The Paver Project - Part 2

 Part 2 of the paver project begins today.   To start with, I found an angel working at the equipment rental shop.  She offered to let me have the Jumping Jack compactor through the weekend, for only 1 day's rental fee!  Sweet!  This means we have TIME to do it all right, and to go buy more supplies as needed, without worrying about the clock ticking on the rental.

Jumping Jack

I have measured the excavation depths, and thought that everything was deeper than necessary, so other than some edge cleanup, I didn't think there would be any more digging required.  WRONG!  We need to trench the edge pavers about 5" deeper than everything else, so they will match the flat paver elevation.  Oops.  See?

Setting the first edge stones.

Trench dirt for backfilling.

The conduit is used for when we scree the sand base, and it also gives us a fixed 1-inch height to measure our edge pavers against for our finished height.  The flat 4-square stone is the main decking paver we will be using.

Tomorrow morning, we will put down the paver base over the rest of the dirt, and pack it with the Jumping Jack.  Joy...that thing is a challenge to use!  It really will beat/shake you to death.  DH and I ran it together--he muscled it around, and I stabilized it and helped steer it.  I don't know how those construction guys run one of those all day long!

Maybe I should go back out tonight and dig some more trench...it would save some time tomorrow.  Or  maybe not...