My wife and I spend most of our time outside, so we wanted to get rid of the eye sore of a wooden deck.

Here is how we installed our Tuscan pavers.

1. Gather materials. This took a lot longer than I thought and took multiple trips to Home Depot
• Wheel barrel (to haul the wood, gravel, and sand)
• Paver Sand
• Sand Base (4″ deep)
• Paver material (192 sq ft)
• Weed guard (12’) (4×50)
• Crow bar
• Flat Shovel
• Pipe (4×10)
• Pipe  (1×10)
• Tamper (10in x 10in)
• Rubber Mallet
• Patio edging (12′) Kit
2. Excavate the wooden deck and level the ground to the desired level. The flat shovel works well for getting the ground to the desired level. We also used a string on both ends to measure the height of each level, base sand and level sand.
   • 4 inches for the base sand
   • 1 inch for the leveling sand
   • 2 inches for the pavers
   • drop 1/4 inch every 8 feet away from the house
3. Lay down weed guard. The weed guard will help keep weeds from growing and still let water drain through.
   
4. Level the base sand. We used the two 4 inch pipes and scraped the 2×4 across them to get it level. We then wet the gravel and compacted it.
   
5. Level the leveling sand. We used the 1 inch pipes and scraped the 2×4 across them to get the sand level.
   
6. Lay down the pavers. We started on one corner and worked our way out.
   
7. Sweep in filler sand. This sand is finer grained and after sweeping it in, we blew it with a blower, then wet it. We repeated this step two times.
   
8. Enjoy the new patio! We smoked a chicken immediately after completion!