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Fix Pavers Uneven
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Feb 27, 2025
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View Video Transcript
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[Music]
0:11
hi I'm Tim Carter askthebuilder.com and
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I'm about to start a repair of a
0:17
concrete pav patio here at my own home
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do you have a concrete pav patio
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sidewalk driveway that looks like this
0:27
check this out look at these stones that
0:30
are now all uneven I mean it's
0:33
crazy look at
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this they're
0:40
horrible you know why it
0:43
happened I'll show you look
0:48
here you see what that
0:51
is see that hole
0:54
here these little wretched
0:58
Chipmunks are tunneling underneath the
1:02
patio and it's causing the sand to shift
1:04
underneath it it's horrible I predicted
1:07
this would happen to my wife but she
1:10
wanted this
1:11
patio and it's one of the biggest
1:14
reasons why I
1:15
dislike uh paper patios and things like
1:19
this because the sand underneath them
1:22
can wash away it can be tunneled by by
1:25
little mammals like Chipmunks and cause
1:29
and Havoc it's that simple I'm going to
1:32
show you how to fix it the first thing I
1:34
did was I took a photograph or two of
1:38
the patio because this patio of mine has
1:41
got kind of an interlocking pattern
1:43
using different shapes of the uh paving
1:46
stones so I want to make sure I put the
1:48
stones back where I got them from so
1:50
it's really important to do that if you
1:52
just have a standard brick patio where
1:55
all the bricks are the same you don't
1:56
need to do that here's what I'm going to
1:59
do I just wanted to describe really
2:00
quickly the simple fix the problem with
2:03
this installation and with all
2:05
installations in my opinion is that it
2:09
uses just sand underneath the paving
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stones well sand is easily moved easily
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tunneled whatever I'm going to lift the
2:18
stones up I'm going to take the sand out
2:21
I'm going
2:23
to blend Portland cement with the sand
2:26
I'm going to mix one measure of Portland
2:29
cement to every three measures of sand
2:32
put the sand back in half of it put in
2:35
some pencil rods those are just 38 inch
2:38
steel reinforcing rods put in the rest
2:41
of the sand compact it get it to the
2:44
right height compact it and then I'm
2:46
going to lightly sprinkle it with water
2:49
to get that cement to harden up and
2:52
that's going to make it pretty much
2:53
impossible for the Chipmunks to Tunnel
2:57
into the sand and take it out so that
2:59
that's my plan and you're going to see
3:03
how I'm going to do that in just a few
3:04
minutes I'm not looking forward to this
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cuz some of the stones the big ones are
3:08
very very heavy the 12 in by 18in ones
3:12
but it is what it is let's get started
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[Music]
3:43
[Music]
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okay look at
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this this is incredible look how much
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sand these little guys took out of
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here they're taking it taking it back
4:00
out underneath the deck I can actually
4:02
take my fingers and put it underneath
4:05
this Stone here these guys are miserable
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they are
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horrible oh my goodness I think we're
4:13
going to find this under much of the
4:15
patio the damage is much much worse than
4:18
I thought it was going to
4:19
be I've lifted seven stones here are the
4:22
seven stones I've taken out I've just
4:24
basically lifted them out and put them
4:26
in the exact order they're going to go
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back and the damage is so much worse
4:30
than I thought it was you're looking at
4:33
these dark areas are the super
4:36
highways created by those wretched
4:38
Chipmunks look at this it's
4:43
unbelievable here's one of the places
4:45
they entered look at this you can see
4:47
right here
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outside a shallow area in the soil they
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tunneled underneath the restraining
4:55
edging and created their entrance into
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this Labyrinth of tunnels
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underneath the Stones it's absolutely
5:10
unbelievable wow I'm going to change my
5:14
plan right now on how to fix it here's
5:18
what we're going to do I just can't
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believe the damage that these chipmunks
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have caused I knew this could happen
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I've talked about it for years in past
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Columns of mine on my ask the builder
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website but this is the first time I've
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ever taken apart a patio or walkway to
5:33
show what really happens it's
5:37
horrible here's what I'm going to do I'm
5:40
going to take the sand
5:42
out and I'm going to replace it there's
5:44
two inches of sand that's what I
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originally put in two to two and 1 half
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inches of sand I'm going to put back in
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2 in of concrete I'm going to buy bags
5:55
of Ready Mix Concrete you know the dry
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mix that you get in bags at any hardware
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store Home Center I'm going to pour it
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in and I'm going to compact it I'm going
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to compact like the first inch I'm going
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to lay down 3/4 I'm sorry 38
6:14
inch pencil rods steel reinforcing rods
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then I'm going to put in the next inch
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and compact that get that nice and
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smooth get it nice and
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compact I'm going to get it beautiful
6:27
all right and then I'm going to
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probably dust it with a little bit more
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Portland
6:33
cement because I'm then going to
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sprinkle some water onto it to get that
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concrete to start to hydrate and get
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hard and then I'll start to put the
6:43
stones back down right away and I'm
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going to have to do the patio in
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sections I'm not going to take the whole
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thing up at once but it's
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absolutely unacceptable for what these
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chipmunks have done my recommendation is
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you should if you're going to install a
6:59
p patio or a brick patio you need to do
7:02
it like I did with my son's patio a year
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ago you need to pour a concrete slab and
