[Delos]

I am going to be starting my first paver experience soon! I will be putting in a 14 by 20 foot patio off the back of my house withan approx. 40 by 3 foot walkway to a door in back of my garage. I am not going to have the patio flush with my lawn. Right now my lawn sits about 18 inches below my patio door so I am thinking of having th patio be approx one step below the door level. This way I can have one step out of the patio door to the patio, and one step down to the yard level.

Anyways, I would like to build a wall on the two sides and about a quarter of the way in on both sides of the front. Maybe having the wall go above the patio surface 6 inches. Three steps will be needed, one out of the patio door onto the patio, one on the front of the patio onto the lawn, and one on the side of the patio onto the walkway. I want these to be curved wide steps made of pavers too. I hope I'm describing this ok?!

So my question is how do I make the walls and the steps?? I have the basic principle of how to do the walk and patio....compact gravel 6 inches, hten sand 2 inches, level, lay pavers, fill with sand, and compact. But I'm not sure if I need to lay cement under the wall and steps? Or just do the compact and sand thing? And what is the best way to do the steps with pavers?

Any help would be great, sorry this is so long!

[Lawn Lad]

You can lay the entire patio and retaining walls on the same base. You might consider keeping the patio at the same level as the lawn and adding another step by the house. You'll save a lot of material and labor laying the short retaining wall. The most time intensive course if the first one, the base course. Sounds like at best you'd be laying one or two courses with a cap stone. Cap stone is expensive too. If you've got top soil where the lawn is now, you'll need to excavate that to solid clay for the best footing for your patio. At least 6" to 8". If you find clay 4" down, you could then build up 6" from there with base, add bedding course and the brick and be three to four inches above your lawn grade. In this case I'd then add top soil and blend the existing lawn to your new patio grade, skipping the retaining wall.

Your steps will be built out of retaining wall stone and cap stones for the treads. You really won't use pavers to build the steps unless you have a larger stoop in which case you would lay the pavers in the stoop area. You would build your steps/stoop first and then lay your patio. You'll need to make your calculations on where to set your first stone, so take some time figuring out your finished height before you set the first one since everything else will be based on it.