The first step is getting your plan together. I dropped my measurements into the computer and came up with the hard scape design, the irrigation and drainage solutions and the planting design. The next phase is planning your order of operations. Demolition is the next big step, then irrigation and drainage, hard scape and planting.

I spent a few days ripping up this concrete. I wasn’t as hard as is looks. This slab was laid years ago and was improperly pored. The thickest piece was around 3″ and it had no sub base. The concrete used was a weak mixture, it was easy to pull up with a large hammer and crow bar. Around the drainage hole it was more difficult; I believe at one point real Portland Cement was used, but with leverage and sweat I was able to get it all up. I wanted to save the pieces because I am going to use them as my stepping stones in the final walkway.

Make sure and use gloves when doing this because it will rip up you hands. It is also best to consult a professional before starting this kind of work. Sometimes working with older homes, in a restorative job you can run into many odd obstacles that where not planed for, so be prepared for them.

These three pictures are the irrigation and drainage for the front yard.You want to install these first in order to hide the tubing or piping under the hard scape. I have used flex tubing for this project for several reasons. It is easy to install and fix if anything goes wrong and it is cost effective.

So let me tell you about the drainage; I have two down spouts from the house. One runs right over the main drainage to the street. We connected the the secondary down spout to the main one and ran them both in to the street drainage via a pvc tee.

The irrigation was installed with 1/2″ flex tubing attached to my main hose outlet on the left side of the front of the house. I then ran it under the house and out the other side. Thanks so my small friend,
Mary who volunteered to crawl under my house. She made sure that the tubing was not on any sharp edges or kinked to prevent water flow. We then ran it along the side of the house.

The final step before adding the sand was installing the metal edging. This helps shape the form of the walkway, keeps the sand and gravel in and binds everything for a tight fit. It is the most expensive material in this process at $20 a piece it is well worth it to have it done correctly. You can find other edging at the big hardware stores but most, if not all of them are for garden beds, not hard scape’s. I purchased these at a specialty store, Jefferson Feed.

The fun part is yet to come!! We then loaded wheel barrow after wheel barrow of sand and filled in between the metal edging where the paver’s are going to go. My friend Chris then took the long level and patted down the sand and sloped the sand away from the house and toward the road. This will insure that any run off will not go under the house or into my neighbor’s yard.

The next step is to place all the stones starting with the larger ones first all the way down the walkway. Then fill in with the medium stones and some smaller pieces. You do not want to use too many smaller pieces because they are hard to level and fit in with other stones.

Then stone by stone, level each one to work with the other, again sloping them away from the house. When working with an irregular stone, like recycled concrete, it is very important to get the sand under each stone so that it does not move or sift. Once all the stones are leveled poor gravel in between the stone to seal them in . Sweep all the excess sand and gravel into the crevasses and clean off the paver’s.

I then filled in the area between the metal edging and house with gravel and sand to give it a smooth finish. I am not done yet; because this area is for utility purposes I need to insure that the stones are not going to shift. The next step is to poor dry concrete between the paver’s then water it in. This will create a solid membrane on the surface to allow for minor movement.

The budget on this part of the project was tight, this is the break down:

Metal Edging: 9 pieces at 20.00 = 180.00

Gravel 10 bags at 3.00 = 30.00

Sand 2 yds = 65.00

Irrigation supplies total = 75.00

Drainage supplies total = 25.00

Project total = 375.00 retail cost

This is a huge under taking. I did most of the prep work by myself but the majority of the project went smoothly because I had great help. Thank you Mary, Brendan, Chris and Eric for all your hard work. The project would have taken three times as long to complete if I where on my own.

The next phase is to prep my planting beds and plant my plants!! That is the fun part!!

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