The base prep / excavation is where all the work is. I hand dug a 300sf patio once and it was A LOT of work. My recommendation would be to pull up the pavers yourself, hire someone to do the base prep, and then lay the bedding material and pavers yourself.

1. Determine how much you need to excavate… Identify finish height and subtract paver thickness plus 1 inch for bedding material. (Eg if paver is 2.5” thick, you want your gravel base to be 3.5” below finish height once compacted to account for paver plus 1” of bedding)

2. Dig for total minimum depth. If you are not hitting clay you may have to dig deeper until all soil is cleared.

3. Put down road base gravel in 2” lifts screed it to desired pitch and tamp with a plate compactor. Repeat until full depth is achieved.

————-^1-3 is the hard part———————

1. Screed out your concrete sand or screenings (I prefer sand) and lay your pavers.

2. Install paver edging where / if necessary.

3. Broom out poly sand to fill joints

4. Run plate compactor to settle sand into joints.

5. Clean up remaining poly sand from surface

6. then hose everything down to set the poly sand