a river
Pebble here for these.
It matches the style
that's under the deck already
and these are a bit smaller
so they're going to fit nicely
in between the stones.
I work my way around the bed
and I also installed the side
pavers during that process.
While I'm doing that,
I want to thank today's
sponsor WD40 Company.
If you want your yard tools
to last a long time,
you need to properly care for them.
And when you rinse them off with water
it can lead to flash rusting
which can turn into deep,
pitted rust and a weak tool.
But you can use WD40 multi use product
to give the tools a quick
spray to prevent this.
It drives out moisture, protects
the exposed metal and it lubricates
moving parts in the trigger pro
non aerosol can make spring large areas.
Easy, but if you have depressed
already like the shovel, you can use WD40
specialist rust remover
soak to get rid of it.
I poured some on a rag
and let it sit overnight on the shovel
in the morning the rust was dissolved
and I sprayed on some multi use product
to keep it rust free.
It worked great.
Check the links below in the description
to pick up either of these products
and a big thanks to WD40 Company
for sponsoring this video.
After the rocks were all in,
we filled up the planters
with the combo of garden,
soil, compost and perlite
and we're trying our hands
at vegetable gardening
for the first time.
So if you have any tips, leave them
in the comments down below.
And the garden bed turned out great,
and the paver edging
really defines the space
and holds the rocks there in place
nicely in the deck.
Skirting looks even better
with this nice walkway.
Up to it and this is a huge upgrade
from where we started.
Just a few weeks ago.
If you enjoyed that video,
I've got a video on how I did this
deck, skirting from an old fence.
You can check it out right up there.
I want to give a big
thank you to all those folks
that have been joining the Builders Club
and I'll catch you guys
over on the next video.
Where my cloud is it?