It's a Horvath's Life: Paver Patio: Take Two

It has been almost a year since we installed our multi-leveled paver patio in the backyard. Hindsight being 20/20 and all, we realized that the patio retaining wall needed a bit of reinforcement. It was only one level of 6x6 timbers and really should have been taller. The wall was slipping forward since the foundation was a bit less than ideal and the pavers above were falling down the hill. It was making me (and my “professional” rock moving mother) mad. So we decided to do something about it this Spring.

A few weeks ago my brother and father were here doing demo on the swing, so while they were available I had them dig out the space for the new retaining wall. And since they were digging it out anyway, they just decided to rebuild it while they were at it and save Mama and me the trouble! Hooray! So I let them do all the hard parts while I took photos. :) <--Good blogger!

First things first, I took up all the pavers and removed most of the filler gravel behind the existing wall.

Here’s a couple of shots that show the problem. The end of the wall was supported by a rough mess of filler dirt, no stable foundation.

Enter manpower to remove old timbers and dig new deeper hole for the new ones. We decided to replace the two short timbers that made up the “before wall” with one really long one which would be more stable.

They leveled the bottom timber first and drilled holes for rebar. Then they pounded the rebar through the timber and into the ground.

And Papa removed the annoying little filler piece between the before wall and the step that was screwed and nailed into place. He chiseled out a level spot for the top timber to rest on the angled border piece next to the stairs.

Then the top timber was placed. More holes were drilled through both layers of wall and more rebar hammered into the ground. Finally! A job I am qualified for! Disclaimer: Not the proper way to wield a sledgehammer. :)

Hopefully this new double layer wall, with no piecing of timbers and twice as many, extra-long rebar reinforcements will settle any drifting problems in the future and keep everything nice and solid. Fingers crossed. :) Here’s where we were at the end of day one.

Mama came the next day to lay the pavers… thank you Mama! I hate doing that part… so like a good blogger, I stood around and took pictures. :) I also did some other stuff, too, not just standing there watching Mama work.

And after all the pavers were replaced, we stood back and admired our beautiful paver patio! :) And then we promptly went on to moving plants and mulching. The beds in front of the patio got an overhaul this Spring with a new arrangement of all the plants and fresh pine needles. Here’s how it all came together: