I am totally new to this game so I am bombarding the board for advice and questions on things that may seem ****** obvious to anyone other than such a novice. However, here goes!
I want to get paved a rather large area of my back yard which was formerly grassed. There are some odd tufts left plus clumps of dead grass plus probably a few old shrub roots and the whole area is chocka with weeds etc - a real mess.
I am wondering what preparation work would be included in any quote for paving (I will be purchasing the pavers separately) and whether I would be able to tackle any of it myself beforehand. I am slow ( well, middle aged, female and skinny also) but pretty strong and I am in no real rush for this so if it would help/reduce time and cost to do some of the prep such as digging out some of the old grass, removing weeds etc I am willing to have a go at it. This is Perth so it is all just sand and not hard to dig.
The people around the corner got a bobcat thingy which dug up and more or less levelled the whole area in an hour or so and presumably they are about to pave but I have only limited rear access so it would be all hand work - pick and shovel stuff.
There is some existing paving under the patio which I can still match I think but it is moving around like a bunch of loose teeth so it will have to be relaid also. I think I can get those up pretty easily as there is no cement or morter or anything that I can see. I haven't measured the area but I would guess about 20 ft by 20ft ish.
I don't want to do this "on the cheap" if cheap also means nasty and a poor job but I am quite happy to save some of my budget for other things if all that is involved is a bit of time and work.
Oh and I am also having what remains of my patio pulled down and replaced and I am assuming that it would be best to have that put up first and then do the paving ?