Turn your space into something you’re proud of!
Hey there!
I am glad you stopped by. I want to share with you the Patio we just created! I have never EVER done anything like this so, it was a learning process for sure. But I couldn’t be happier with the outcome.
I know many of us are home during this Pandemic looking around our houses and yards realizing there is a lot we want to do with our space! If you are considering adding a patio and want a simple video to show you what you are getting into then I recommend watching my video below! Even if you don’t want to go with cobblestone, this video gives you a visual of what the process entails. It saves SO MUCH money when you do projects like this yourself. And how awesome is it to be able to tell people “I made that!” CHECK IT OUT!
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Our supply list
- Cobblestone or whatever Patio stone you choose (you will have to do some math to figure out what you need. P.S ALWAYS buy more than you need!)
- Crushed 3/8 stone for the first layer to level out the location of choice and for a perimeter(if needed). This goes down before the sand and can be a thin layer. It helps build up the area and aid in drainage if you have a lot of clay in your dirt. If you know your soil leeches or drains without issues then you don’t need the stone layer. Additionally, we chose to leave about a foot between the patio and our house and filled it with the 3/8 stone to allow for extra drainage as well.
- Regular sifted sand for your main leveling material. I recommend creating a 4-5 inch layer of sand. This gives you a lot of wiggle room to level your stones.
- Pressure treated 4x4s to frame the perimeter of your patio. These not only create a solid frame that will keep the cobblestone from moving when you use the compactor, but this also allows you to use the string method for leveling (watch YouTube video). The 4x4s can be removed after the patio is set and replaced with whatever you choose to use for your border. We are going to simply apply cement directly onto the outside stones all the way around, let it cure and then loam right up to the patio perimeter which will be enough support to keep the stones from moving. You could leave the 4x4s (they look nice) but I am not a fan of leaving wood in the ground as a permanent choice. You can also get fancy and do a different stone for your surrounding edge.
- Wooden stakes or Steele rebar to use as stakes to be hammered outside of the wood frame to keep the 4x4s from moving. Careful you don’t have anything under the surface such as septic, gas etc. that you could damage by hammering a stake into it!
- 2×6 wood plank for grading and leveling by hand. You don’t HAVE to do this but it certainly helps. Ours was 16 feet long and that is what we were dragging along the sand in the video to level it out.
- Blue stone dust.
- Compactor. If you don’t want to use or rent a compactor you could just hand compact the stones with a mallet. However the patio will certainly shift more when settling since the stones were not forcefully compacted down with a machine so be prepared for some patio rehab the following year or sooner.
- Heavy duty Mallet watch your fingers!
- Landscape rake this is the large rake being used in the video to level out the sand. If you cant buy one borrow one!
- Heavy duty push broom to sweep the area but most importantly to sweep and pack in the Blue stone dust. Be prepared for ALOT of sweeping.
- Shovel to scoop the stone dust both onto the patio and off the patio (when cleaning up the excess)
- Hand trowel to use when leveling out the stones .
- Hose to soak the area after blue stoning is complete to see if you have any real low spots that need to be raised up to match the rest of the patio.
- Mini Crow bar or anything that is heavy duty and can assist in pulling up the cobblestone should you have to pull it out and fix it after it has been packed down either by hand or by the compacting machine.
- Gloves and kneepads please protect your hands! Also if you don’t have knee pads for crawling around on the stones anything that makes the area softer will work!
End of video elaborates on the WHAT NEXT once you are “done”