At first, laying your own patio may seem like a headache. As with most patios, 95% of them need a straight edge around the border or all the stones need to fit in a specific amount of space. This means you’ll probably need to cut them to fit. You may ask, “How will I ever cut concrete stones?” Well, don’t worry, it isn’t that difficult. There are two processes we recommend:
Masonry Blade
On the low end, the concrete paver units may be dry-cut with a masonry blade in a common circular saw. It will require numerous passes with ever increasing depth of cut…no more than 1/8” at a time. These blades are readily available at your local hardware store.
When using the circular saw dry-cut method clamp the stone unit securely to a sturdy support to allow you to hold the saw, properly, with both hands. Securing a shop vac hose near the cutting operation will collect much of the dust that can obstruct the proper viewing of the cutting operation and can be sucked into the saw’s motor by the cooling fan blades. Give the saw’s motor a good cleaning after the cutting operations. Since this cutting operation can be harder on the saw than cutting wood the motor may get hot and need to, periodically, cool off.
Wet-Cut Masonry Saw
On the high end, renting a wet-cut masonry saw is the quickest option. When laying your patio, save all the cutting operations to the end of the installation so the rental time may be kept at a minimum.
In either case please be certain to wear a dust mask, hearing protection and safety goggles. The wet-cut saw will not produce dust, but hearing and eye protection is still necessary.
(By Merlyn Nyght, Commercial Sales/Technical Services)
