We thought it would be a nice addition to our beach house to have a patio in our back yard to have our bbq grill and a nice area to have dinner outside in the evenings. With our budget getting tighter and tighter, we decided to take on the task of building a patio at our beach house ourselves. We had built a similar thing but on a much smaller scale but not on sandy soil. So our researching began. We visted Lowes and Home Depot on numerous occassions to see what type blocks and pavers we wanted to use, we looked at magazines, Youtube videos, googled info and after much research finally came to our decision of what we wanted and how we wanted it to look. We decided to build a retaining wall using Oldcastle Fulton 11-1/2-in x 4-in Tan Basic Retaining Wall Block and the Oldcastle Cassay 15-3/4-in x 15-3/4-in Tan Charcoal Four-Cobble Paver. We built our wall first and to break up the hardscape of the wall and pavers we added a flower garden between the wall and the actual patio.
Next up is getting the base for the patio all ready. We had to shovel out a lot of sand in order to get a solid base at the right height we needed. We got our base level and then added our gravel, tamped it down and then added sand back in. After this process you have to "screen" it to make sure everything is level. Lowes has a new product out that you put down right before the pavers. It's called Brock 36"L x 24"W Interlocking Paver Base Panel. It worked like a charm. It made the job so much easier.
Once we got to putting the pavers down, the job went pretty quickly. After getting all the pavers in place we brushed more sand between all the joints, misted it down with water and then stood back and admired our beautiful patio. We felt pretty proud that we did it all by ourselves.
Next up is getting the base for the patio all ready. We had to shovel out a lot of sand in order to get a solid base at the right height we needed. We got our base level and then added our gravel, tamped it down and then added sand back in. After this process you have to "screen" it to make sure everything is level. Lowes has a new product out that you put down right before the pavers. It's called Brock 36"L x 24"W Interlocking Paver Base Panel. It worked like a charm. It made the job so much easier. 
Once we got to putting the pavers down, the job went pretty quickly. After getting all the pavers in place we brushed more sand between all the joints, misted it down with water and then stood back and admired our beautiful patio. We felt pretty proud that we did it all by ourselves.
