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Avoid Muddy Paths Between Houses With This Impressive Paver DIY
By KATE NICHOLSON
If rainy days leave your yard a muddy mess, use pavers as stepping stones and fill the remaining area with gravel. It’s more affordable than paving and provides natural drainage.
Measure the area and use an online gravel calculator like Calculator.net to determine how much gravel you’ll need. Gravel costs around $3 to $7 for each square foot of area.
You’ll need a bottom drainage layer of ½ to 1-inch gravel (experts recommend #57 stone), topped by a layer of decorative gravel (under ⅜ of an inch is most comfortable to walk on).
Manufactured crushed rock is good for high-traffic areas; smooth, fine stones are most comfortable underfoot though harder to contain; and pea gravel is attractive and affordable.
Your pavers need to be big enough to fit two human feet, and you can choose any material — new or used — whether pre-cast concrete pavers, flagstones, or mismatched garden pavers.
You’ll need a wheelbarrow to haul gravel, a hand tamper, a shovel, a tarpaulin, a rake, and lawn chalk or nontoxic spray paint. Avoid using landscape fabric, as it’ll show through.
Mark out your pathway with paint or chalk, remove the top 3 or 4 inches of grass or soil, compact the soil with the tamper, add the base gravel layer, water it, then compact it.
Arrange your pavers on top of this, with a thin layer of builders sand underneath. Finally, add your edging and the decorative gravel layer, using your rake to level the surface.