DIY Paver & Artificial Turf Patio

This was hands down the most backbreaking laborious project we have ever done. However, I would do it over again if it meant this was the outcome. I’ve dreamed of having an English inspired garden and patio for so many years and now I have it! A true dream.

We believe we would have been quoted anywhere from $10k to $25k to hire professionals based on talking to a few people. That definitely wasn’t going to happen so we decided to roll up our sleeves and do the work ourselves. We spent under $3k total. You can skip to the cost breakdown or condensed process steps at the bottom of this post too.

We knew the project was going to be a huge undertaking and even though we would ultimately save a ton of money, we would still be spending a hefty chunk, so we decided to tackle it in sections.

This is what the backyard looked like when we first purchased the house.

There was much to be desired. But we looked at it like a blank canvas ready to be painted. And that’s exactly what we did. Metaphorically speaking.

The first thing we did was the landscaping. I wanted a large garden with all of my favorite flowers. I sketched it up and came up with the below picture.

My goal is to not have to purchase hydrangeas or peonies ever again. I think next year that will become the reality.

We only did this one side because we were still designing the patio.

Next up was privacy trees. We initially planned on installing a shadow box privacy fence, but later found out that our HOA (home owners association) does not allow fences over 5 1/2 feet. We knew our dog would jump right over that so we decided on installing an invisible fence for our dog and hire landscapers to plant privacy trees on both sides.

We ended up replacing the roof and gutters immediately after because they were 20+ years old. I also painted the existing doors black and changed out the hardware. We waited almost a year before we tackled the other side.

Fast forward to Spring of the next year and it was time to start on the patio. I think I sketched it out 10 times before I decided exactly what I wanted. I always recommend sketching out your vision.

My husband used a pickaxe to outline the space. Total square footage came to 576 sq feet.

Once we had the patio outlined it was time to get to work. My FIL and husband tore out the concrete slab using a jackhammer and sledgehammer. They broke the concrete into manageable pieces so we could pick them up and haul them to the truck bed using the wheelbarrow.

Note, only certain landfills accept concrete disposal. We had to pay $25 to dispose of it. We also rented a Uhaul trailer. The weight of the concrete was around 6 tons. We came to that estimation based on the thickness and square footage. In the state of Indiana trucks cannot haul anymore than 3 ton at a time. So that meant 2 trips to the landfill. Just something to note if you have an existing concrete slab and plan to remove it.

Two trips to the landfill later and the concrete slab was gone! Next we dug out the grass and leveled the space as much as we could. Leveling the space was the most critical step of this project.

We then had the flume gravel delivered from a local gravel quarry. This is the most cost effective way as long as the quarry is close in location. The place we ordered from charged by the mile. The delivery fee was almost as much as the flume gravel.

Also, this is what 6 tons of flume gravel looks like. It may not look like a lot, but it took about 40 trips with a wheelbarrow to get it to the back. My husband, oldest son, and I took turns hauling it back. Our neighbor and friends and even helped.

Once we got all the flume gravel to the back, we used the back of a rake to space it out. Then rented a 20” plate tamper to level out the gravel. For a new hand tamper we would have paid $75 plus would have had to level the space by hand. The $118 to rent the plate tamper was well worth it.

The next layer was paver base sand. We purchased around 60 bags of paver base sand and had Lowes deliver it. Experts say that you should buy enough for the base to be 3” thick. We only did 2”. We thought 3” was excessive given we had 2” of flume gravel down already. Note, we did the same process to level the sand as we did with the flume gravel.

Then it was time to lay the pavers. We decided on THESE 20 concrete pavers from Lowes and had them delivered with the paver base sand.

My FIL and husband put stakes in the ground every 6-10 inches and tied twine around them to act as the guiding line to lay the first horizontal and vertical rows. This ensured the pavers were in a straight line.

Once we got the first vertical and horizontal rows laid we were able to move pretty fast. We used 2×4’s for spacing between the pavers.

My husband had me lay the last paver. He said it was only right that I do it.

We then added another 20ish bags of sand and swept it in between the pavers to keep them in place. Once the sand got wet it felt like the pavers were set in cement. They definitely weren’t moving. We left about an inch from sand to top of the pavers so the artificial turf would sit nicely between the pavers.

We added paver edging along the edges of the entire patio to prevent the pavers from moving over time. That’s the black edging you see in the photo below. Then we planted boxwoods, dahlias, and David Austin rose shrubs around the patio. We laid landscaping fabric around the area as well to prevent the grass from growing back. We secured the landscaping fabric with lawn staples then covered the fabric with black mulch to bring the two sides together.

