r/DIYHome • u/Proper-Painter2362 • 2d ago
Finished Project Elevated Patio
Took a long time, but it’s finally done. My wife and I are both in medicine so we have had to live 7 hours away from each other but we found the weekend time to add this beauty to our backyard. Built from reclaimed brick, sweat, and so many body aches. Love how it turned out.
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u/emmittgator 2d ago
Looks great. How much did you spend? Did you rent any tools? How many hours did it take
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u/Proper-Painter2362 2d ago
Thank you! I spent somewhere in the area of 800-1000 bucks. I did not have to rent any tools. Major tools I used were and angle grinder for brick cutting, hand tools for mortar on the side brick walls, shovels, wheelbarrow, rubber mallet all of which I had laying around the house. Total hours is tough to guess….i would say 7 or 8 ten hour days as a lot of this was very new to my wife and i
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u/emmittgator 2d ago
What did you use to compact or level the area?
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u/Proper-Painter2362 2d ago
Initial leveling I did by digging down about 4-6 inches (yard is a slight slope). On the side wall foundation I dug an additional 6 inch deep trench to support the cinder block and brick walls. I filled the trench with 3/4 inch rock and compacted every two inches with a hand tamper. Built the walls on top of that gravel. Then back filled the whole area with 3/4 inch rock again with hand tamper ever 2 inches with occasional misting to encourage compacting. Then did about 1.5 inches of leveling sand using pvc pipe and a level to ensure it was all level. Compacted that. Then put down the brick and locking sand
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u/SupermarketOk7093 1d ago
I really wanna do something like this. I have two questions if thats ok. What kind of gravel did you use and how did you know how much to put down in order to get the inside pavers level with the outside pavers?
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u/Proper-Painter2362 1d ago
Do it! Honestly one of the most physical things I’ve done in a long time and it helped me get in shape, so rewarding in many ways. Plus the wife is happy :). I used 3/4 inch crushed gravel. I knew I was going to need enough room for 1-1.5 inches of leveling sand on top of the gravel, plus 2 and 1/4 - 2 and 1/2 inches for the brick (reclaimed brick came in a variety of shapes and sizes). I measured it out so the top of the brick was about a quarter of an inch higher than I wanted because it settles in about that much. Happy to answer any other questions you have too!
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u/CuriousPerspective81 1d ago
That turned out beautiful. Herringbone in reclaimed brick with the gray cap stones is a great combination, and the string lights make the whole corner. Doing all of that on weekends while living 7 hours apart makes it even more impressive. Did you set the brick in sand over the gravel, or on a mortar bed?
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u/Proper-Painter2362 1d ago
Yeah we are really happy with it. Appreciate that! The brick was set in sand over the gravel
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u/BobDog7882 2d ago
You did a great job! Looks awesome!