If your yard is flat, and you're building a flat patio, and you have easy access via a back alley or side yard, I'd say it's an accessible project.

If you have to grade the area dramatically, or if there are other complicating factors, you might consider having installers in. There are probably lots other than HD who would be happy to have the work.

Consider that you need to:

- haul in (or have delivered) tons of sand (we just did a 10 x 12 patio and used more than 20 bags of sand)

- haul in the pavers (or have delivered)

- rent and haul in (and out) a compacter, which is a large, rude piece of equipment.

- if your patio is to be anything other than square, you may need to cut bricks, so rent a cutter

- spend a little time fussing with the level and flatness of the ground, then the sand, then the patio, which can be tedious. That's if you don't do the crushed stone layer, which we didn't and which is probably not necessary in your zone either.

Here's what I would do if I were you.

1. Do some reading. There are dozens of books that will show you how to do this, in fact the brochures for the paving stone manufacturers have a brief "how to" section.

2. Design your patio. How complicated will it be? Do you have any non-standard features that might reduce the DIY potential or dramatically increase the cost of installers? Investigate the many different types of pavers available - in our area, some of the best ones aren't even available at the box stores!

3. Price your options. A couple of days of your time vs. the price of the installers. Include your time and effort needed to haul in the sand and bricks, as the installers would probably organize delivery or bring them.

4. Know yourself. Do you just want a patio quick and proper, or will you enjoy the patio more if you DIY? How will you feel about imperfections if it is done for you vs. if you DIY?

Cheers!

As far as DIY vs. installer- how well do you and your spouse get along when doing projects together? I decided on paying for the installing since I suspected such a large, labor intensive project would strain our relationship (it was the front walk and had a circle as well as a small wall and two stairs). He has engineer brain, and I have left-handed redheaded artist brain. Sometimes they don't work well together! I won't hang wallpaper with him either.

Karin makes some good points regarding planning this well out ahead of time and reviewing the degree of difficulty involved. But if you have the time and inclination, there is very little reason this cannot be a successful DIY project. The bulk of my design client base are DIY'ers and they have managed to install a whole array of different paving materials and features, generally with excellent results.

There are all sorts of how-to books and pamphlets out there clearly outlining the steps and processes involved - most anywhere you can access materials will have instructional information as well. It is a very doable project, can be a huge budget savings if you do the labor yourself and will provide an enormous amount of satisfaction once completed.

See the link below.

We bought our first house about two years ago [and got married that same year] so we were BROKE. Needless to say the yard needed [and still does] much improvement. The first thing we wanted to do was put in two walkways across a large hell strip in our front. We tossed around the idea of hiring someone to do it for us or try to tackle this job ourselves. Neither one of us had ever laid pavers before so we weren't sure what we were getting ourselves into.

I will say this, while it wasn't too mentally challenging to figure out how to properly lay it down, it was back breaking work. The book "Sunset Landscaping With Stone" was a great resource for the proper technique to put it in [See link below to check it out - it has very good instructions and easy to understand illustrations] So if you're physically fit and have a strong back and good knees go for it!

Ours turned out pretty good for the first stab at it and now we're plotting against the back yard [also all dirt like yours... what are people thinking?] We'd love to put in a patio back there for a table/chairs/BBQ/etc. for summer entertaining. But it'll be more of a challenge as we need to grade the slope for water run off [major concern in the Pacific NW w/ all our rain] and it'll be much larger. It was nice to start w/ this small project to see how we got on. It might be good if you tried laying a small area w/ pavers to see how well you do with the process before you tackle the big job.

Either way good luck and post pictures of your success!

Does anyone know if $15/sq foot is a safe estimate for this kind of work (I'm in the northeast)?