Patios – Increasing Your Outdoor Living Space
Summer is the time that most of us feel like entertaining. Casual parties are suited to the outdoors. What better way to increase your casual living space than with a patio. There are many different types of materials that can be used for building a patio. Brick, specially designed patio blocks, natural stone products, or gravel.
Gravel is one of the easiest for the DIYer, requiring no special skills other than a strong back. It is also the least expensive. Depending on the size of the patio you choose to build it can be started and completed in a single weekend.
1) You will want to determine the size of your patio. Dig down and remove 4 inches of soil.
2) Using a hand tamper, tamp the soil down before filling the area with pack, a crushed stone and stone dust mixture.
3) Rake the pack level and tamp down until it is two inches deep.
4) Lay landscape fabric over the pack. This will prevent weeds from growing up through your new patio. Most of us have enough weeding to do in our yards and gardens without adding the job of weeding the patio to it.
5) Decide what kind of edging you are going to use for your patio. After all your hard work, you do not want your patio stone drifting into your lawn. And trust me, neither does your lawnmower. Many people chose stainless steel which is available at any of your home improvement center. It can follow gentle curves and could be the right material should you decide to have any shape other than rectangular for your patio. We opted to use wood.
6) Shovel the gravel gently onto the landscape fabric. Rake level.
7) Bring out the patio furniture and pour yourself a cold one. You deserve it.
