Box Frame Installed

Once the area was excavated, I built a box to act as a guide and reference for depth of the soil and later to screed, level and contain the stone dust. I selected the straightest pieces of SPF strapping which are 16' long 1" x 4". In each corner I hammered down a peg and carefully leveled the strapping before screwing them to the pegs using basic 1¼ in. floor screws. I then cut off the tops of the pegs level with the boards. I chose to cover the patio with 18"x18" patio stones since they are manageable enough to manipulate at about 19 kg or 42 pounds each. Also these larger stones would be much faster to place and easier to level than interlocking brick.

To use whole patio stones I chose the patio dimensions of 12 feet by 13½ feet as multiples of the 18" stones.  For drainage, I provided a slight slope following the contour of the land and the edge away from the house is 5 cm or 2 inches lower than the upper side near the house.

I decided to leave the box frame permanently in place afterwards and covered it during landscaping since the patio stones sit above it. SPF lumber will rot over time and disappear I figure.

A Rocky Surprize

 In the digging process, we never know what we may run into. The soil here is mainly glacial till subsoil with a topsoil overburden and all of it is rocky from pea sized stones to huge bolders. Since the soil is permeable it is susceptible to frost heaving or pushing up of any rocks by the spring frost. Hence if we ever detected even the tip of a rock we would remove it, but the size would be unknown and a surprize. In this photo a good sized and well lodged rock surfaced and took some major effort to remove. Pry-bars were basically ineffective.

Finally we dug around the rock and wrapped a chain around it and with the ATV were able to pull it out.

Clay and sand are not permeable soils thus they are not susceptible to frost heaving, and are preferred soils to use under structures. The holes created by the rocks here were back filled with sand and tamped down.

Next Project -- Patio and Pergola

Our project for 2012 was to build a patio and a pergola where we could enjoy the scenery, the air, and the sun. In the early planning stage, we took a tarp and laid it down on the ground and moved it around until we felt we had the right place for it.

I then put down stakes and lines to roughly determine the area where to dig. I need to dig down 10 cm (4 inches) to put down a base of stone dust also called limestone screenings.
These stakes and lines helped me locate the digging area without interfering with the digging itself.