jamhead
Well-Known Member
My wife and I have wanted a patio in our natural area since we moved in about 4 years ago. Our yard slopes from the house down to a creek behind our fence, and so when we are on our deck, we are about 10 feet above the ground. We wanted to have the ability to use our yard more for ourselves and any parties we have in the future. In addition, we wanted a fire pit to enjoy on weekend evenings, as well as cook meals or make 'smores!
We are huge fans of camping, so we wanted a real fire pit (like to hear the fire and smell the smoke).
So, it took us a few months of planning to get the correct "style" we were looking for as well as having it visually look good as it's the focal point of the yard when looking out of our biggest window in the house (breakfast area). Essentially, it's the first thing anyone will see when they come over and look out the window.
We initially received about 5 quotes and they ranged from 5 to 10K for the project. After evaluating the price, and knowing that I'm very hard to please, we decided, for better or worse, to do it ourselves.
I just want to start the description by saying this project was very difficult for a number of reasons. First, materials were in the driveway and needed to be carried by hand to the back yard. Second, it's a lot of digging. Third, rock sucks to work with....especially flagstone, as it is very uneven and both my wife and I are VERY picky about, well, the finished product. As my wife and I are big into our yard (we've landscaped our entire yard) and are not afraid of work (remember our 200ft french drain we put in?), we thought this wouldn't be too tough...based on internet research.
We were wrong. The internet was wrong. If anyone wants to do this...get ready for extremely heavy, time-consuming, mental-anguish inducing, frustrating, difficult work.
We decided to dry-lay the patio due to the location of the patio....all the tree roots will cause the patio to move, but dry-laid will be easier to fix than mortared. We also wanted a "natural" looking patio.. (ie-English Garden type) to blend into the surroundings. We're not done yet, as we're going to landscape around this fall, and then add lighting for evenings.
Here's photos of our project.
We are huge fans of camping, so we wanted a real fire pit (like to hear the fire and smell the smoke).
So, it took us a few months of planning to get the correct "style" we were looking for as well as having it visually look good as it's the focal point of the yard when looking out of our biggest window in the house (breakfast area). Essentially, it's the first thing anyone will see when they come over and look out the window.
We initially received about 5 quotes and they ranged from 5 to 10K for the project. After evaluating the price, and knowing that I'm very hard to please, we decided, for better or worse, to do it ourselves.
I just want to start the description by saying this project was very difficult for a number of reasons. First, materials were in the driveway and needed to be carried by hand to the back yard. Second, it's a lot of digging. Third, rock sucks to work with....especially flagstone, as it is very uneven and both my wife and I are VERY picky about, well, the finished product. As my wife and I are big into our yard (we've landscaped our entire yard) and are not afraid of work (remember our 200ft french drain we put in?), we thought this wouldn't be too tough...based on internet research.
We were wrong. The internet was wrong. If anyone wants to do this...get ready for extremely heavy, time-consuming, mental-anguish inducing, frustrating, difficult work.
We decided to dry-lay the patio due to the location of the patio....all the tree roots will cause the patio to move, but dry-laid will be easier to fix than mortared. We also wanted a "natural" looking patio.. (ie-English Garden type) to blend into the surroundings. We're not done yet, as we're going to landscape around this fall, and then add lighting for evenings.
Here's photos of our project.
