Category: How-To

This post is based on my personal experience. I don’t think I ever want to install pavers again.

Step 1: Remove sod

If you have grass, rent a sod cutter from Home Depot.

Cut the grass horizontally and then vertically resulting in a grid. This grid method makes removing the sod easier because you end up with squares of sod that are not too heavy to lift and are just easier to work with.

Step 2: Rent a tiller to break up dirt

You may need to remove some dirt so the top of the pavers will be where you want them. In order to remove dirt, you need to break it up (till it) first. The easiest and most powerful tiller I’ve used is a hydraulic tiller which you can rent at the Home Depot. I recommend this tiller over all the others.

Step 3: Remove broken-up dirt

Once the dirt is broken up, you can remove it using a shovel and a wheel barrow. This is the most tiring part of this project. For the wheel barrow, I recommend a 4 wheel instead of a single wheel one so you’re not having to lift it as you move it. You can easily dump the contents by lifting the yellow latch to unlock it.

If you need to remove a lot of dirt, then rent a mini excavator and tow it to your work site. This thing is less than 3 feet wide. You can also use it to push dirt to help spread it out.

Step 4: Get rid of dirt

To get rid of the dirt, you could take it do your local garbage dump. Note that if they charge based on weight, it can be expensive. I paid $360 to dump one pick-up truck full of dirt. There’s a dedicated dirt dump area near me which accepts only dirt. They charge $50 to dump dirt but require the dirt be plant-free and you have to have the dirt test and certified which costs $300.

Loading the dirt

To move the dirt, you could rent a pick-up truck from U-haul. I laid down a large tarp before loading dirt to make it easier to remove that last bit of dirt and to make cleanup easier. To transport the dirt from the backyard to the truck, I filled 3 buckets with dirt which fit perfectly in my Gorilla cart.

Since the truck bed sides are high, I first put the buckets on a work stand to raise them up. Then I’d stand on a stool next to it and lift and dump the buckets over the side of the truck bed and into the truck.

If you have a lot of dirt to move, you can also rent a mini skid steer.

Unloading the dirt

To unload the dirt, you could install a cargo bed unloader (available at Harbor Freight) onto the truck bed gate to make it easier to unload the dirt.

Note: if you line the cargo bed with tarp, make sure the black cargo bed unloader sheet is on top of the tarp, not under it. Otherwise, when cranking the level to remove the dirt, the unloader sheet will just slide under the tarp leaving the tarp and the dirt above it in place.

Step 5: Rake to level dirt

Use a metal rake to level the dirt as much as you can.

Step 6: Compact the dirt

Rent a plate compactor to compact the dirt.

Step 7: Lay weed fabric

This is necessary to help block weeds from coming up. It also makes the next steps easier since it keeps dirt from getting everywhere, in your shoes, etc.

Step 8: Mark perimeter and add sand

Using wood stakes and string, mark the perimeter of where your pavers will be. You can use a staple gun to easily secure the string to the wood stakes.

Step 9: Level sand, add paver base and pavers

The leveling sand should be 1/2″ thick. Use parallel 1/2″ diameter rebar and a 2×4 to screed the sand to achieve this.

Then, add paver base panels and cut them to length. Cut some panels in half and stagger the placement of the panels for better connections and less movement.

Work in two rows at a time. Before laying each panel, roughly level the sand by hand and then screed the sand using a 2″x3″ or a square dowel. For each panel, use a level to check for level. Place pavers and use a level to check for level again.

Where two panels meet, there is a greater chance the pavers will not be level. Use a mallet to hit and push down bumps. Check the pavers are level at the panel joints before putting pavers in the middle of the panels.

Wear knee protectors and pants instead of shorts so sand doesn’t get under the knee protector.

Idea: To simplify and save time leveling sand, try this:

1. Take one paver base panel
2. Attach on top of it a flat piece of plywood about the size of the panel
3. Attach on top of the plywood 4 cheap levels (2 vertically and 2 horizontally) about 20% from the edge
4. Lay the panel down and check for level
5. Where not level, tap down using a mallet to push sand out from under panel until all levels show level

Step 10: Install paver edging

Drive stakes into paver edging such that the edging is flush against the edge of the pavers. Adjust the amount of sand below the edging so that top of edging is about 1/2″ below the top of the pavers.

