Hit 213 pavers in one afternoon and my back called it quits

I've been redoing my patio strip along the garage for the last three Saturdays. Yesterday I decided to count each paver as I laid them, just to keep my brain busy. When I got to 213, I stopped because my knees were screaming and I ran out of sand. That number felt huge to me because the old estimate I got from a contractor in Phoenix said 400 pavers would take two professionals a full day. I did over half that solo in about five hours, which honestly surprised me. But the gaps are not perfect and two pavers are already rocking when I step on them. Before I lock everything in with polymeric sand, should I pull those two up and re-level, or is a little wiggle fixable with more sand? Has anyone else hit a similar count and then had to redo a section the next day?

1 comments

1 Comment

avery21920h ago

I saw a contractor on a DIY show say that rocking pavers only get worse once you lock them in with sand. That polymeric sand is meant to fill joints and hold everything tight, but it won't fix a base that's already uneven. I'd pull those two up, scrape out a little extra base material under the low side, and tap them back down. Way easier to fix now than to deal with a tripping hazard next month.