1~ Layout. Here we will be building a round patio because it is one of the more difficult designs.

You can create any shape you like with stone or pavers buy just leveling the whole area you want to cover and then laying the medium of your choice.

To begin the 7’ circle, choose the center point of the patio and drive in one of your edging spikes. Use a tape measure at 4 feet hooked to the spike and draw a circle with a hose, spray paint, garden pick or whatever works.

2~ Dig the circle out level. It is of great importance that you don’t disturb the soil any deeper than your final depth unless the ground is not rock hard, or if your area has a heavy freeze - thaw cycle, dig about 8” to deep and fill it with crushed rock and compact it tight for a foundation. It’s easiest if you don’t loose track of the center point through the whole process so be careful of the center spike. The depth of the excavation will depend upon what goes around the finished patio and the thickness of the material you are building it out of. You will want a bed of sand three inches thick and patio pavers are about 2-½” thick so if you wanted grass around the patio you will want to excavate at about 3-½” this will leave the finished patio at 2” above ground level leaving room for the sod to grow up to. If your not sure go a little on the high side so you don’t end up with a pond when it rains.

Get the excavation as level as possible although the sand will perfect the final grade it’s easier to accomplish if it’s done in the dirt first.

3~ Fill the excavation with sand and pack it in to a level three inch bed. Watering it in a bit will realy settle it in but be careful not to use to much because if the dirt underneath becomes muddy your pavers may settle unevenly and look awful. Use a level to scrape or “screed” the sand scraping off the high spots and sprinkling it in the low spots all the while packing it tight. The finished results should look almost like concrete which you can use instead of sand if you are comfortable with it. If there are uneven spots or soft spots in the sand you will have uneven pavers in your patio so above all steps, take your time on this one and get it perfect!

4~ Now your ready to start laying the stone or pavers. Use a wide cold chisel and score all the way around where you want it to break. Gloves are great and eye protection is a must. The best way for a novice to get ideal results with both pavers and stone is to purchase mason blades for a common skill saw and use this to score deeply all the way around before breaking with the chisel. However you will need to use a quality respirator capable of filtering silica dust to cut mason products.

5~ Remove the center spike and place your center pieces. For this round paver patio, each circle will be a different pattern of shapes after you’ve laid the pattern all the way around you may come out with a gap between the last and the first paver. If this is the case spacing each paver about 1/8” apart will solve this problem. You can purchase spacers and place them in twos in each side space to get it real perfect. If you run out of spacers carefully remove some from the rows done earlier.

Keep taping the stones with a rubber mallet or the toe of your boot towards the center as you work to keep them tight to each other being careful not to disturb the spacers and extra careful if you’ve removed some already for outer rows.

The patterns for a 7’ circle are as follows:

A) Center~ two piece

B) 1st Row~ Sm-Repeat. 

C) 2nd Row~ Sm-Sq-Repeat.

D) 3rd Row~ Lrg-Repeat.

E) 4th Row~ Sq-Lrg-Lrg-Lrg-Repeat.

F) 5th Row~ Lrg-Sq-Lrg-Lrg-Sq-Repeat.

G) 6th Row~ Sq-Lrg-Repeat.

H) 7th Row~ Sq-Lrg-Sq-Lrg-Sq-Sq-Lrg-Repeat

6~ When all your pavers are laid out, sprinkle sand over the whole thing and carefully sweep it into the cracks . Do not walk on the patio until you’ve completed step 10.

The sand in the cracks will hold the bricks in place much more securely than the spacers while you install the edging which holds it all tightly together.

7~ If you are doing other than straight lines with your patio you will need to cut through the back rib of the edging so it can easily be bent to the contour of your patio.

8~ lay the edging roughly around the patio and Snap the pieces together cut the final piece to the proper length being sure there isn’t a space greater than half a paver between the start and finish of the edging.

9~ space your spikes at even intervals around the entire patio and pound them in. I like to have a spike at the end of each piece of edging and another right next to it at the beginning of the next. Also if a spike goes in a little easier than it should add extras around it.

10~ Finally, keep adding sand to the surface and sweeping it into the cracks including the crack between the edging and the patio. Add sand sweep it in, add sand sweep it in. when you think the cracks are all good and full wet it with a hose and let it dry out or “set up“. If there are still cracks give it one last sand sweep and it should be excellent!