[Pelican]

site, any metal supply house should have or be able to get the aluminum. It's standard angle stock.

Good idea AZTLANLC!!

[Stonehenge]

Originally posted by Stone Art, Inc.
After screeding out our sand we wet down the bed, compact then fluff.

Stone Art - can you explain that "compact, then fluff" process? I'm not sure I've ever heard of that, but am always looking to understand other ways of handling a task.

Aztlan, I think I recall another discussion about this screed idea, and I thought it was great then, too. I just need to remember to try it out some time....

[AZTLANLC]

Pelican is right on it, where you can get that stuff I found the metal supply in the YP.
Stone, after you get one of this rakes you'll be amazed how much faster is to screed and easy on your knees and back, I'm pretty sure that the ones from pavetech are more proffesional but at this point I need other things first.

I'm also interested in the compact then fluff method.

[Stone Art, Inc.]

I searched high and low for a pic of one of my screeders, but life is never easy. I'll take a pic tomorrow. It has a long handle similar to the pic posted earlier, but instead of aluminum it's oak, approx. 24" long, 3" wide and 2" thick with bevels, it is actually the beveled edges that come in contact with the sand.

As for the compaction/fluff thing, after the sand is screeded we wet it down, compact with a vibratory plate compactor and then apply a very light dusting of sand on top of the compacted sand. The reason we 'fluff' is encourage proper interlock, coming from both the sand setting bed as well as the joint sand.

(Not too shabby fer a girl, huh!?)

[Pelican]

I'm confused!!

What is the point of compacting your sand course, and what exactly do you mean by "fluff"? When I read it I figured you were "Fluffing up" your compacted sand with a rake.

How do you "dust" your compacted sand? Does this ensure an even coating on your compacted sand?

And finally, where did you learn this procedure? I've never heard of anything similar and am curious of its origin.

[Paul]

I have to wonder too! In over 25 years of installing interlocking pavers I have never seen it done that way. Even in Europe they use screeded sand, or at least they did 30 years ago.

[Stonehenge]

Originally posted by Stone Art, Inc.
(Not too shabby fer a girl, huh!?)

I thought 'Petra' was some european derivative of Peter... Seems I get fooled with names all the time.

So as I understand your process, no pipe are used with your screed board/rake. Having it made from oak would make sense, as I would think you'd want this rake very light (where the aluminum rake, used with screed rails, has a little more mass to it, making it stick to the screed rails a little better).

If I'm on target so far, I do wonder about how your installers can hit the correct slope for the base prep when they would seem to be going by feel, or "eyeballing it". Is this method complimented by the use of lasers or some other means to verify elevations?

[Stone Art, Inc.]

Petra is a very common name in Europe, feminine for Peter, which ironically enough means Rock, the foundation on which christianity was built, and even older than that an island of stone also named Petra, and yeah, a christian rock band too. I happen to be German.

And fluffing the sand is a German and Scandinavian method. The elevations and slope are set by a grid of string lines attached to rebar. (Those elevations are set initially by a laser level and we slope 1/4" per foot or as required) It takes longer than the conduit/straight edge method, but we find it worthwhile to spend the extra time for the end result.

[Bill Schwab]

WE have a crew leader who insists on wetting the sand then compacting. He then "fluffs it with a 60" flat rake and lays the pavers. We have had numerous people builders and alike stop to ask how we got the pavers so even...Ahhhh Duh, well, if Systems Pavers, Barzanni Pavestone and Genisis would use the amount of base the the compacters we do, after a few months their drvieways would be just as level as ours are after 5 years.

This is an interesting method, and at first, I reacted like Paul, but, after they knocked a few jobs down, I got a time bearing on the work, figured a tad more for the way they do things, and the result is what counts. I have never compacted sand myself, but this leader feels comfortable doing it this way, so we let him go to it the way he knows.

[Stone Art, Inc.]

Subgrade and base prep are key to the installation process, I completely agree. Its our policy that when installing a drive, patio, walkway, any sort of paving in the overdig area of a foundation, whether the house is old or new, to place clean rock and use a j-foot compactor as builders typically do not compact when performing final gradework on any home. Our base includes 4"-6" of AB3 (Crushed limestone, 1/2"-3/4" with fines) for a typical patio, thoroughly soaked, compacted with a plate compactor and repeated. Typical driveway installs include 10"-12" AB3 over a 2" course of 2" clean rock, clean rock and AB3 are compacted with a double drum vibratory roller, AB3 compaction is done in no more than 4" lifts. ESSENTIAL.

In our view, the sand compaction adds to the stability of the end product. When you walk on a patio laid over uncompacted sand there's give under the pavers. Most folks figure that little amount of give will work itself out when compacting the pavers. We don't leave that to chance. When compacting wet sand you leave large grooves from the equipment. We level out the grooves with additional sand and leave it loose. This encourages proper interlock from both the sand setting bed and joint sand as I'd mentioned in a previous post. This method was taught to me by a man who paved highways in Denmark and in Germany where most paved surfaces are interlocking pavers. The picture below is a driveway built in 1997 by current employees of our company.

Looks purdy good.

[Stone Art, Inc.]

Sand process pics from today. Check out our screeder.