On 2/28/2011 6:20 PM, SteveB wrote:
"Jeff wrote

http://www.geckostone.com/pavers.html

I think too much time or too many molds to do this yourself. Commercial
precast too much.

I can't work it out how to do it frugally. I think it has to be poured in
place, but it could be divided up easily. Not like trapezoids are hard to
form. You can even form winding walkways. Or Mirror Image to form
straight. I can see this will take some time to stake out, or not! Are
there any rules?

Biggest one I learned was to have enough or more than enough help so you got
it how you want it when it starts to set.

I seem to have the opposite problem. Getting rid of excess help!

Everyone wants the work. And I provide good working conditions, food,
drink, mota, but I'm a piker on the hookers. Who knew?


That takes experienced people if
you are stamping. If you do pavers, rule is to be sure to compact and grade
the substrate. Once you start tossing pavers, WYSIWYG. If you choose
stamping or patterning, be sure you got help that is very experienced, and
probably more than one man, or you will end up with a nightmare.


and come up with a much nicer
look than just concrete or even stamped or textured concrete. The
driveway's just a driveway.

I'm going to finish my paver back porch, about 450 sf

That is huge.

Hell, the back porch and wrap around was about 700sf. I put a 34 x 14 metal
awning over that. The metal was around $1700, engineered to over 100 mph
wind, and it gets 60 here frequently.

Yow!

All good, except for the damn clear
plastic partial panels which now leak, which I told SWMBO
would............... I need to cover the roughly 225sf that will be under
metal on this one, then join the two with the curving paved part. Have
about 250 sf down now.



as soon as this damn
mud goes away ............... Do a nice cut in design in the field, and
different edgers. Get fancy with my new tile saw.


What are your tiles made of? You are putting this on a "mud" bed?

Standard pavers 5+" x 8" x 2+" thick. Big bricks with little tits for
spacing. Some 5+" square, all done in a repeat pattern. Well, we have sand
dune sand, and it turns to mush with the snow and rain. I am going to put a
small sump pump in the center of the field in a raised circle planter.

I lieu of a swamp!

Already have a French drain in there, but we hit caliche, so ......... We
had a long freeze this year, and it took a long time to dry out. Then it's
back to blowsand. Granular beach sand more than fine talc mud.

What we have here is red clay, it doesn't really drain, but nothing is
level so if you have the slopes right there is no standing water.

I'll post flickr pictures as it goes. The kitchen was a long job, and I am
on strike now for a few months until this weather warms up. Sure came out
nice, though. Worth all the SWMBO PITAs. And a lot of metalwork to do to
shade my shop needs to be done, too. Using this time to get my blog and
book going.

This sounds really nice. I just need a nice little patio though and I
want to make it nice but not elaborate. These are all little bonuses for
my tenants and I don't want to spend more than I'm taking in. It's
amusing so far, and I like it that way!

Jeff