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I finally got my paver patio level after 4 tries
My neighbor Bob watched me struggle for 3 hours then said 'you're fighting the base, not the pavers' and I realized I'd been skipping the compacting step entirely, has anyone else had a basic technique click later than it should have?
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lee8471d agoTop Commenter
Hated it when I figured that out too, spent a whole weekend redoing my back walkway after realizing I'd been rushing the base work. Compacted gravel in thin lifts made everything so much more stable and flat, I felt like an idiot for not catching it sooner. Did you end up redoing the whole patio or just add compacting and hope for the best?
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Make sure you're compacting in layers too, not just one big pour of gravel. I did 2 inches at a time with a hand tamper and my patio hasn't moved a bit since last summer. Skipping that step is like laying your pavers on a trampoline, it'll look decent for a week then start sinking.
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reed.elliot8d ago
Wait, FOUR tries? And you were skipping the compacting step entirely? Dude, that's like trying to bake a cake without preheating the oven. I did the same thing with my first retaining wall, spent two whole weekends watching it slowly bow out because I just tossed the gravel in there and spread it with my hands. Seriously though, once you dial in that you're building a solid base not just arranging bricks, everything changes. I still look at my first corner from three years ago and it's wavy as a potato chip.
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