Landscaping/Gardening Thread.

[Fuzz]

Ha, already bought one of those to do the area under the concrete I poured this weekend. Not bad for that job but I wouldn't want to rely on it under pavers.

[V]

The wife's pretty happy because she finally got the arbour she's been asking for. 'Designed' it in Sketchup, and built it out of some cedar boards. Pretty happy with how it turned out! Sorry if the picture is huge. Not sure how to fix that.

[rbochan]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

Looking at laying some pavers...

Is that what the kids are calling it these days?

[Fuzz]

I'll thank that...but has anyone done this? Or am I the first guy on CP to drop a brick?

[Red]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

Looking at laying some pavers. Space is aprox 3' x 35'. Any idea how long that would take me? I should only have to cut pavers at the ends of the long section so I think it will go pretty quick. The reason I ask is I will have to rent a plate compactor to compact the bedding rock and at the end of the job. Trying to decide if I should rent it once for a long period or twice for a short one.

The grunt of the work will be in prep...you need to get rid of all black soil. You should dig to clay and then put 3-4 inches of gravel. Then 1/2 inch of sand for final leveling of stones. Compacting that area won't take more than a couple of hours, but it would be best to wet it a few times too. So take your time before laying stone.

[Fuzz]

I've got most of the area dug down to clay. My plan is to lay fabric, put in 2" of gravel, wet it then go rent the compactor, compact that, add another 2", compact then an inch of sand and finally brick, then the gap sand and compact again. So I'm kind of wondering if I can get it done in a 24 hour period on one rental, or if I should go with 2 rentals of shorter periods.

[GreenLantern]

I asked this in the HI thread but I think I should ask it here. Got my deck and stairs done last year but I have to start on the rest of the yard now. We put down crushed gravel last year so I won't be paving till the fall or next spring, want to focus on the yard. I got a buddy coming to grade and lay top soil down next week then I need to do sprinklers, fence and sod. Just curious what order you guys did those in? Also for the wooden fence, how much did it cost you per foot approximately? Google says a contractor is around 25-35 bucks a foot depending. I've got about 100 feet total. I've also got two neighbours willing to split the cost/help and a father in law that knows what he is doing.

[Red]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

I've got most of the area dug down to clay. My plan is to lay fabric, put in 2" of gravel, wet it then go rent the compactor, compact that, add another 2", compact then an inch of sand and finally brick, then the gap sand and compact again. So I'm kind of wondering if I can get it done in a 24 hour period on one rental, or if I should go with 2 rentals of shorter periods.

Probably doable especially if your pavers are bigger. The little bricks take lots of time to set.

[octothorp]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

I've got most of the area dug down to clay. My plan is to lay fabric, put in 2" of gravel, wet it then go rent the compactor, compact that, add another 2", compact then an inch of sand and finally brick, then the gap sand and compact again. So I'm kind of wondering if I can get it done in a 24 hour period on one rental, or if I should go with 2 rentals of shorter periods.

I did this a few weeks ago. I did a 48 hour our rental on a plate compactor. For the area we had, I definitely could have gone with a couple 1 hour rentals in retrospect, but at the time I didn't want to haul the compactor back and forth a bunch of times. Eventually we decided to hand-tamp at the end, because we were using old red bricks which were crumbling a bit under the plate compactor (not an issue for modern pavers).

From what you describe, if you've got everything ready to go, you can probably do your first compacting in about 15 minutes, another 15 minutes to lay down the 2nd layer of gravel, another 15 minutes compacting, and then take it back. Then rent again at the end of the process.

I'm not sure about other places, but Home Depot is pretty good about letting you adjust your rentals on the fly.

[Fuzz]

They are the standard brick size, 4x8. Thanks guys. When you hand tamped on the top of the bricks did that actually help? I thought it was more about needing a vibrating effect to jiggle the sand into the gaps and up from bellow.

[octothorp]

It seemed to work okay for us, but we'll see after a few good rains. (We've still got to do this last step for part of our yard). Ours is intended to look 'rustic' so we were okay with knowing that there might be some settling. Depending on the gap I don't think working the sand into the gaps is an issue. Ours typically have a 1/8" to 1/4" gap, in part to accommodate the occasionally irregular dimensions of the bricks we were using. If your pavers fit well, you might opt for a smaller gap and then working sand into the gaps would probably require a compactor.

*Absolutely everything I say here should be taken with the context that I'm nowhere close to an expert on any of this. I did a lot of online research on this myself, and basically came to the conclusion that there are contradictory opinions on absolutely everything related to laying pavers. Our decision process involved a lot of my wife and I going back and forth about how we should do it until one of us got frustrated and said "let's just do it this way."

[Fuzz]

Ya, I've read a lot of contradictory stuff! I'm going with the holland pavers, so they will fit tight.
http://www.expocrete.com/residential...p#!prettyPhoto

[surferguy]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

I've got most of the area dug down to clay. My plan is to lay fabric, put in 2" of gravel, wet it then go rent the compactor, compact that, add another 2", compact then an inch of sand and finally brick, then the gap sand and compact again. So I'm kind of wondering if I can get it done in a 24 hour period on one rental, or if I should go with 2 rentals of shorter periods.

Hey bud - go with two shorter rentals so that you dont rush yourself. Do a quality job and be happy with it

[Fuzz]

No way man! I need to get it done so I can have beer sooner! Or you could swing by and help.

[Fuzz]

I did the concrete steps and sidewalk this weekend. Think it turned out all right. The rain in the middle of the job made it a bit tricky.

[surferguy]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

No way man! I need to get it done so I can have beer sooner! Or you could swing by and help.

Beer after the work completed - most popular DIY myth

[Fuzz]

This is what was there before:



Stupid useless wall. Unfortunately under it was a footing, so removing that damaged the asphalt a bit. I'll cut a straight line on Friday.

The concrete all the way to the front door had crumbled, and there were narrow uneven steps. So this was my "blank slate"

This section is where I am doing pavers, down to the street. The city wouldn't let me make my driveway any wider with asphalt or cement, but "non-permanent" pavers are fine. Ugh. whatever. So the benefit of this is I will be able to get one vehicle past the other as the driveway is long, and we are always doing the shuffle. Which sucks.

You can see one of the slate coloured pavers in the bottom left. To the left of the pavers I'll be doing an edging with these:

The cleared slope are is still a little uncertain, but it will be planted with perennials. I may leave it sloped or do multi-terraced beds. Probably a bit of both. I'll see what it is looking like once the pavers are in. That stage may take awhile as I've got a vacation coming up, so it might be delayed until mid-July.

[gaffobohs]

So our back garden is full of dandelions! Do any of the weed killers actually work or do they have to be pulled out by the roots?


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[Fuzz]

Both.

Yo are a bit late though. I had good success about a month ago spraying them, watching them wither then removing them. We will see if that worked by the fall, but so far I've got about 90% success rate on the area I treated. You want anything with 2-4D, like roundup, or Wilsons Weed out. If you have pets, careful.

[Schraderbrau]

Originally Posted by gaffobohs

So our back garden is full of dandelions! Do any of the weed killers actually work or do they have to be pulled out by the roots?


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I have always used killex and it seems to work well.

I have a weird weed in my yard called perenannial bluegrass that I guess is a tough one to control. Has anyone had to deal with this and know how to get rid of it without killing the remaining grass?