How To Prepare And Lay A Base For Pavers - DIY At Bunnings

I'm going to show you how to lay the base for pavers before we can start to lay our papers .

We need to look at the tools and materials that we require for a start .

We need a rake , we need a shovel , we need a wheelbarrow to carry our road base and we also need a plate compactor .

In addition , we need our tools like our lump hammer measuring tools .

We need a spirit level .

We need a straight edge .

I've also got a drill and a hex head and hex screws and we've got our formwork , of course , which is going to form around the uh perimeter of our uh area .

I'm going to lay 100 to 150 mil of road base in this area behind me .

However , before I can do that , I need to level this area and using a rake , I'm going to start doing that right now .

I've just raked this area to a reasonable level .

Next , I want to measure to the level of my road base .

My reference point is going to be the corner of this uh veranda here and that's where the level of my road base will come next .

I'll need to measure along that wall to pick up the area that my road base is going to come to .

But firstly , before I want to do that , I wanna make sure that the corner of the building here is square .

Because if it's not , when I lay my pavers later on , we're gonna have pavers moving this way .

So I'm just gonna grab my square over here and check that .

We've got a square area here .

I've just me measured the top and the bottom of that corner and the walls are nice and square .

I'm now going to use this straight edge and this level to get a level line all along the walls of this building .

And I'm gonna use the top of this veranda as my reference point to run my straight line all around the building because we've got square walls .

I'm going to measure from this point here , this corner which was the baseline through to that corner there in the corner and then measure from the corner to the end of the wall .

And that'll give me the measurements for my formwork and form my nice square box .

Now that I've taken my measurements , I've rounded up to allow for any contingencies and I'm now able to calculate the quantity of road base I need simply by working out the length by the width and the depth of the road base .

I took my measurements .

I'm now going to transfer that to my formwork .

I'm now going to put my first piece of formwork in and it's going to butt up against the edge of that wall and I'll put a star picket in to hold it in place .

I want to make sure that this formwork is going to be nice and level .

So I'm putting my spirit level on the top and just make sure that it sits straight and level and the bubbles in the middle .

Next , I need to pick up from this point and put my second piece of framework in .

I've taken my measurement from that corner to the edge of that wall .

I'm gonna transfer that now to this piece of framework here and that'll allow me to work out the distance between that corner there point there and where it's going to intersect with this particular piece of framework there .

I just wanna make sure that my formwork is square .

So I'm gonna use the square here on the inside of the formwork and make sure that I do have that perfect square .

And yes , I have next , I wanna make sure that this piece of formwork which is gonna stay here is nice and firm and in place .

So I'm gonna put some star pickets in .

I'm gonna remove this piece of formwork and put it in later on because what I need is a track to come through with my wheelbarrow , dump my road base and then compact it with the compactor .

I wanna make sure that this piece of framework here is going to be firm and stay in place .

So I'm gonna drop my pickets in various points along the board and keep it nicely in place to make sure that my formwork stays in place .

I'm gonna use these hexagonal screws and screw the picket to the formwork .

I can now remove this one here ready to roll my road base in .

It's now time for the heavy work .

And I'm going to roll the Barrows in and dump my road base in this area here and then compact it .

We've got our road base in place inside our formwork .

And what I'm gonna do now is just , uh , continue to rake it over and then after that , just to make sure that we've got a nice flat service .

I'm gonna do a little bit of screening and then check it with the level just to make sure that it's all nice and flat candy tip .

It's a good idea to wet the road base down two purposes .

One , it stops the dust flying up and secondly , it helps the compaction .

I've just lifted the plate compactor over onto the road base and we're going to start the engine and start compacting .

Well , I've just finished , uh , using the , uh , plate packer to pack down and flatten the road based surface behind me here and now it's ready for the paving side of it .

However , before I start my paving .

I wanna make sure that my surface behind me is flat and even , and to be on the cautious side , I'm just gonna take a couple of levels and uh make sure that it is absolutely flat and surface .

So I end up with an excellent finish with my paving .

Very good and looks like now we're ready for paving .