Monthly Archives: June 2020

Window Well and Pavers

Welcome to the jungle behind our house! For years, this is where the weeds would call home. This year, I decided to do something about it, and replace the unsightly window well in the process.

This project began, like many yard projects, with a shovel. I dug a hole around the steel window well, and pulled it out.

Next, I dug a little deeper, then put down “paver base,” which is a sand-gravel mix that I bought at Menards. I compacted the base layer, then started laying my bricks.

We used 6×9 Quarry Gray bricks that we bought at Menard’s.
My Makita angle grinder with a mason blade had no trouble cutting through these!

The window well bricks are spaced out 1/2″ further each layer, and are held together with landscape block construction adhesive.

Also bought a Tamper for this project–one of those boring tools that just takes up space.

After creating the window well, I dug out 5″ deep all around the area where pavers would be placed. I needed to go 5″ deep, because I needed 3″ of paver base and the bricks themselves are 2″ deep.

This is the pattern we used. The orange dots represent 6×9 bricks, the green dots represent 3×6 bricks and the blue dots represent 6×6 bricks. Sara crossed them out as we went.

I was surprised at how easily the pavers went into place. I have always heard that the hardest part of making a patio is the preparation, and good prep certainly made the rest of the process very easy!

I put white gravel in the bottom of the window well.

We finished the project by putting polymeric sand in the cracks (when mixed with water, it bonds together, preventing weeds from growing)

We’re very happy with the results. Maybe someday, we will get rid of the cement patio and expand it further!

Thanks for reading!

-Mike