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then you need to mortar down bricks to
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it a/ in bed of mortar and set the brick
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the patio brick into mortar and there's
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no way no how the Chipmunks or anything
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is going to disrupt that patio I've done
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that for years but I I took a shortcut
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on this patio it's a long story
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I'm making progress taking out the
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stones what I'm going to do is I'm
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taking out half the patio from the deck
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here out towards the end of the patio
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and I'm going to go about 10 ft to the
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right I'm going to have to rebuild the
7:43
patio in sections but I want to show you
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this what I just discovered so if you
7:49
remember right over here I showed you
7:51
the entrance way where the little
7:53
varment come in and they came along here
7:57
I kind of crushed this right here this
7:59
was a pathway underneath the stones
8:02
follow my finger comes over to here and
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I just picked up this large Stone and
8:07
look at that that's where they made a
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nest so they're nesting and then there's
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a really
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big you know void underneath that next
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Stone so this is what these little
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chipmunks do I wanted to show you this
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as I take up the stones along the edges
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where the stones touched one another
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there's all kinds of crap you know all
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kinds of stuff that's accumulated in the
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cracks when the crappy polymeric sand
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came out and so each time I take a stone
8:38
out I clean it off so that the edges are
8:41
perfectly clean you can see that here
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these are this is one I took out so when
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I go to put the stones back in that crap
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won't get in the way make sure you clean
8:52
off all that debris from the edges of
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the stones I've got all
8:57
the stones out that I'm going to take
9:00
out you can see them I've stacked them
9:02
all on the other part of the patio and
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if I could lift them all up at once they
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would just shift over to the
9:08
left the next step is we got to get this
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sand out of here and we have to take it
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down 2 Ines below the top of the
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existing stones that are right here all
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right so I made this really neat screed
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board it's a 2x4 with a piece of 1 in
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oak on top of it and a piece at the
9:31
other end it just so happens when I
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originally installed this patio the top
9:37
of the stones was right here I had it
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right at the top of the uh step so that
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the step would be
9:43
perfect and the stones themselves here's
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the math the stones themselves they're 2
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and 1/2 in thick and if I want two
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inches of concrete underneath the stones
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that means that the bottom of the sand
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here has got to be 4 and 1/2
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in from the top of these Stones
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here and from the bottom of this
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2x6 so here's a 2x4 3 and 1/2 in plus an
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inch so when I when you see the next
10:20
part of the video I'm going to have this
10:22
in and we're going to be screeing this
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sand and we're going to get the bottom
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of this whole area nice
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and level because we don't want to waste
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concrete so we're going to get all of
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this at the right height and then we're
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going to be ready to put concrete in I
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decided to pull up a few stones that
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were tilted so my wife won't trip you
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know that are near where we're working
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and look at this look at those little
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devils look at all the acorns they've
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stored here to eat they're such pests
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can you believe this these guys were
11:02
getting ready for the winter time buddy
11:04
they're in for a big surprise made some
11:07
progress um all of this area here is
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already
11:12
graded the level of the soil and sand is
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now 4 and 1/2 in below the top of the
11:19
old patio which is exactly where we want
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it got to finish this up uh starting
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that right now
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and few hours ago mov m in all the
11:30
concrete that's what's going to replace
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the
11:33
sand once that gets wet and hardens up
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good luck
11:38
Chipmunks it's all
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excavated and we're ready to put
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concrete in all right I had to chip away
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at two of the peers cuz they were just a
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little higher than what the finished
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height of the concrete is going to be so
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I didn't want those to be causing
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problems with the uh the big Stones when
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we put them back back so the plan right
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now is I've got some 1 in thick 1 in by
