How to Pave a Courtyard

Plan Your Paving

• 1

  Check to see if there are any permits required to pave a courtyard in your local area; obtain the necessary permissions, if so. Check with your utility providers to verify there are no pipes or wires that you may hit when you excavate.

• 2

  Measure the entire area you want to pave. Draw a blueprint for your courtyard to scale with your measurements.

• 3

  Determine the type and size of the stones you want to use to pave the area. Your local building supply store can tell you what your options are.

• 4

  Stake out the area you want to pave. Tie the stakes together with string to clearly mark your paving area.

• 5

  Use 2-by-4 lumber to mark out the straight edges of your building area. Mark out curved areas with strings.

• 6

  Determine the required slope that you need. Your paving should slope in the direction you want water to drain at a rate of approximately 1 inch for every 6 feet of paving. Determine where the high point of the paving needs to be and where it will drain to.

Prepare to Pave

• 7

  Excavate the area. If you are only paving a small courtyard, you may be able to do this by hand. If you are working with a larger area, you may want to hire a contractor to come in with a small excavator to remove the material. You should dig out at least 4 inches for fill material beneath your pavers. So if your pavers are 2-inches thick, you should excavate close to a total of 6 inches. Higher traffic courtyards may want to provide a deeper fill layer.

• 8

  Compress the soil at the bottom of the excavation floor. Use a hand tamper if you are only working in a small area. If you are paving a large courtyard, rent a plate compacter instead.

• 9

  Lay a foundation with gravel. Leave some room in your allocated foundation space to fill with a top fill material. Throughout every step of laying the foundation, remember the required grade that you calculated during your preparation.

• 10

  Compact the gravel as you lay it using your rented tool. For every 3 inches of gravel that you decide to lay, wet the gravel with a garden house and compact it again. Make sure it is solid and does not shift when you step on it before proceeding.

• 11

  Verify the grade is maintained. Run a line from the high point of the grade to the low point. Make sure you have achieved the desired slope by measuring from the top of the line to the grade at 6-foot intervals.

• 12

  Install restraints. You can buy restraints made of a variety of materials from your building supply store. Install them outside the edges of the project so the pavers will not shift.

• 13

  Lay down a layer of sand on top of the gravel. If paving a large area, use 1-inch diameter piping to divide the work area into 6-foot sections. Make sure the top of each of your rails is at the necessary height for your required grade. Fill each section with sand. Drag a 2-by-4 with the straight edge across the sand until it is completely smooth. Remove the pipes and fill in the gaps with sand and smooth with the 2-by-4 again. Make absolutely certain that the surface is completely smooth. Lay your level on the sand to make sure your sand is sloping in the correct direction.

Lay the Pavers

• 14

  Lay the paving stones in place based on the pattern you decided upon. Make sure to keep everything straight; leave approximately 1/8-inch between the stones. Start in a corner and work your way out to the ends.

• 15

  Use a brick saw to cut any pavers that you need to fit to curves or to complete edges where the distance is not an even multiple of your paver size.

• 16

  Dump fine sand on top of the pavers once they are all in place. Use a broom to sweep the sand into all the cracks between the pavers.

• 17

  Tamp down the stones and the sand using your packing tool. Put another layer of fill sand on top of the stones and sweep it into the cracks and pack it a second time to ensure a good tight fit.