Patio Perfect

Pretty much from the moment we moved in, we knew our back yard needed some sort of facelift. There was nothing terribly bad about it: standard 8' x 8' concrete patio, grass, a DIY paver BBQ pad and some small trees. But we knew that it wouldn't fit our needs of having a little explorer-man running around.


So we set out thinking about what we wanted. A new patio/ deck was definitely in order. We pondered a bit about materials of construction: wood, pavers, concrete, etc. We settled on pavers - bricks that are laid in place without mortar or spaces between them. This has become a Rhyne-Family tradition. Grammy & Grandpa Rhyne have a paver patio, Zach & Karen put in a paver patio once their daughter *P was enroute, and so now we joined the club. We had our plan: patio, BBQ pad OUT! We settled on a pattern and color and hoped for the best. So we started out taking out the existing features and doing all of the demolition that was needed for the installation of the new patio. Andy had the opportunity to play with a jackhammer and angle grinder to take out the concrete patio.

Minerva, of course, inspected everything along the way for any safety violations. Next to come out was the grass. There was grass in the area that we wanted to install out patio, but we decided to remove ALL of it so that we can look ahead to finishing the second half of the yard.

So now that the patio, grass and BBQ pad were gone, all that was left was dirt. We ended up removing about 6 cubic yards of dirt, or about 6 completely overloaded truckfuls. Fun.

Now it was time for our help to arrive. This entire project became possible because Grandpa Charlie was able to make the trip up to help. His experience is endless with having put in his own patio, helped Zach put in their patio, and was involved in other installations during his job at a local landscaper. Charlie came equipped not only with his experience and dirty work pants, but with a plan. It's not so simple to just lay down nearly 300 square feet of bricks. First, we were to excavate to the appropriate depth and begin forming our grade for drainage. Next, we were to pour a concrete footing around the entire patio border for the edges to be mortared down to in order to keep all the other bricks in place.

Bare feet, beer and 24 bags of concrete - that's how we roll.


Once the forms were done, we were able to move in the 3 cubic yards of road base (rock) and 1 cubic yard of sand. Once these were leveled properly, the bricks were all that remained! Our plan included a channel drain that would run the width of the patio and remove any water collected (that's the small interruption you'll see in the patio from here on out).


And finally it was all done! When Grandpa Rhyne left us, all of the bricks were in. Three of the four sides of the soldier course (the mortared down edge) still needed to be mortared, about a dozen bricks needed cutting to be put in place and our drain still needed to be attached to the house drain. Andy took care of these items over the next couple of weeks to get to the final product you see here.


Special thanks on this project go to of course Charlie Rhyne for making the trip up here. Also, Matt Groener for putting more than his share of time hauling dirt here and there. Katie, Alton and Jennifer Rhyne were especially tolerant of the time and frustration that was needed to get this done, essentially, in 4 days. Katie was the one that kept Charlie and Andy alive past the morning of day 2. And now for some random pictures from the project.... enjoy!

Charlie, the smile indicates this is early in the project.

Andy. With a beer. In a hole he dug.

Like father, like son.

The first bricks that went down were actually mortared in place under the sliding door.

The finished product, facing the slider.

And, of course, the family using the new patio. Yay!