We have wanted to put a patio in the backyard for while now, for many reasons.
We used to have regular fires in the backyard, but because of a "dent" in the ground from a swimming pool from the far past, the positioning of the firepit and chairs was always a pain.
The pit needed filling in, but to do that, we would have to dig that area of the yard, and relay the dirt and grass to re-level it all out.
If we're going to go through that work, why don't we just put in a patio or something down in that area for sitting/standing not on the dirt. Some form of stone. Bricks, pavers, blocks of some sort, to give us a patio like area.
Michael measured off an area with string and stakes to encompass the dent and the general firepit communal area. All was going well so far.
The square he measured, he thought was 20 feet by 20 feet. 20 feet = 240 inches. At 240 inches, thats 15 x 16inch blocks. Guess what, garden paver stones come in a 16 inch size.
After a trip to the garden center of ye olde hardware mart, and little bit of math, we realized that it would be far cheaper (but far more work) to make the 16inch blocks ourselves out of concrete.
Well, if we were going to do that, why not dye some of them, and make a pattern? But what pattern to use.... (hint, if your reading this, you know the answer already). Jason pointed out, that since we were no longer bound by premade sizes, if we flip the numbers, and make 16 x 15", that 16x16 grid would make choosing a pattern a lot easier. We could then use something like a premade videogame sprite :)
We were limited in the choice of sprites, based on the limited selection of concrete dye colors. They make: Charcoal, Red, Brown, 'Buff' (its a tan color), and thats it. Well, do also have undyed 'white'.
We ended up on the red 'mario' mushroom would be the best considering our limited palette.
Some early crude molds were made, and some early pours were done to experiment with the medium. At 15" square, 1 bag was yielding just over 3 squares. Not bad, but it was going to be a long summer with 256 squares looming.
After an accidental measuring of the space in the yard, we realized that the 20foot sides were actually only 16foot sides (blame his 3/4th of a foot shoe). After some quick re-measuring, we agreed that the original goal of 20' by 20' would be too large of an area, and this 16' by 16' was fine.
We were pretty stuck on this 16x16 mushroom sprite idea by this point. But wait! If we need 16x16 'pixels', and our space is 16' by 16', Its so simple! Just make 12" squares instead of 15". It was perfect Plus, by shrinking the size, we increased the yield of blocks per bag from 3.5 to 5.0, which greatly cut down on the total cost of the project, both in time and money.
We got to work on making squares, or at least trying to. We learned in those early days on many ways to NOT make concrete. Many, many, many ways to fail. Our molds did make squares, but they looked like butt, and cracked a lot during the removal process.
About 40(?) blocks in, we found great method for making nice clean edges and nice looking squares using aluminum roofing 'flashing'. Making a system that amounts to the same concept as cupcake papers, but square, and made out of metal, and reusable (with a little hand washing)
With out methods refined, and the workflow hammered out. We moved from making 1-2 bags per day, to making 3 bags everyday, ramping up to the ability to make up to 4 bags a day. This far made up for having to scrap over 50 blocks.
Our bottleneck at this point is not having enough concrete. For the last 2 weeks, Jason and I have been going every other day (or more) and getting 6 more bags every trip.
Yes, its a lot of work. Yes, we all do hate it. Yes, we all wish we hadn't started this crazy project. And Yes, we all think it will be well worth it in the end.