Laying a patio: Why do we need a retaining wall?

The night before we dove into patio laying we had spent 5 hours loading and unloading craigslist bought pavers. See our post Laying a Patio: Craigslist Pavers to see the insanity. We both felt the excitement of getting our pavers and seeing our dream of having a large patio area, we of course wanted to start laying right away. But our patio had to remain in the trailer for a few weeks until we had finished preparing the area. (of course we didn't do this ahead of time, we got ahead of ourselves but that is normal) We had to address the number one issue of having a patio - making it level.









Step 1: Build a retaining wall

The area we decided to put the patio on sloped down. So in order to make the whole thing the same level we had to build up the outside then work our way in. We built a retaining wall from the corner of our concrete pad to the fence on the other side. I was very confused why we needed this at all. We had one of those moments where David had to patiently show me (at least 3 times) why we were doing this.

To build the wall we needed supplies: 30 stone retaining wall pieces, shovel, a level, a rubber mallet, red breeze (clay dirt), and the most important is gloves! I still have black finger nails from smashing them between the wall pieces.

To lay the wall we started with the highest point. The rest of the pavers are to line up with our concrete slab. We used red breeze to raise any low points. The breeze is also a compact clay that will keep the stone pieces in place. Each piece was gently hammered into submission and then checked with a level. As we moved down the slope became more severe and so required two pieces to create the level plane. 

Now I get it! If we hadn't created the retaining wall the patio would be a slide. Everything would slope down.

Step 2: External Perimeter

To make sure we had a level perimeter around the entire patio we also used fence pickets to create a border. This border was also vital for the next step which would be filling in the low spots with dirt.

Supplies: wood screws, fence pickets, right angle, two sets of hands, a

We used the string level to line up tops of the pickets with the tops of the parallel retaining wall. We then screwed in the fence pickets to the existing fence. This created a straight line all the way around the perimeter of the patio. Giving us a solid point of reference so that we could eyeball the high a low spots.

Once we had installed the pickets we filled in the gap between the pickets and the existing fence with dirt to make the whole thing solid. But we are still not ready to lay down pavers. I am getting anxsty at this point. But hub is patient and methodical we must do it right the first time. The following weekend we will do the final push to level and lay pavers. I hope!