munirardiBackyard Designs Using Pavers – I recently assembled a deck off my backdoor/backyard patio, leaving about 3″ vertical space between the base of the decking end board as well as the outer 1″ edge of the veranda. Once the deck was done, its new-ness next to the old, stained and pitted concrete veranda (18×10) needed my focus. I entertained jackhammering it out and re-pouring a fresh concrete patio but immediately changed my mind after looking at pavers on sale at Home Depot (and a little intimidation about removing and hauling away all that concrete).
Now you should be warned, my job is process and my own design with no long term results yet. I doubt a professional would use it; yet, for a 40 guy on a shoestring budget doing a paver job over the weekend, my strategy seemed “sound enough”. Why not let the concrete veranda be a base for pavers.
On Saturday, I power washed the patio to eliminate mildew and algae with a bleach solution. The veranda connects below the adjacent kitchenette alcove and also the backdoor to the base wall. I removed the footer/kick board below the door so that I really could butt the pavers up to the foundation wall. Subsequently for outer edges of veranda and the exposed side I constructed a framework using some remaining 5/4×6 from the deck in order to hold the pavers in place during the cementing procedure.
Subsequently I used a 5/4×6 board to step onto the sand as I placed the pavers. Beginning from the veranda where it joins to the foundation wall, I placed a row of pavers making a 1/2″ gap all the way around. I kept adding rows of pavers all the approach to the exterior edge of the veranda (fortunately, the last row lined up without repositioning that was an excessive amount of) with the outer edge of veranda. In the kitchenette side of the porch where 12″x12″ pavers wouldn’t match, I put pieces and sections of paver (that I created by dropping them onto the driveway to break them up) to create an atypical, mosaic pattern along that edge of patio.
Once the pattern was laid out with pavers in the sand, I used a gutter scoop to pour/sprinkle mortar powder into all of the gaps, ensuring adequate mortar filled the opening up above the bevel but not to the straight edge of the paver. And then I used a mist pattern from the garden hose to lightly wet the mortar which also had the effect of washing free mortar into the gaps on top of the paver. About 30 minutes later, I went back over the whole veranda with a shower water pattern, soaking the mortar slightly more. Afterward about 30 minutes after, I ran a final soaking water pattern over the entire veranda to soak all the mortar across the pavers.
On Monday, a firm were walking, paved veranda that looks nice and provides extra height for the step up to my Dek-Block 12×20 floating deck. An already was provided by using the existing concrete veranda -sloped foundation for rain and water to run off below the deck. We are ready for summer!
