March 20:

Over the winter of 2011/12, I began work on a new patio in the backyard. Nothing big or extravagant, just a standard flat surface patio where I could put a table, a couple of chairs, and possibly some kind of small fire pit in the future. But how would I accomplish this ?

I had a flat vacant space in a perfect location just off of my back porch. I also had what I perceived to be an unusually large amount of bricks scattered about my property, (I swear this house was built on top of an old foundry !). After thinking about it for a few weeks, I took the plunge and started clearing space on December 3, 2011. Two months of working on it over an available weekend here and there resulted in what is seen in this series of photos. And all was well.

As I turned the calendar to 2022, I noticed that a decade's worth of exposure to the elements had taken its toll in the form of sagging bricks and rotted wood. My once shiny-new patio was now in sad shape. Today was the day I decided to get a few bags of paver sand, put on the gloves, and begin the long process of bringing my patio back to life.

Originally, the idea was to merely get everything reasonably level again. That would be accomplished by pulling up a group of bricks, adding some paver sand, and reinstalling everything at approximately the same height. It didn't have to be perfect, because the original patio was far from it. But my goal was to make it look decent again.

On this first day of work, progress was slow and steady. Remove bricks, add sand, reinstall bricks, repeat.

March 27:

Like I did when I built the patio, my plan was to take some time over an available weekend here and there to see what I could accomplish.

May 8:

By the time warmer weather had arrived, I managed to make a good bit of progress. But as I stepped back and looked at it, I realized that I was a little too aggressive with adding paver sand, (one large hump is visible on the right side of the photo above).

It was also obvious that the spacing between the bricks was off, both front-to-back and side-to-side. When I originally built this patio, I laid out the wood perimeter and made the bricks and paver stones fit the frame. That was great because I didn't have to cut anything. But it also meant there was more space in between everything than I would have liked. That was fine then, but won't work now.

June 11:

If I'm going to fix this mess, I should do it correctly. Once again, I started removing bricks. Starting at one corner, I tried eliminating as much space in between everything as I could.

The front to back spacing wasn't affected too much. But removing the excess space from side-to-side resulted in a significant savings of room as seen in the photo above.

There was also the matter of the large hump in the middle of everything.

Once I figured out the spacing, I could now work on getting everything as level as possible.

The large hump is visible in the photo above.

June 18:

My long level would be needed here. Starting at the corner seen in the bottom left side of the photo above, I figured I could get a few sections of bricks level with the frame, and then work my way around the perimeter.

After the perimeter was reasonably straight and level, the middle sections would follow suit.

July 2:

As the weekends passed, I soon realized just how aggressive I was with adding paver sand.

I ended up having to pull all the paver stones out to get the brick sections level with each other. It was at this point where I realized just how overly aggressive I had been when I first started adding paver sand.

July 3:

With the bricks reinstalled, I could then reinstall the large paver stones.

With everything in place, I started adding some of the sand back in that I had removed earlier.

I spread the sand around with a push broom several times allowing it to fall into the spaces in between everything.

The bricks have holes through the center. This means all of the sand I try and get in between the bricks will fall into the center holes.

In theory, this means I would have to keep adding more sand which would eventually fill in all of the holes in the bricks.

But that would take a very long time to accomplish. And the more I thought about it, the more I realized that it probably wasn't necessary. All I'm trying to do here is keep everything level and stable.

July 16:

I kept adding sand and spreading it around to try and fill in any holes in the bricks.

This worked well enough for my purposes.

But then, there was the nagging matter of the excess space I had created.

July 23:

The only way to address this would be to move the side rail seen in the photo above inboard up against the bricks. That means I would have to cut the two adjacent rails. And I could tell just by trying to work with what was in place that this was not going to happen. Breathing on that wood too hard would cause it to crumble. But I can't just leave it like that.

September 17:

A few weeks later, I headed to Lowe's for treated wood that was rated for ground contact. I needed two 2 x 8 x 10s for each side, and one 2 x 8 x 12 for the front.

My plan was to move the dirt out of the way and pry each board up with the shovel so it could be replaced.

Yeah, right ! EVERYTHING I touched with the shovel crumbled and broke apart just like I figured it would.

I knew the wood was rotted. But I was a little surprised at how extensive the rot was.

With the old wood out of the way, I could now install the new piece. The front-to-back length remained the same as it originally was, meaning I didn't have to cut the new board.

The side-to-side length, however, decreased by more than eight inches. The new board had to be cut to fit.

I replaced both side rails first.

With the sides in place, I cut and installed the front rail. The top of the rear rail broke off while I was digging and prying. No worries, though. That just means I now have a flat transition.

September 18:

With the rails screwed into place and the sides back-filled, I could work on spreading more sand across the top of everything.

I also did some more level corrections here and there as necessary.

The patio surface was looking good. But there was still one area left to address.

The bricks leading from the back porch also needed to be touched up.

I had to remove some bricks to get the new frame rail in place.

September 25:

With the frame rail secured, I put the rest of the bricks back in place.

I then spread some sand here as well.

At this point, the patio frame had been replaced and all of the bricks had been reinstalled.

With the structural repairs complete, I turned my attention to the aesthetics and added three Mine No Yuki camellia plants and some black mulch. These plants are happy in part shade and should grow to around 6 feet tall. They will also produce white flowers in the fall.

I then broke out the mower and added a homemade mulch border around everything, just like I do in the front yard.

After a few months of work, the patio renovation was complete. Since I have a bunch of paver sand left over, I'll put some down and spread it around periodically in an attempt to fill in all of the gaps. But for now, I should be good to go for another decade.