How to add gravel and pavers to side of house?

[MickCollison]

Hi, we have just moved into this brand-new house, and we are a little unsure what to do with this side of the house. We are thinking of adding gravel and some pavers for walking on. We would like to do this ourselves to save on cost. My wife and I are novices when it comes to this, so any help/advice would be much appreciated.

[JacobZ]

Hi @MickCollison,

Welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community, it is fantastic to have you with us.

Congratulations on the new home! I imagine a whole new world of D.I.Y. opportunities has just opened up, and I'm sure the Workshop Community would be happy to help out wherever we can.

You should start by working out where you want the area to sit height-wise as you'll need around 100mm of height for materials below the eventual finished surface. If you are happy for the gravel and pavers to sit above the current ground height, then that is fine, but if you'd like it to be flush with the ground, then you'll need to do some digging.

After deciding on your height and excavating, if necessary, the first thing I would be doing is defining the area with some garden edging. This will not only make the area well defined, but it will also help to keep your gravel where you want it. There are a variety of options for garden edging and associated accessories, so have a look and see what you like. Just make sure to grab some edging pegs or stakes to help hold your selection of garden edging in place.

Once the area is defined with some edging, I'd suggest laying down some weed mat or geotextile membrane, which will help prevent weeds from growing through and reduce the amount of future maintenance on the area.

After this, I'd suggest putting down a layer of road base around 50mm thick and levelling and compacting it with a plate compactor or tamper. This will create a stable base for your pavers and gravel to sit on.

You could then install your pavers directly over the road base, or you could set the pavers in place with mortar to give them a bit more hold and allow for slight adjustments when installing.

Once your pavers are in place, you can backfill around them with gravel or your choice of decorative stones.

This would give you a nice solid path down the side of your house, but you might like to add some variety as well. Check out our Top 10 most popular side yard projects and our Top 10 most popular landscaping projects for some further inspiration.

Let me know what you think and if you have further questions, please don't hesitate to ask.

Jacob

[MickCollison]

Awesome, thanks Jacob. That is really insightful and has given us a bit of confidence to do this project.

[MickCollison]

Hi @JacobZ just to confirm the order of laying the materials, would it be in this order:

1. Remove grass

2. Use stamper to flatten the area

3. Add road base/drainage stones

4. Weed mat

5. Sand 

6. Pavers

7. Gravel 

[JacobZ]

Hi @MickCollison,

If you're excavating, then that works in with removing the grass; if you're not, I wouldn't worry about removing the grass, as it will naturally perish beneath everything anyway.

The weed mat would go directly over the grass or excavated area.

Road base would then go over the weed mat and would be compacted and levelled.

From this point, you can work in a few different ways, so things aren't hugely rigid, and the materials would be more based around what you are doing.

If you were laying a full paved path like the one shown in How To Pave a Pathway, you could use a dry sand and cement mix like they have done.

If you were doing more of a stepped path like in How To Create A Stepping Stone Pathway, then you could use wet mortar under each paver instead of applying sand all over.

In any situation, adding gravel or stones to fill in around your pavers would come last.

If you had a specific design in mind, maybe you could sketch it out, and I could give you some advice about what method might be best.

Let me know what you think.

Jacob