Hey all,
Hope you’re all having a great week! We were a little ambitious this Sunday afternoon/evening. While I was watching Locke and Key (who’s into it?) Chris came home from a ride and we started talking about our trash bins. I know, riveting conversation! But this little project has been on our radar for some time. We have leftover brick pavers from our 2020 patio creation (I’ll be posting that in the future too.) And we always said the best place to use up those leftover pavers would be to create a platform where our trash bins sit. It was just a muddy patch that my dog likes to scratch and eat the loose dirt. Does anyone else’s dog do that?
Anywho, we really wanted to tackle this project before the snow falls and so it was on the top of our to-do list. We just really needed to get down and do it. Let me tell you, from the start of the conversation to the finish, it only took about 3 hours! Which I think is pretty good considering that was the “should we do this conversation” to measuring and planning the design, and even a store trip, to obviously the install.
Sadly we found out we only had about 60% of the bricks and we couldn’t find the same type at any of the major improvement stores and all the small local nurseries were already closed. We pivoted!
We found that we could use the original pavers as a border and then we found some nice sand colored two by two pavers for the middle. It all fit together perfectly! It was all very satisfying.
We got about 9 cement sized bags of sand to put under the pavers and to coat as well. It is still a little sandy covered and the weather has been cloudy and rainy all week. Apologies for the not great after pics. Once the weather gets nicer I may update some after photos.
The execution was pretty straightforward. We dug down about 3 – 4 inches. Which was pretty easy because, like I said, it was basically a dirt patch. Then we laid down the base about an inch and laid down the bricks as close and tight as we could. Once that was done, that took about 10 – 15 mins. Then it was just using the last of the sand to get in all the cracks. Something to note, is that normally if we were doing a bigger area, or if it wasn’t butted up to so many hard borders (one side it the sidewalk, the other the stairs, and the third the foundation of the house, so there really is only one “open” area) is that we would have gotten some edging and using a tamper. But given the small footprint and the fact that it is snugged in there we thought just stomping down would suffice. It’s been about three days and we’ve pulled the bins in and out etc and haven’t seen any shifting. But just consider where your pavers are located.
To say that we are completely happy and relieved it was such a painless, quick, and budget friendly upgrade is an understatement! Did any of you do some quick and satisfying projects this weekend? If you have a similar space I would encourage it! Let me know in the comments if you have any questions, or what kind of paver design you’d like to tackle!
