Summer is Now Officially Over!

Summer is now officially over, and everyone is looking forward to the cooler weather. We continuously have been working long hours to complete various projects. One of the more memorable projects took place in Harrisburg, for a homeowner that was looking to replace a brick patio with pavers. In addition to this, our job was to install steps from that old brick patio to the newly installed hot tub. We also created another paver area under an eventual pergola. To begin this project, we first had to remove all the bricks on the old patio. We stacked the bricks on empty skids so that we could easily haul them off site. The next step was to bring in stone dust as a bedding layer for the new pavers. Since we were replacing the bricks with pavers, there was no need to use 2a modified, as there was already stone under the bricks. Once the bedding layer was set appropriately, we could begin setting our pavers. A majority of the existing patio was a rectangle, until we started working out towards the steps we were going to install. In saying this, we did have to make some cuts to the pavers with the demo saw. Once all the pavers were in place, we could add the necessary paver edging and sweep the poly sand in the joints. The next step of the project was to install the walking steps, which connected the bottom patio area to the hot tub deck, and eventually the upper patio area. To make room for the bottom step, we had to slightly shorten the existing retaining wall so that the step would fit between the wall and the fence. To maneuver these large steps, we attached a block clamp to our mini excavator. Typically, this clamp is used to move retaining wall block, but it can be adjusted to move steps. After starting from the bottom, we worked our way to the top, where we created a small “landing” area that was just off the deck of the hot tub. The landing area consisted of a very short paver area. Once this phase of the project was completed, we could begin to excavate the upper patio area. Once we removed the necessary dirt, we needed to dig four holes for the sonotubes. These sonotubes were used to install the pergola. Once these tubes were where they needed to be, we could bring in our 2a modified stone. After this was installed at the appropriate level, we ran our plate compactor over the area to compact the stone and gives us a solid base. Next, we leveled up a thin bedding layer of stone dust to lay the pavers on top. Once this more tedious work was completed, we could start laying out the pavers. After adding some poly sand and edging around the patio, we completed the hardscape aspect of the project. To finish off, we added some sifted topsoil and seed around the upper patio. Here’s a few pictures below!