Advice for small backyard DIY

[Renan]

Hi all,

I’m glad to have found this via Bunnings. As someone who is not very hands on, I’m pretty sure I’ll find to good advice here. 

Looking for some advice. As per photo #1, I have a small area next to my deck where I wish to lay some pavers. Looking at Bunnings DIY advice and multiple online videos, the process seems simple enough: 1. Level the area, 2. Lay down some crushed rock base, 3. Paving sand, 4. Pavers (with rubber mullet), 5. Sand on top to finish. (These might not cover 100% of the steps, but just to set the context of my questions to come). 

Now, the two areas are about 1m x 1.5m, so a total of only 3 sqm. I don’t own things like a wheelbarrow and would like to avoid buying it as it would be used only for this. 

I visited a Bunnings store on the weekend and the crushed rock base is only sold via special orders, with a minimum order of 1 cubic meter and a $44 delivery fee. It would be delivered to my driveway and I would need to figure out how to bring it to my backyard (I have no side gate). 

Am I able to find alternatives that come on bags? Where would I find them? (I’m in Melbourne). 

With regards to the type of sand to be used, all instructions call for special paving sand. The previous owner of the house installed artificial grass and left me about 10 bags of sand. Would I be able to use these? Otherwise they would have no use for me. 

First step before I can even get this going is to clear the area. Any idea what to do with this rock? I’ve already posted on Facebook and Gumtree as Free to collect, but people would need to come and pick it up without my help. There was no interest. 

A couple of other ideas we had was to potentially just extend the artificial grass (would need to bring the floor down a little to level it with the lawn). Another was to use that rubber flooring found on playgrounds (“”pour in place”) and use this space to place my son’s cubby house. 

Well, a very long post asking for some very basic advice. Be nice

Thanks all

Example of the intended paving pattern

[Renan]

(Note: not sure why, but the site keeps deleting the first photo that shows the area I want to work on)

[Jason]

Hi @Renan,

Sorry that you were having trouble adding multiple photos. If you're on a phone, you just need to add them one at a time. It's often a little easier if you add one, then add some text, then add another one. When on a desktop computer you can add as many photos as you like in one go. 

Have you seen the article How to lay pavers by @Adam_W? I hope it contains useful information for you. Adam might also like to answer some of your questions about road base and sand.   

Please let me know if you have any further trouble sharing photos - I'm happy to help.

Jason