In total we planted 5 boxwoods, 20ish dahlia bulbs, and 1 David Austin Desdemona rose shrub.

When we received the artificial turf, I could not get it opened fast enough. I was ready to tie a bow on this year long project.

I bought THIS artificial turf along with THIS turf seam tape and THIS turf seam tape adhesive.

Critical tip! Make sure when you cut the strips the strips the grass blades are going the same direction as the piece before. If you have the grass blades around one paver going upward and the pieces around the paver next to it going downwards it will be visibly noticeable.

The artificial turf was very easy to work with. All you need is a box cutter to cut the strips. I used the same 2 x 4’s we used to lay the pavers as templates to cut the strips.

I cut the long pieces running from top to bottom first. Then I started on the pieces that went between the pavers. It was tedious, but I cut a 2×4 to the exact strip size I needed and that made the process go by quickly.

For reference we purchased 15′ of artificial turf. It was enough to cover the entire patio.

To secure the artificial turf we used turf adhesive and turf seam tape to connect the pieces at each intersection. Then hammered 5” lawn staples about every 6 inches. We used 300+ lawn staples to give you an idea. It was a lot of work.

Once all the artificial turf was down I poured Envirofill on it. I used 3 – 25lb buckets to ensure I covered all the artificial turf. Envirofill will keep the artificial grass blades standing tall and will block odors caused from animals. I am not sure how often we are supposed to add it, so we plan to do it every Spring moving forward.

I used an old cup to shake the Envirofill on the artificial turf. See video below.

The last thing we did to complete our backyard oasis project was install a pergola. Once it was up we laid landscaping fabric around the pergola and secured the fabric with lawn staples. We put landscaping edging around the pergola to create a border so we could fill the space under the pergola with pea gravel. We used 20ish bags of gray pea gravel that we purchased from Home Depot. The last step was planting flowers around the pergola and covering the landscaping fabric with mulch.

I decorated the pergola with a bistro table and chairs set, string lights, and oversized planters.

So much work, but so SO worth it. I created the below images to show you how drastic the difference is.

15ish months in the making and I have the patio of my dreams.

To learn about the different flowers we planted in the garden CLICK HERE.

I saved this entire process to my story highlights on my Instagram. I had to break the story highlights into Part I and Part II because there are so many stories.

Below is a simplified list of the process steps in order.

Step 1: Remove all grass and level the soil
Lay landscaping fabric down and secure with lawn staples.

Step 2: Add 2-3 inches of flume gravel. 3” is what professionals recommend, but we did 2”.

Step 3: Tamper the flume gravel until level.

Step 4: Add 2 inches of paver base sand. Tamper.

Step 5: Use twine and stakes as a leveling guide as well as to ensure the first pavers laid are in a straight line vertically and horizontally.

Step 6: Lay pavers. Use 2 x 4’s as spacers.

Step 7: Add 1″ paver base sand in between pavers.

Step 8: Cut the artificial turf to size and lay. Make sure that the grass blades for all the turf laid is going in the same direction.

Step 9: Secure the artificial turf with lawn staples. Connect sections of the turf with turf seam tape and turf adhesive.

Step 10: Top the artificial grass with Envirofill.

Total square feet – 576
Total labor hours – 100
Total cost: $2,865.51

Cost Breakdown

Uhaul flat bed rental – $37
Concrete disposal $25 each load – $50
Flume gravel (6 tons) – $390
Paver edging pieces $10.75 each – $118.25
Paver edging spikes $10 per pack
Tamper rental $118 (rented for the weekend)
17 – 16 x 8 x 2 concrete patio stones $1.48 each ($25.16)
138 – 20 x 20 x 2 concrete pavers $6.18 each ($852.84)
50 – bags of paver base sand $4.48 each ($224)
12’ x 14’ traffic master artificial grass $423 total
3 – 25lbs artificial grass infill $25.28 each ($75.84)
Artificial grass adhesive $22
1 – artificial turf seam tape $26.22 each
5 – 100 artificial turf lawn staples $10.98 each ($54.90)
35 – bags of mulch $2.98 each ($104.30)
Landscape fabric $25
Landscaping staples $20
5 – boxwood shrub $20 each
32 – bags of pea gravel $4.04 each ($130)
Delivery fee $79

And that’s a wrap! Whew! This might be the longest post I’ve ever written. There was a lot to cover. What’s crazy is I didn’t even touch on the Patio stairs we built or the new light fixture we installed. However, all that is saved to my story highlights titled Patio Part Two.

Hope you enjoyed this post and leave here feeling inspired to create the backyard of your dreams. I linked most of the items below.

Until next time. Xo