Is your picnic table 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 a paving deck to place under the table solves this small challenge, and it doesn’t impose a large amount of work or expense either. And it looks fantastic! And you can proudly say that you built it yourself!

Most barbecue or picnic tables are 5 ‘to 10’ wide at their widest point. (Many, these days are hexagonal or octagonal so a square platform is best suited. As long as your table is no more than 10 ‘wide, a 10’ * 10 ‘platform would be ideal. The first thing to do is locating the position you want to place 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, being that big means that you don’t have to put as many as 25 in fact, 5 each way.

Buy the 25 2 “pavers (added pebbles on top look great) and you will need 4 lengths of 2” * 4 “treated lumber to 10 ‘long, as well as 8 4” galvanized nails and some dowel wood.

Place the pavers on an unused section of grass. Leave a small space between them to allow sand. Now measure the distance along each side, cut the wood at 45 degrees, and nail the surrounding structure. 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 is square by measuring from corner to corner. Mark the outside of the frame with a shovel. Move the frame and excavate the grass area to a depth of 4 “.

Now place the frame in the excavated area. Check for a square. Now you need to get the entire frame level. Drive the pegs into the ground inside the frame and when you have it level, drive the pegs into the frame. The frame should be level with the height of the lawn.

Now you need some sand, about 1 3/4 cubic yards of sand. This will raise the bottom of the excavated area by approximately 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 downward 1 3/4 “. Keep 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, fit all the 25 pavers in the sand area, they will fit perfectly with a small gap between them.

You need a little more sand to spread over the top of the pavers. Sweep up the sand until all the gaps are filled. Next, it is time to compact the pavers. This can be done with a board and a hammer. The vibration will settle the pavers in the sand. Once this is done, you may need a little more sand. Continue consolidating until no more sand disappears. Sweep up 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!