The Paving Project

Last week we had visitors in town. My parents and brother where visiting from England to see the new house (and do some shopping). Knowing that they like to be kept busy, we'd put together a list of potential projects to work on during there stay.

The main project that was successfully completed was extending the patio path alongside the house to meet the new and soon-to-be installed driveway. Difficult weather conditions made it challenging with extremes of torrential rain and blazing sunshine. We began by splitting into two teams: one to excavate the work area, while the other sourced the paving stones. In this matter, team one made much better progress on day one.

Heavy rain over-night threatened to turn the paving project into the swimming-pool project, but after bailing out, and collecting half a pallet of stones, we were in good shape to make some progress. We then brought in extra gravel and the compactor (also-known-as "Whacker") to try and firm up the water-logged base. We also had to source extra stones for the edge due to extending the path past the edge of the house. By the fourth day we where on a tight schedule. Whacker had to be back by 3pm, so we really got down to business. An 8am start saw another round of "whacking", before we started to lay the stones.

Most of the stones went down quickly, helped by the fact that we laid out the pattern first. The edges and corners took slightly more effort (and not helped by the rising temperatures), but in the end it turned out very nicely.

Thanks to all who helped complete a successful project!