Rehabbing My Crappy Fire Pit Patio

2023 Update – My fire pit paver patio area was disgusting.

It didn’t start out that way, of course. But after a while, everything needs a facelift. Or a rehab. Or maybe just some TLC.

The mold, moss, algae and weeds in my paver patio were out of control. Rust, rot and filth had consumed my old wood-burning fire pit too. It was time.

The first picture below doesn’t look too bad… but have a look at the close-up of the mold and filth on the paver patio stone bench below that. Nobody could sit on that. It looks like something from a post-apocalyptic movie to me, with nature reclaiming civilization!

And worse still?

The old fire pit was basically just ‘dead’ (shown below in my garage awaiting the funeral service [aka; ‘bulk pick-up’]) as was the huge tree above everything: our central Sweet Gum.

The Sweet Gum tree started dropping full branches this summer. Super safe. (Not!) But I have to admit, I was getting some nice fire pit wood from there.

Lots of work was needed to make this fire pit paver patio area great again:

1. A new (and totally badass) fire pit, of course.
2. Full sanitization (sterilization?) of the paver patio and serpentine walkway – I mean, I want BRAND NEW in the end there.
3. Tree removal (the Sweet Gum) and tree pruning – the large Maple and Cypress you see to the right and left in that image above.
4. Then, cleaning the patio furniture, getting new seat cushions and maybe some LED Tiki Torches too? Maybe.

Here’s how it went…

One ‘Badass’ New Propane Fire Pit

A propane fire pit instead of a wood-burning fire pit? Definitely.

And with a place to put wine, drinks and snacks too. That’s what we wanted.

Two photos of the one we bought, and assembled in our driveway, are shown below.

Assembly took about 6 minutes.

We had our wood-burning fire pit for more than 10 years.

The great thing about that fire pit was the smell of the burning wood, but it took a bit of effort to get a good fire going – kindling and often a Duraflame log to start things up. And it was frankly pretty dirty undertaking, with the ashes, the water bath (a bucket of pool water) to kill it at the end of the night and the full clean-up the following morning.

So, this time we went with a propane fire pit – you can see the tank above. It’s portable and cleaner overall. Plus… sometimes you just want to try new things, right?

So, new badass propane fire pit? Got it!

Testing it in my driveway – Done!

Neighbors thinking it looks kinda weird, my wife and I with a fire in our driveway drinking wine? Check!

Paver Patio Heated Power Washing

I really like to think of what we did to our paver patio and serpentine walk as ‘steam cleaning.’ But it probably wasn’t. It was certainly VERY-hot-water power washing, though.

We wanted to get those pavers near-sterilized. And all signs of years of black algae, mold, moss and filth… gone.

We contacted a local power washing professional we’ve worked with for many years.

It took them about 90 minutes to achieve the awesome ‘before and after’ results you see below.

Filthy, Disgusting, Crappy Paver ‘Before’ Power Washing Photos:

Clean, Sparkling, Sanitized Paver ‘After’ Power Washing Photos:

“Yeah, Baby!! (Spoken in my best Austin Powers’ voice.)

Paver Patio & Walkway Polymeric Sanding

Now, you’ll notice above that there are spaces between the pavers after the deep cleaning.

Part of obliterating all the filth, mold, algae, weeds and moss also involves obliteration of the paver sand that was facilitating some of the growth there.

So, I have to re-sand the pavers now. With polymeric paver sand. And that… is super easy.

(In fact, I’ll need to mulch a bit around this paver patio and walkway area as well.)

What’s ‘Polymeric’ paver sand?

It’s simply sand… with a bit of water-activated ‘plastic’ mixed in.

Once it’s applied and you wet it, it dries and bonds together to form a more durable moss and weed resistant barrier.

It comes in colors, too – and in the shot above you can see I bought gray. But I, personally, really don’t find that matters too much.

The key point, as I see it, is that polymeric paver sand is better than plain-old-sand. And who wants to re-sand pavers (or pull weeds) more than they have to??

With a push-broom – the polymeric paver sand is applied, filling in the patio and walkway nicely.

I used about 60-pounds for the areas you see below…

And then we wet everything down, gently.

Yup – that’s my arm below. And check out the Maple tree in perfect fall color.

We’ll be pruning that maple a bit, so it doesn’t catch fire from the new propane fire pit which can (with a dial turn) increase the flames to about 2 feet high… “Yeah, baby!” ;)

I’ve now completed two of my four jobs – 1) cool [badass] new propane fire pit and 2) brand new [rehabbed] patio and walkway hardscape area.

In a follow-on “Part 2,” (now right here) I’ll address the 3) tree cutting/pruning and the 4) paver patio furniture clean-up and ‘accents.’

(Accents like LED Tiki Torches. And possibly even some additional outdoor decorative lighting too.)

Will my fire pit paver patio area be less crappy in the end?

Well… I’d say it already looks pretty awesome [via the paver cleaning and re-sanding alone], so YES. It will now only get better!

Any other thoughts or ideas for more cool things to add to this fire pit patio area from anyone? If so – PLEASE comment below…

Need Professional Help from a Local HVAC Contractor?

• Visit Our Find a Contractor Page

Related Posts

• Fire Pit Patio Rehab and Tree Demolition
• Refreshing a Pool Landscape: Dead Hinoki Cypress & Solar Tiki Torches
• Refreshing a Swimming Pool Landscape
• Designing and Building your Perfect Deck
• How to use a Submersible Pump to Remove Excess Pool Water
• Paver Walkway Burrowing Pest