Backyard Paradise Features Paver Patio Installation

This week, we’re bringing a West Virginia family some Backyard Paradise.

Each year, we host a contest with our friends from Pavestone and Quikrete called Backyard Paradise. This year’s winner is from a small town in West Virginia called Hurricane.

Donna Petry and her husband, Steven, share this home with their kids, Andrew and Morgan. The family spends a lot of time out in the yard, so they want to maximize their opportunities for recreation.

They have a deck, but some of the wood is rotting and the paint is peeling. They have a small patio area, but it’s just for grilling. And they have a small fire pit, but it’s not their yard’s most attractive feature.

Here’s our plan: We’ll repair the deck’s handrails and then stain the deck. Their new paver patio will begin at the foot of the stairs and angle out into the yard with a seat wall and a built-in grill at the far edge.

Finally, a large fire pit will be tucked into the outer corner and columns around the edge of the patio will support café lights above the area.

Repairing the Deck

It might surprise you how dangerous your deck railing may be. This particular one was not even attached to the house, and that’s an accident waiting to happen.

Before we stain the deck, we need to prep it well, so we’re scraping all of the peeling parts and then sanding all the transitions between what’s left of the old stain and the old wood underneath.

The pavers are a reddish / maroon and gray, so Donna needs to determine which color to paint the deck. She likes a coffee color.

It’s a great choice, because the deck, the playset and the picnic table will be the same color, which will tie this entire backyard together.  

Excavating the Area

First, we want stormwater to run off the new patio and toward the backyard, because drainage is important. So, the Pavestone crew lays out the patio and digs drainage lines.

The guys install a trench about 18 inches deep to move water from the downspout, through the drainage system and about 15 feet away from the house.

That’s much better than doing what some folks do, which is to turn the downspout and let it run all over the pavers! Water is a powerful force and it would erode that patio over time.

Next, the guys bring in a sod cutter to make it easy to peel off the grass. After that, they take Portland cement and rototill that into the dirt. That provides a strong sub-base for this project.