Better Homes and Gardens (Australia)
EASY STEPS TO YOUR PAVING AND POND
For you to note
If you don’t have a power point near the pond, have one professionally installed.
Here’s how
STEP 1 Use set-out paint to mark a circle for paved area. Hammer a stake at centre, then attach a stringline. Pull it taut while holding at a measured point, then rotate around stake while spraying a circle with the paint. Here, the paved area was to be just over 2m wide so the line was held at 1250mm to mark a 2500mm circle. This gives extra room for excavation. Leave the stake in place. STEP 2 The water feature overlaps the paved circle, so use the same method to set it out. The pond shell is just over 830mm wide so make
this circle 1m in diameter.
STEP 3 Use spade to cut around marked outline. Remove turf and excavate paved area to about 80mm deep. If it has a slight slope, excavate 80mm at lowest point of fall and as deep as needed to achieve a level base at the high points. Excavate pond area to a depth of about 300mm. Reserve some soil.
STEP 4 Fill area to be paved with road base to a depth of 50mm. Do it in 2 stages – add 25mm, use the tamper to compact, then add another 25mm and compact again. Use spirit level to check for level. Add 50mm layer to pond area and compact.
STEP 5 Spread 30mm of paving sand over area to be paved. Use rake to spread, then screed bar to bring to level. Finished sand level needs to be roughly the same as adjoining lawn.
STEP 6 Lay paving to radiate from centre in a ‘sunburst’. Think of the stake as the centre of a clock face and run rows of pavers at 12, 3, 6 and 9 o’clock. Then, starting flush against the joins where these first rows meet, run lines of pavers down the middle between them. Repeat twice more to fill remaining gaps, ending each row in a full paver (the longest have 5), which will create your sunburst. Where circles overlap, stop these rows 1 full paver short. STEP 7 Towards centre in gap above first paver in a row, sit a full paver flush with end of paver beneath. Align a small spirit level with edge