Note: when laying down the paver base panels, it’s better to place them such that they bleed the outer perimeter of the final area of the pavers. In other words, they should extend about 3 inches beyond the perimeter so that when you install the paver edging, the edging will sit flush against the pavers.

Step 11: Add joint sand

Pour paver joint sand and sweep it into the paver joints. The sand contains glue and will stick together after a while.

I need to remove quite a bit of dirt from my backyard and thought that breaking up the dirt with a rented tiller and then shoveling the dirt aside by hand was sufficient. The problem is it’s a lot quicker to break up the dirt with a tiller than it is to move the dirt by hand so you end up not being able to use the tiller often enough in a short period of time making rental cost expensive. Also, manually moving lots of dirt by hand is incredibly tiring and time-consuming. Though renting an excavator seems like overkill ad expensive for a residential backyard, it’s actually not considering how easy it is to use and how quickly you can get a project done.

With two people working, one breaking up dirt with a tiller and the other moving dirt using an excavator, the project of removing dirt took only a day. The following tools were rented from the Home Depot.

• Baretto Hydraulic Tiller – ~ $159 per day
• Yanmar Mini Excavator – ~ $350 per day

Note:

• There are many tillers but the best is the Baretto hydraulic tiller. It’s huge but it can break up hard dirt that hasn’t even been softened with water. It’s also easy to use but due to its size, it can’t break up dirt along edges like along a fence. This tiller also comes with a mini trailer so you can just tow it.
• The mini excavator is 2′ 4″ wide so it can fit through a standard 3′ wide fence gate. It takes diesel gas but is very efficient.

Tip:

When using the tiller, you can pull the trigger to have the engine move the wheels forward and in reverse. However, the movement is very slow which is fine for when you’re actually tilling dirt. When you need to move the tiller from the trailer to your dirt, it’s must quicker and quieter to unlock the wheels and manually push the tiller with the engine off. To do that,

1. rotate the ring that’s attached to a large pin that goes into the wheel rim until the small pin that sits perpendicular to the large pin is aligned with the opening
2. pull the ring so that the small pin comes through the open and then rotate the ring so that the large pin is held out thereby unlocking the wheel from the engine. if you are unable to pull the ring, rotate it clockwise a few times and try again.

I have the MaxPower PivoTrim weed trimmer head because the spool type trimmer heads always get tangled. The MaxPower PivoTrim head makes replacing trimmer line super easy.

When I ran out of the trimmer line that came with the head, I bought a spool of new trimmer line. Unfortunately, when you cut some trimmer line and install it in the head, the line curves up or down instead of pointing straight out. So, I found a way to straighten the trimmer line. Below is a picture of the line straightened (left) and before it was straightened (right).

To straighten the line, I cut the line to length, stapled each end down to a piece of 2×4, took a heat gun and carefully heat up the plastic line to soften it and cause it to take on a new shape.

Then, I folded the straightened line in half and stapled each end down to the 2×4 and heat up the folded end so that it would remember that position.

The end result is trimmer lines that are straight and cut weeds better. Note, you may have better performance if you remove the plastic guard on the trimmer shaft.

Mantis Tiller and Mid-Tine Tillers

I’ve tried various types of tillers that you can rent from Home Depot. The light duty mantis tillers and mid tine are really only good for soft dirt.

MTA Rear Tine Tiller
(Model # FRC800K1A-656912)

This tiller is heavy duty and can break up hard clay BUT both the wheels and the tines move forward so unless the tines are partially underground breaking the dirt, you can easily be pulled forward and lose control of the machine. Though this is a heavy duty machine, I find it less easy to control compared to the Barreto Hydraulic tiller.

Barreto Hydraulic Tiller
(Model # E1320HX)

This tiller is big and heavy but it’s easy to use, easy to control, and will destroy clay and hard dirt. The rear tines move in the opposite direction of the wheels so the machine never runs away from you moving you forward out of control. It’s the most expensive to rent, but the time savings and ease of use make it worth it. I personally recommend this tiller over all the others.