A J bolt pierces a brick at the edge of the new patio.

God or the devil may or may not be in the details, but there is definite satisfaction. We recently had our old patio replaced. As our first major project we hired out, it was a little odd to not be doing it ourselves. I did, though, manage to leave a little work for myself. Part of the patio plan includes a new covered porch, which required new footings for a couple of posts. The crew from Father Nature Landscapes dug the holes and placed a couple of Sonotubes, then bricked around them. The rest was up to me.

After much mental debate, I decided to continue the brick over the footings instead of having an inch of concrete protrude through the patio surface. It may mean less of a set off for the post bottoms, but the uninterrupted expanse looks much better. I began by cutting the tops of the Sonotubes flush with the paver base, then mixed my concrete (once again justifying the purchase of a concrete mixing tub and mortar hoe), filled the Sonotubes and set my J bolts.

With the concrete dry, it was time to fit some bricks. Since the bricks were at the edge of the field, it meant I had to trim (and re-trim on more than one occassion) quite a few using a masonry blade in my circular saw. And each piece going over the J bolts had to be drilled with a masonry bit in a hammer drill. Extremely dusty work, but a J bolt emerging neatly from a hole in the brick and sealed with epoxy is a strangely satisfying detail–one that won’t even be seen once the posts go in.