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1 in pieces of oak I'm going to lay down
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here and then I'm going to start to
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screed back the first lift of concrete
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those are the two 1 by1 pieces of oak
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and I'm just about ready to start
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putting some concrete down some dry mix
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and after I screed a little bit I'll uh
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show you what we got well you're looking
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at three bags of the dry Mix Concrete
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you can clearly see the 1-in
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sticks uh here's what it looks like in
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front of
12:36
it I'm about ready to slide the sticks
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backwards so that they're right
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underneath the screed board the
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2x4 and I want ahead and compacted it
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really doesn't need it much it maybe
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went down a 16th of an inch you know the
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dry mix concrete's pretty uh it's pretty
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dense all right it's really important to
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use the right concrete with tiny Stone
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like this all right so that's the stones
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you want to use they're about the size
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of the your last digit on your
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fingers you don't want to use really big
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Stones I've got the first inch of dry
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concrete mix in you can see where I
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pulled up the 1 in pieces of wood those
13:20
grooves will get filled in as I put in
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the next lift now it's time to put in
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the reinforcing Steel oky doie I've got
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the steel in
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place um these little pieces here like
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this piece this piece and this piece I
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pushed them underneath these existing
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pavers so that when I put concrete in
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and redo this section I'll be able to
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lock the two slabs together and the same
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is true for these three pieces
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here uh they go in they go underneath
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the pavers here so it's pretty important
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to try to lock all that concrete
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[Music]
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together I've got just about half of it
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done I thought you'd like to see it um
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halfway that uh area here perfectly
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smooth there's a couple of little voids
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there I'm not worried about those I've
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got some fine sand left over from when I
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took it all out that I can brush over
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that um you can see how we're covering
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up the rebar the scre board's working
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out really really well and I use my
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magnesium float to kind of just gently
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Glide it
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over an area I only do about 16 in at a
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time and then I float I float it with my
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you know that magnesium float to really
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make it smooth uh you you need to have
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this as smooth as possible so that the
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stones don't rock back and forth you
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know like that when you step on them so
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I've only got about another 10 15
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minutes maybe and then it's time to mist
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it with the water all the concrete's
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in nice and smooth it's absolutely
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perfect the next step is to sweep up
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some of the uh spilled concrete I don't
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want it to stain these papers and I'll
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clean up these bags first before I wet
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down the patio I want to get I don't
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want the the papers
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stained so really pretty important it's
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time to add the water it's been a couple
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of days it's all finished you're going
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to love the way it looks check this out
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here we are this is
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um this is where it's all it's all done
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so these all the way over to this line
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here that's what we did it is absolutely
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Rock Solid it's a pleasure to walk on
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the stones don't budge at
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all absolutely beautiful if you're going
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to put down a paper patio and you've got
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Chipmunks around you might want to think
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of just using concrete from the get-go
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forget about
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using sand forget about that that Sand's
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for
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losers that's what I
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think if you want to discover more Home
16:18
Improvement tips go to askthebuilder.com
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[Music]
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n
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