Backyard Patio

Been a busy past week here at home.  I went back into manual labor mode.  Dad and I started working on a new patio in the backyard.  This is something that we had been talking about doing for a long time.  I actually did the original design my senior year at UT in my landscape design class.  It has gone through a lot of tweaking since then but it's now all coming to life.

Neither dad nor I have ever done any serious hardscaping so it has been an interesting, but fun, process.  We have been feeling our way through different materials, machines, and installation techniques along the way but I think it has all come together nicely so far.

There are three sections that all tie together to make one large patio that connects from our driveway, onto the existing concrete slab under the deck, and then all the way over to the hot tub area.  The first section is made out of 12"x12" concrete pavers and serves mostly as a connecting walkway.  There is a garden space and another landscape bed built into this area.  The middle section, which is the only part not completed, is going to be made out of flagstone.  The third section is again 12"x12" concrete pavers.

The process:

Step 1:  We killed the grass at the beginning of the summer to prep.

Step 2:  Ground prep.  We dug the outline of the patio and tilled all of the dirt to level the area.  The existing sidewalk in the bottom right of the picture was also removed.

Step 3:  We created a border for the patio with natural rock pavers.

Step 4:  Filled in the patio area with block dust and used a plate tamper to create an even surface for the pavers and flagstone.

Step 4 continued

Step 5:  Layed 12x12 pavers in place and filled gaps with more block dust to lock them in place  to complete the process for this section.

Step 5: Same process as above for the section connecting the driveway to the flagstone patio.

The flagstone area is the only area that hasn't been completed so far.  There are a couple smaller projects as well before the process is completely done.  The plan is to put river rock under the stairs, build a small fence around the AC units, and plant shrubs in the small bed in front of the AC units.  Then mom gets to go to work on her garden.  I will post pictures when everything has been completed.

This has been a fun project for me to work on.  Its been fun to design, problem solve, and install with dad.  I think its going to look great when it is all finished.

Headed to Durham this afternoon...internship time.