The Paver Landing for Pool Equipment

For this week’s One Room Challenge update, we are adding a paver landing to the back side of the pool for the pool equipment: heater, pump, salt water thing-a-ma-jig, hoses–lots of hoses.

Scott’s birthday is next weekend, so that gives us just two weeks to get the equipment set up, the pool open–and the water ready for swimming. It’s crunch time.

For the record, this was his birthday last year…we had teams here installing our new living room windows, exactly at the same time as the pool was being dug. Phew.

The Pool

We bought this pool last year, and it was a fast, fierce, messy process. This year, we want to go back and do things right. This is what the start of the pool looked like…

The equipment is just resting on pavers that we bought, in an attempt to keep them off the mud, held together with wooden planks. We fancy.

Installing the Paver Landing

Dig Down

Hubs dug out the area to create the paver landing with the dimensions we needed for all of the equipment. The heater isn’t going anywhere, so we are matching everything up to it.

Digging into settled ground should leave you with a nice, clean, flattened area. Beyond shoveling, raking is a big part of this. That’s where I come in, but of course there’s no photo evidence. (Oh, wait–there’s my shoes!)

Dry Fit & Cut As Needed

We added the pavers into the space to make sure everything fit together like we wanted, double checking the dimensions. 

Because we have that “already installed” heater that’s not moving, this dry fit stage lets us figure out where to make a cut to fit around the pipe.

We used a sharpie to draw out the notch dimensions after dry fitting the pavers. He used this small saw to cut out the notch. 

Add Paver Base

Paver base is the next step in creating a solid base for this landing spot, to prevent sinking and uneven spots. You’ll want a thick layer to support the patio area. In our case, this is a paver landing for the pool equipment. Ours ended up being about 1-2 inches thick. 

Pour 1-2 bags, rake it, pour another bag, rake it. Repeat. After smoothing it out with the rake, you’ll want to use one of these stampers to create a very smooth base. 

Next, you’ll want to grab your level. One thing about these larger levels–not only will they check across the area, but you can continue to smooth out or add more base to small spots for adjustments.

It’s a good idea to wet the area down to help settle the paver base even more, but we had a huge rainstorm the night after we did this, so we left well-enough alone.

Installing Trim

This trim will be an important aspect of our paver landing. Not only does it allow for a clean finish on the edges, but it holds everything in place as it sets. 

As you can see, we started with the edge that has to remain exactly in place–the heater pipe notch. Stakes solidify the position of the trim, ensuring the pavers aren’t going anywhere.

***Side note: This trim can be used with the stakes being hammered on the outside if you have something in the way, like we did here. But, we turned the trim around the other way to tuck it under the pavers for the rest of the landing because it secures it a bit more.

Here you can see where we fit the trim under the side, pavers in place exactly where we want them, lifting each–one at a time–to drive the stakes into place. It was definitely a two person job to make sure it was done right. But, we enlisted the help of the littles, too. The stakes are fairly easy to drive in, so it’s a perfect job for them to do!

The corners needed us to do some custom cuts on the interior of the trim, so there’s no overlap, which would cause uneven pavers.

The Final Leveling

Didn’t we just add all the pavers in? Yes, yes we did. 

Now, it’s time to do the final leveling process. The sand. Take all the pavers back out again. 

We used these PVC pipes as the perfect height for the amount of sand we needed to add. They also serve as the “runners” when smoothing out the sand. Keep them parallel to each other, and pour the sand in.

After the leveling is mostly complete, remove the pipes and add more sand carefully to fill in the gaps. Smooth out once more.

After the pipes were removed, we had some gaps to fill in, but that was easy. I’ll be adding some videos to my Instagram stories if you want to see more details. You can see how level those pavers are…awesome!

Finishing Up

After installing all of the pavers, which fit perfectly–thanks to that dry-fit process and the trim pieces–you can fill in the gaps between pavers for a finished look.

Our paver landing is ready for pool equipment! But, more importantly, there are pretty things going in–as we speak! Including mulch, greenery and a rock stream! Stay tuned to see the finishing touches for this area!

Have you done a DIY paver patio before? Did you follow this process? Or do you have other tricks and tips to share? Let me know!