After the remains of the old patio had been jack-hammered out and the rubble was hauled away to the recycle center, we were ready to begin leveling the bed. As well, the outline for the new edge was marked on the lawn.
Starting at the outside edge, we removed the sod and excess topsoil. The good black dirt was retained to be spread on the garden, but the clay and gravel went into a pile to use for leveling the base.
The most important factor to keep in mind was the need for proper drainage. We needed to maintain at least a 3 degree slope away from the house. In the end, the house side of the patio was a consistent 2" higher than the finished outer edge.
Once the base is scraped down, leveled and tamped, a heavy felt or landscape fabric is often laid.
As the native soil was a heavy clay, and weeping tile had already been installed around the house, we opted to omit the felt layer.
The native soil was heavy enough to discourage weeds own its own, and drainage was not at issue.
We then laid a 6" deep bed of pea gravel, which was carefully leveled and tamped. Then that was covered with a thick, 2" layer of fine sand.
We used a huge leveling tool like the one in the picture to make sure the fine sand was evenly distributed and level, then we rolled it and added a bit of extra sand here and there to bring it back useful site up to grade.
Finally we were ready to begin laying the pavers.
We had already worked out the pattern on heavy brown paper using the actual size of the pavers.
Using string lines attached to stakes, we laid out the large grid, and centered the brown paper pattern, pushing a metal garden stake through the center.
Carefully removing the paper, we folded it in half and then repositioned it in the center, so that it covered a half of its original area.
It made a continue reading this perfect guide for laying the first few courses of brick circles, and for keeping us on track for the overall size.