2013-07-08 - Mostly Out Of The Woods

I went out this morning and staked down the frame. I put in 4 rows of blocks and decided to take a break. I was very hot and tired and my back was very troublesome. Driving stakes with the sledge hammer had aggravated my poor old back beyond what Advil could deal with. I took some pictures then noticed I had set 3 blocks in the wrong orientation (see picture below). I guess I was more out of it than I realized. This was a bit demoralizing but I decided to deal with it later. I did some of the usual computer stuff, ate lunch and took a nice nap which I needed badly.

I went back to work in the 5:00 to 6:00 range. It was still pretty hot in the sun but around the corner the work site was in the shade and not bad. I had to take up several blocks to turn the misaligned ones. It was much easier than I expected. I had already put sand in the joints an I expected the sand to cause a problem when trying to reset the blocks but the joints are narrow enough with these blocks that there was not enough sand to cause any problem. It only took me a few minutes to repair the damage and start laying more rows. I was very careful to make sure I had each block properly oriented before setting it down in the sand. Thew routine is to screed about 20 inches of sand beyond the last row set then lug 5 blocks over and set them in place, use a screw driver to adjust alignment as necessary, sweep sand in the joints then repeat. In this case there are to be 17 rows of 5 blocks. I did 16 today.

By about 8:00 I had put in all but the last row and cleaned up most of the mess including cutting off the extra weed barrier which also was much easier than anticipated. I was every happy I had decided not to lengthen the frame ahead of time because it looks like I will have to add about double what the calculations indicated. I seem to have accumulated about 3 extra inches of length in about 21 feet. The blocks are not absolutely consistent and some joints end up wider than others. As it is it is no problem. Tomorrow I will lengthen the frame and put the last row in and be finished.

I had not worked with blocks this large before (16" x 16") and all I know about before I started setting them was that they are heavy. The advantages include that they cover more area than smaller ones I have used in the past (16" x 8") and consequently the job goes faster. They also float on the sand better due to the large size an are less inclined to wobble or rock. The only down side I can see is the weight. I was lucky to be able to stage them on the patio wall which is about 3 feet high so I did not have to bend over to pick them up, only to put them in place in the sand. My back is ready for a few days off.

If I was going to do this again I would try using 1/8 or 1/4" spacers between the blocks when setting them to try to get all the joints equally sized. Some of the blocks seem to have a small lip at the bottom and using "L" shaped spacers which would not reach the bottom of the block sides could keep the lips from holding some joints open more than others. As it turned out the variation in joints is not a major problem especially for an outdoor patio. I hope the family is satisfied with the result.

PS The patio is broken in already. One of the dogs promptly pooped on it when I went in the house for a minute.

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