DIY isn't for everyone nor is it
for every space but with a few design
tips and the right products you can
create a spectacular result.  Welcome to
Your Outdoor Home by Brickworks.
Now the key to any DIY project is to get
your preparation and your foundations
right.  you do these two things and you're
halfway there. I'm going to show you the
simplest form of paving which is laying
it on a road base and sand screed bed.
Now that we've cleared this space it
feels so much more open and spacious. The
next stage is the paving.  That will be
starting in the corner over there and
working our way out.  Road base or
crusher dust is made up of large
particles and small particles which
enables it all to get compacted and
combined together to form a hard
structure.  We started with compacting the
road base so we got the wacker
compactor and made a really hard formed
foundation for everything that we're
going to put on top of that.  Once the
road base foundations are solid it's
time to bring in the sand.  When you're
ordering your sand, make sure it's paving
sand or washed river sand you don't want
any other sand.  Washed river sand is a
nice course sand that will enable you to
do this job really easily.  You'll need to
get a rough level with that sand and
then compact it solidly again, then you
achieve your levels with a straightedge,
lay down your screed rail making sure
that there's fall in the paving so the
water can escape then screed all the
sand back so you have a nice level sand
bed then you can start laying your
pavers.  The pavers I've selected for this
project are a small format paver from
Bowral Bricks and a large format paver
from Urban Stone Residential, both of
them are in a light colour because we're
on the south side of the house so the
space felt like it need a little bit of
brightening up.  The large format pavers
mean that there's less line so it's less
busy.  The small format is great for
achieving those rolling sections of the
ramp.  I just thought that was a better
solution for this tighter space.
When it's time to lay your pavers you want to make sure that the first line is dead
straight and then every few lines after
that check it with your string line.
We're using formwork to get our first row in.  You can use a string line or a
straightedge and you'll be able to see
if it's straight or not.  At some point in
the job you're going to need to cut in
your pavers whether it's up against a
brick wall or a house or a drain if you
want a really neat cut use a brick saw
like we are or you can use a hammer and
bolster or a grinder but it depends on
the depth and the width of your pavers.
Wherever you're paving doesn't meet the
house or a brick wall or something to
lock it into, you're going to have to lock
it in manually, so what you do is remove
the sand down to the road base and then
do a haunch along that paved edge that's
a sand and cement mix just spread along
the edge of the paver and pushed in and
smoothed off with a trowel that locks that
edge in so it never moves.
Once you've locked in your edges it's
time to sweep in the sand to interlock
the rest of the body of paving and you
can do it in layers if it doesn't all go
in in the first stage come again the
next day sweep it in again until you've
got a really solid gridlock of paving.
So there you have it, that covers off on
everything you need to take on your own
DIY paving project on road base from
start to finish.  Now keep in mind get
your road base foundations right, keep
your lines straight and then lock in the
bed so nothing moves.
