I finally go myself on the job about 1:30 this afternoon. Right away I noticed how tired my lower back muscles are. No pain just tired and and sore. I set everything up and built the patio frame, set it in place, touched up the grade inside the frame a bit, put down the anti-weed barrier and brought in a couple of barrows of sand. I wanted to pin the weed barrier down and to see how wicked the sand was going to be to move. In practice a moderately loaded barrow of sand is much lighter and easier to handle than a load of 8 pavers. Getting the sand out of the upper bags is a challenge though. The good news it that I do not have to bend over and torque my back. The bad news is that it is all arm work and my arms are not used to this sort of effort. Once again I will just have to take my time. It is the one thing I have plenty of (I hope).
I have not used the weed barrier before so this is a learning experience. It seems like it would be helpful to staple it to the frame but I do not have a stapler with me so I will just lap it over the edge and cut it off later, either after the sand is in or after the blocks are in place, assuming I can screed the sand adequately with the fabric on the frame.
Ideally I would start at one end and put in sand then some rows of blocks then more sand, more blocks, etc., but in this situation I cannot get past the frame with the wheelbarrow and I cannot run a full wheelbarrow on the incomplete patio so I have decided to put all or most of the sand in first then start and the upper (south) end and work my way down. I think it will come out OK if the animals do not have too big a field day in the sand.
The Raw Frame Sitting on the Ground
The Frame Straightened out and Staked in Place
The Weed Barrier
The Weed Barrier with Some Sand to Hold it in Place
That Did Not Take Long
The Prime Suspect - Notice the Shifty Look - Obviously a Hard Case
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