Does your picnic table reside on your lawn? Do you have to move it every time you mow the lawn? Pretty frustrating, right? Right! A real hassle, especially if the table is large! Creating an under-table paver solves this small challenge and doesn’t impose a huge amount of work or expense either. And it looks fantastic! And you can proudly say that you built it yourself!
Most picnic or barbecue tables are between 5 and 10 feet wide at their widest point. (Many these days are hexagonal or octagonal, so a square pad is best suited. As long as your table is no more than 10′ wide, a 10’*10′ pad would be ideal. The first thing to do is locate the position you want to have your picnic table in. Just remember that changing it after placing the pad will take quite a bit of work. You can choose any size of pavers, however a 2’*2′ paver, will be as big means you don’t have to put as many.
Buy the 25 2″ pavers (pebbles added on top look great) and you’ll need 4 lengths of 2″*4″ treated lumber at 10′ lengths, as well as 8 4″ galvanized nails and some wood for pegs.
Lay the pavers in an unused section of grass. Leave a little space between them to allow for sand. Now measure the distance along each side, cut the wood at 45 degrees and nail the surrounding frame. It will be a perfect fit. Now move the wooden frame to the exact location where you want to place your picnic table. Make sure it’s square by measuring from corner to corner. Score around the outside of the frame with a shovel. Move frame and dig grass area to a depth of 4″.
Now place the frame in the excavated area. Check the square. Now you need to get the whole frame level. Drive the dowels into the ground inside the frame and when you have it level, drive the dowels into the frame. The frame should be level with the height of the grass.
Now you need some sand, about 1 3/4 cubic yards of sand. This will raise the bottom of the excavated area about 2″. Level with a rake. Now you need to make a board to filter the sand to the correct level, a little less than 2″. The board should sit on the frame and extend down 1 3/4″. Continue working on it until the area is as level as possible. This will determine the level of the pavers. Without walking on the sand area, lay all 25 cobblestones in the arena area will fit perfectly with a small gap in the middle.
You need a little more sand to spread over the top of the pavers. Sweep the sand until all the holes are filled. Next, it’s time to compact the pavers. This can be done with a board and a hammer. The vibration will settle the pavers into the sand. When this is done, it may require a bit more sand. Keep consolidating until no more sand disappears. Sweep the area of all the sand and voila, you have a perfect paving pad for your picnic table. No more moving the table to mow the lawn!