I never liked the idea that there was no seperation between the foundation and the yard. This allowed water to come in contact with the foundation which can increase errosion of the foundation. It also allowed vegitation to grow right up against the foundation and the house, and was already pulling off the stucco. Finally, since I don't have rain gutters, the runoff causes unplesent ruts in the ground and just increases the water and vegitation against the house. So, I decided to create a paver walkway around the house.

I did this in three sections: the north side of the deck in the back yard, the south side of the deck in the back yard and the side yard, and the front yard.

I planned for the pavers to be an inch above grade and to slope away from the house at between 1/4 to 1/2 inches per foot. Since I was using this Brock product, I dug only about five to six inches below grade. This way there would be an inch of paver, 3/4 inches of Brock, 3/4 inches of paver sand and the rest was corse crusher fines.

Finally, I had all this river rock in the front yard from the previous owners idea of landscaping. The grass had moved from the soil and was overtaking the rock. Since the rock was not doing any good under grass and weeds, why not use some of it against the house.

I strung the strings to be at the top of the paver which should be about inch above grade. This means I could used a regular 2x4 to screed the crusher fines, as the top of the crusher fines would be 3.5 inches below the string.

Sadly, no matter how much I tried, I never seemed to get the pavers above grade as much as I wanted. Note for next time, don't worry about digging too deep. It is better error such that the pavers are move above grade than expected.

Back Yard North

Before work	Dug out/stucco patched	Geotextile added	Compactible gravel	Edge restraint added
Edge restraints for pavers	3/4 inch pipe	for screeding sand	Pipe removed	and patched with sand
Brock added	Pavers with spacers	Edgers, more edge restraints	River rock and fill added	Grouted with polymeric sand
After work

Dug out	Side yard before	Stucco patched	Side yard dug out	Stucco painted
Edge restraints added	After	Paint was a little dark	After

Before	Before	Old spigot in the way	with an electrical ground?	Replaced with new hydrant
Drain away from house	Stucco patched	Crusher fines	compact better wet	Up to wall footing
Tombstone for Halloween	Edge restraints added	Oops. Forgot geotextile under the crusher fines	Brock on top of paver sand	After
After

I use my clothes lines quite a lot. I find that closes dry faster on the line than they do in my dryer and it is, of course, free. But I didn't like walking and often dropping things in the dirt. Also, I still have a hottub and it would be nice to make a path to it.

You can see that a path has formed over the years, so I figured I could turn that path into something proper. I dug down a few inches. I put down a couple of inches of crusher fines (4,000 lbs). I installed runners on both sides and screed 0.5in of leveling or beach sand. The put down about 80 16"x16" (35lbs each) pagers. My goal was to have the pavers but an inch or so above grade so they wouldn't get burried by dirt or overgrowth too quickly.

Original dirt path	Dig down	Crusher fines	Runners
Pavers