Laying pavers in your yard is a great way to personalize your space. Before laying pavers, you need to start by ensuring the ground you’re working on is flat and free of any obstructions. The safest way to ensure the working area is flat is to order a truckload of dirt and distribute it around the yard. Once the ground is level, your next step is to learn how to lay pavers on dirt.

How to Lay Pavers on Dirt 

In this post, we’ll have a look at some of the steps involved in laying patio pavers on dirt. It’s a simple step-by-step process that outlines everything from start to finish.

How to Lay Pavers on Dirt
How to Lay Pavers on Dirt

Remove Any Grass

Experts in the industry say the first step of the process is to ensure there’s no grass or other foliage in your way. When removing grass, use a spade and dig deep enough to remove the grass as well as the roots. Leaving roots behind could potentially produce new grass in the future that may end up growing up between pavers.

Level the Ground

To ensure your pavers are lined up perfectly, be sure the land is level. Leveling the land requires you to use clean fill dirt. This is fill dirt that doesn’t contain any large debris, organic matter or toxins. Fill dirt is primarily used for construction purposes such as land leveling and building foundations. If topsoil is used instead of fill dirt, the project will not be successful because topsoil contains organic matter that breaks down over time. This could result in the volume of the topsoil changing and potentially cause the foundations on top to shift or the pavers to sink

Mark the Area

Your next step is to use stakes to mark out the parameters of the area you’re going to be grading. Once you have the stakes in place, choose a height that you’re going to consider “level”. Often, it’s easier to build up the ground than having to dig and remove dirt, especially considering you’re going to be adding dirt anyway. So, choose a level height, find a spot within your parameters you’re going to build up to and fill dirt so that all areas within the parameters reach that height. Consider adding a little extra fill dirt to make it slightly higher because once everything is compacted, the level might be a bit lower than your level point.

How to Lay Pavers on Dirt
How to Lay Pavers on Dirt

Compact the Fill Dirt

After leveling the area where your patio is going to be, you’ll want to lay down another thin layer of fill dirt. Then pound over the exposed soil using a tool like a hand tamper until the ground is level and tightly compacted.

Place Down Geotextile Fabric

Placing down pieces of landscaping or geotextile fabric over the fill dirt helps to prevent weeds from growing between the bricks, improve drainage and firm up the base. Consider securing down the edges with spikes so that they don’t show.

Add Edge Restraints

Using metal or wood edge restraints, place them against the inner walls of the compacted fill dirt and fasten them with nail spikes through the edging holes.

Lay Down the Patio Pavers

You can now place down the patio pavers in your desired pattern and paver thickness. The most important thing is to ensure the pavers are flush against each other. Start laying the pavers at one corner or end then work your way across. Once you’ve completed a small section, place a wooden board across it and gently hit it with a hammer to level the brick with each other and embed them in the dirt. Continue until you’ve laid all the pavers.

Bottom Line

And that’s how to lay pavers on dirt. Your final step is to pour some stone dust over your patio pavers before sweeping it in between the small crevices where it will act as a barrier against weeds and fill the tiny spaces left between pavers. Moisten the bricks then repeat pouring the dust and sweeping it into the crevices.

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