How to Excavate for a Patio

Making a patio is a process with many steps and none are more important than prepping and excavating for the actual patio. It is not a difficult task but attention to detail is most important in this first step of making a patio. If you make a mistake your patio will probably have some issues down the road. Before you start digging you always want to have the utility company come out and mark the area with any underground wires or cables. You also want to keep in mind to be careful digging around a septic tank if you have one. Taking these steps may take a few extra days but trust me, it is well worth it.

The fist thing you need to do is with a garden edger, cut the sod along the layout lines that you will have previously laid out for your patio. These can be with spray paint or with stakes and string. When cutting the sod you should start just a little outside the layout lines to give yourself a little extra room for the patio edging. A garden edger is good for this job, but you can also use a power edger or a spade, either one is a good tool. Just make sure that you are paying attention and making the right cuts.

If you are intending to reuse the sod that you are removing you need to be a little more careful, sod is pretty resilient but you can damage it. Remove the sod by digging down with a spade to just below the roots probably about 2-3 inches. Force the spade handle down to the ground and kick the back of the blade to free the sod. If you don't care about the sod you can just break up the ground with a pick or some other tool. If you break it up into small pieces it will be easier to remove. Just remember if you do it this way not to make a mess of the ground underneath, in other words make it easy on yourself for the next step, if it's a huge mess when you get done removing the sod you still have to fix it. I would suggest just removing the sod as if you were going to keep it. It will make it that much easier.

Once the sod is out it is time to prepare the surface. The surface should be fairly level and follow the slope of the patio. Using the lines you set up earlier measure down from them to check the depth and slope of the excavation. Dig to establish the slope along the edged, then excavate between them. Make sure the ground is level and that you have cleared out all natural material such as roots, weeds, anything that will affect your patio. Your excavation is complete and you are now ready to begin pouring your patio