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.
No comments:
Post a Comment