Alright, this is John Kohler with growingyourgreens.com, pushing the wheelbarrow up with all these
base rocks actually.
What we're doing today, or actually what Sage has been doing today and actually for the
last couple weeks is we're installing pavers.
So, you may notice that in some my early videos we literally just built over my lawn.
We build the raised beds over my lawn, literally, and we didn't even think about taking up the
lawn and the pathways.
So, during the wintertime, it looked good 'cause it was all grass but then it was pretty
hard to mow because some of the pathways are only, you know, 16-18 inches wide and then
on the summertime it got even worse because we just didn't water it anymore so it turned
into just like dust and it was kind of cool and rustic and all that and that was fun but
then when it turned into winter again it rained and then all the, it was just so muddy.
It was just like walking through mud.
So, I got a really good deal at home depot on these pavers.
They're real stones.
A lot of those kind of things you buy could be just concrete with some dye in it.
These are real stones.
They're really nice and they have a backing on them much like tiles.
So, you know, whether you have this kind of paver or other kind of pavers, the installations
all going to be fairly similar.
What we've done is we've painstakingly or sage has done, it painstakingly dug up all
the grass.
So, I had sod installed about 10 years ago.
We dug that all up, we have that in a big pile in the backyard and we're going to compost
that and then were going to have some rally rich soil because actually before I laid that
lawn in, I laid down, I don't know how many yards, maybe 6 yards of compost underneath
the lawn actually, instead of fertilizer is what they recommended at the time.
So, to put the pavers down, we basically dug up, you know, most of the roots of the lawn,
and then Sage dug down and then we basically put these base rocks here and then sand down
and then we just, on each step we temper it down to make it hard and compacted and then
we lay these down.
So, we're going to show you the technique.
We're almost finishing up.
We got 75, 80 percent of the yard done already.
Final steps is actually where my old sidewalk was.
So, we're going to clip to a video showing my actually filming Sage.
We rented basically a concrete saw to tear up the concrete because it's always better
to reuse than to recycle or get rid of.
You may have saw my other video where they actually have riprap to form the edges of
the raised beds.
So, you could definitely use riprap for that, but we didn't want to generate a lot of riprap
and then have it go to who knows where or have it end up on your garden.
We wanted to actually reuse on site the concrete.
So, I would've liked to actually been able to cut the concrete into big pieces and just
move them as large pieces but they are just way tot heave so we have to cut them into
4ths and we're going to use those as stepping stones on the other side of my house where
it does still get really muddy where I kind of use that area for storage.
So, always better to ruse than, you know, even recycle or, you know, get rid of.
Alright, so, we're working on cutting out my original walkway up to my front door here
and the original plan was to basically but these big chunks of concrete on each seam.
So, we already done that and we still notice that the chunks of concrete are really, really
heavy.
So, what we decided to do is we're going to cut them into 4ths and take them out.
I guess the other way to do this would be to actually just take a jackhammer and jackhammer
these out, which probably would've been a lot easier, and take it out in chunks but
then you couldn't reuse.
So, I always want to try and look at the materials I have here and reuse whatever I have.
So, what we're going to is we're been cutting these now into 4ths and now we're just going
use these basically in the back of the house in a muddy area and basically have a nice
walkways out here.
Whoa.
It was an earthquake today and look what happened in my concrete in the front of my house.
It like totally sunk in.
Oh my gosh and look it got all ripped up.
Just kidding.
So, Sage was basically working today.
WE rented a concrete saw with 14 inch diamond blade.
It was about $60 for 3 hours and we basically cut up my sidewalk into squares or, you know,
cut up each block into 4's so we could easily handle these smaller sections as we were going
to cut them into big section but they're pretty darn heavy.
So, basically we cut them up into squares and we're going to remove them.
We're going to use them in the back yard now for basically a walkway.
Alright, so we cut the concrete now and now we're going to literally pry the concrete
blocks up.
We're prying out the old sidewalk or walkway to my front door.
It's been here since the 70's, when the house was built.
That's a nice sized chunk of concrete.
Alright, so then we work smarter not harder here and we're using a dolly.
We've also used a little cart and wheelbarrow to move these out of the way.
Alright, so, Sage basically has cleared out he area.
We took out the extra grass that was over there and now he's actually using the tamper
and we're tamping down the existing gravel and dirt that was already down there.
You can see him tamping it down and we're going to get that nice and packed in pretty
good because if it's not packed in well then your pavers aren't going to sit flat and it's
just you're just going to have some problems later on.
Now, the next step is actually were going to go ahead and put some of this base layer,
or base rock down over there.
We're going to spread the base rock out.
Alright, so now we're tamping down the base rock layer with our handy tamper.
Have you had reinforce that tool yet, Sage?
Not yet.
Alright.
Yea, so, with something like a tamper like this, you know, I think you pretty much can't
go wrong.
Alright, so we just tamp down the base rocks and now we're going to pour some sand is the
next layer before putting on the pavers.
We're going to spread the sand out fairly evenly and we have a cool unique tool to do
that.
It's called Sages feet.
Okay, now we're ready to amp that down and get it all level.
Alright, so the next step is a homemade tool that Sage constructed out of some wood.
You will further get it smoothie and level.
We had a few low spots and high spots.
Like when you run it over you can feel the differences, you know, and we're talking about
a visual thing here, the walkway, we want to look flat and even.
So, you can kind of trust you eyes and hands and leveling it.
If it doesn't feel level, it probably isn't.
Alright, so the next step is that Sage has smoothed out the sand now and it's all level,
and now we're going to place on the pavers in place.
Some of them are significantly higher, you know, so just give them a little touch here,
bring them down a little bit, just so it's not so extreme.
Okay, so that's one.
Alright, so, we're laying some more pavers, or let's call them like tiles 'cause they
are like some kind of tiles.
You can step back for a minute, you know, 'cause you kind of want it so that you can
kind of trick yourself into not seeing the squares.
You don't want it to be obviously that these were-
Squares
That these were in 4x4 squares-
There supposed to be individual.
You want it to be so that you can kind of imagine it divided into all different ways
and it will make us much, you know?
That's kind of what you do.
You step back and kind of like adjust it here and there.
Alright, so after you get all the pavers in place, there's all kinds of cracks in between
them that we need to fill up.
So, what we're using today is we're just place sand.
So, what Sage is doing it literally just pouring the sane on the pavers and then we're going
to take a broom here.
Yea, just sweep that in.
Sand just goes and fills to the lowest spot and we have some nice looking joints afterwards.
There you go.
That's how it looks.
Nice and purdy.
Alright, so here's a finished pathway.
So, this is John Kohler with growingoyurgreens.com.
We'll see you next time.