Set Pavers on Two Inches of Base and One Inch of Sand

The Problem

Pavers set straight onto dug soil sink unevenly within a season. Soil compacts at different rates depending on what's underneath it, and there's no drainage layer, so water sits under the stone and moves it every time the ground freezes or dries out. The stone itself is rarely the thing that fails — it's the few inches underneath.

The Technique

1. Dig the trench to depth. You need room for 2 inches of base, 1 inch of sand, and the full thickness of the paver, so measure your paver before you decide how deep to go.
2. Level the bottom of the trench, then tamp it. Compacting the subsoil first means the base layer isn't just transferring your work down into soft ground.
3. Add 2 inches of paver base and tamp again.
4. Wet the base. Water helps the fines settle into the voids so the layer locks up rather than staying loose.
5. Screed 1 inch of leveling sand over the compacted base.
6. Set the paver and tap it down with a rubber mallet until it sits flush with its neighbours.
7. Backfill the sides with soil and wet the whole thing again.

The two tamps do different jobs. The first stops the ground under your work from settling later; the second turns loose aggregate into a solid slab that spreads the load of anything standing on the paver.