Thanks for all the great comments! We are thrilled with how well it turned out.
In regards to how long it took to finish, most of the time was spent waiting for the weather. Here is the breakdown of about how long it took.
One afternoon digging and installing the drainage extension. About 4 hours would be my guess.
One day digging up the sod and digging the trench for the retaining wall. There were two of us working this day so about 16 hours.
One half day hauling all the paver base around to the back, spreading it out and compacting it. This would go much much faster if you did not have to deal with the slope. We had to put in almost 6 pallets worth of paver base to build it up to the level we needed, but if you were working on a more level surface, you would need less then half of that. But this was about another 8-10 hours.
Then we hit the snag. We had not ordered enough base, so we had to wait a day or two for more to show up, then had to keep hauling. So another 8 hours here that would not have happened if we had enough material.
The last day was the day where we had the most help. There were 4 of us hauling the sand, spreading and leveling, and then laying the pavers. It probably took the 4 of us about 5 hours to get it all right, so another 20 hours here.
Then I took an afternoon and rented a wet saw to do all the cutting for all the corners and edges around the house and fence. Probably took me about 3 hours to get it all done working alone. This would be completely dependent on how many curves or edges your patio had.
Then the rain started. You need at least 48 hours with no rain (24 for the patio to completely dry and then 24 for it to cure once you put it in) so we had to wait almost a month on the rain. Leave it to us to decided to put in a patio during the wettest month in Indiana history
Although this kind of ended up being a bit of a help. Since it had to sit there almost a month before we could put in the finishing sand, it had time to settle a bit. So my brother and I took an afternoon a few days ago and did a bit of re-leveling. Took less then an hour, but I think it will really help the finished product.
We got our window two days ago, so the three of us poured in the finishing sand, compacted it one more time, and then swept and blew the patio clean before misting it several times. Total time was about 5 hours, but that included a long break to go rent the compacter. Probably only about 4-8 hours of actual work to do this part. It also took us longer because we had to glue down the wall caps. If this was a flat patio it would have been quicker.
So all and all, it probably took us about 65-70 total man hours. We did not have a deadline so we were never working in a real rush. I am sure that if you had enough materials (grrr, the running out of base really delayed us), did not have to deal with the slope, and had 2-3 people, you could knock out this type of project over a long weekend. Say a day to do all the digging and prep the base, a day to do the sanding and laying the pavers, and then another afternoon to do the finishing sand.
In regards to how long it took to finish, most of the time was spent waiting for the weather. Here is the breakdown of about how long it took.
One afternoon digging and installing the drainage extension. About 4 hours would be my guess.
One day digging up the sod and digging the trench for the retaining wall. There were two of us working this day so about 16 hours.
One half day hauling all the paver base around to the back, spreading it out and compacting it. This would go much much faster if you did not have to deal with the slope. We had to put in almost 6 pallets worth of paver base to build it up to the level we needed, but if you were working on a more level surface, you would need less then half of that. But this was about another 8-10 hours.
Then we hit the snag. We had not ordered enough base, so we had to wait a day or two for more to show up, then had to keep hauling. So another 8 hours here that would not have happened if we had enough material.
The last day was the day where we had the most help. There were 4 of us hauling the sand, spreading and leveling, and then laying the pavers. It probably took the 4 of us about 5 hours to get it all right, so another 20 hours here.
Then I took an afternoon and rented a wet saw to do all the cutting for all the corners and edges around the house and fence. Probably took me about 3 hours to get it all done working alone. This would be completely dependent on how many curves or edges your patio had.
Then the rain started. You need at least 48 hours with no rain (24 for the patio to completely dry and then 24 for it to cure once you put it in) so we had to wait almost a month on the rain. Leave it to us to decided to put in a patio during the wettest month in Indiana history
Although this kind of ended up being a bit of a help. Since it had to sit there almost a month before we could put in the finishing sand, it had time to settle a bit. So my brother and I took an afternoon a few days ago and did a bit of re-leveling. Took less then an hour, but I think it will really help the finished product.
We got our window two days ago, so the three of us poured in the finishing sand, compacted it one more time, and then swept and blew the patio clean before misting it several times. Total time was about 5 hours, but that included a long break to go rent the compacter. Probably only about 4-8 hours of actual work to do this part. It also took us longer because we had to glue down the wall caps. If this was a flat patio it would have been quicker.
So all and all, it probably took us about 65-70 total man hours. We did not have a deadline so we were never working in a real rush. I am sure that if you had enough materials (grrr, the running out of base really delayed us), did not have to deal with the slope, and had 2-3 people, you could knock out this type of project over a long weekend. Say a day to do all the digging and prep the base, a day to do the sanding and laying the pavers, and then another afternoon to do the finishing sand.
