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The backyard is done!

stoney

Part of the unwashed, middle-American horde
Jul 26, 2006
21,514
7,056
Colorado
After initially thinking I could renovate our backyard by myself and lay a patio using my existing red stone, taking Dan-O ‘s suggestions of having a professional installation was worth it. The workers came in Tuesday at 9am and finished this afternoon at 5pm. Two guys in 95*+ temperatures and they finished in three days.

My pictures from before they started work are a bit older, but you can get the basic idea.











The grass is alive in the pictures, but I had killed it with Round-Up per the builder’s request. I looks better in these pictures than when they actually started. The solo box you can see in the fourth picture was already pulled out, so it was a giant dead spot. You can see the ‘great brown spot’ by the garden boxes and the dead circle in the middle of the yard as well. Nothing would grow in any of those locations, scorched earth-style.

I can home from work Tuesday to them having pulled all of the red stone up, flattened the built the patio base, and removed all of the perimeter rock.



Wednesday I came home to a completed patio, existing grass removed, fertilizer tilled in, and the lawn area leveled. They also lifted the garden beds to be consistent to the patio surface.











Today I came home to a finished backyard. Sod planted, new perimeter rock laid, and sprinklers rearranged. They also removed a massive pile of river rocks that I couldn’t even give away.











Wifey wants to find a nice fireplace that she can put on the patio, and then we’re done with that.

My thoughts on fixing the deck by myself however are toast. Dan-O was nice enough to look at some pictures of our known issues and suggested that we call in a pro. Our contractor referred us to a deck guy that he’d worked with in the past, who came out same day to get an estimate for necessary repairs. Most deck contractors were saying 2+ weeks before they could even come by look at it, so the promptness was great. He should be coming out this weekend to do the repairs and add a gate to the top of the stairs for Haley.

We are going to wait for the grass to take on 3-4 weeks and hopefully have a nice barbeque. All of the local Monkey’s are invited, so I’ll let you know once we get closer to the date.

*edit* Just thought about it and I'm probably going to stain the fence too, as that will look quite nice.
 
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atrokz

Turbo Monkey
Mar 14, 2002
1,552
77
teedotohdot
Could make a pumptrack from the patio stone. Just tell the wife something happened to the ground and it bumped up everywhere, and she'll have to live with it.
 

stevew

resident influencer
Sep 21, 2001
40,494
9,525
pump tracks offer nothing in resale value of house unless you find a flat billed bro to buy....
 

stevew

resident influencer
Sep 21, 2001
40,494
9,525
a kidney shaped pool in the grassy area on the other hand....
 

stoney

Part of the unwashed, middle-American horde
Jul 26, 2006
21,514
7,056
Colorado
well, I wish you the best of luck with that. What was the depth? Was there an agreed compaction spec that was measured, or did they just go over it with a tamper? You're in the Denver area, right? The frost depth there is 3 feet. If the base course is wet, it will move.

#sorrytobeabuzzkill
For the non-raised area, the dug down about 6" for the base. Our contractor said that is there is any movement to let him know and they will fix it.
 

berkshire_rider

Growler
Feb 5, 2003
2,552
10
The Blackstone Valley
This. We are required to maintain a certain level of slope to the backyard for drainage, and to keep slope away from the house.
Understood. I was referring specifically to the area by the rear patio area where it looks like there's at least a 6-8" difference between the blue stone and the sod. Especially at the fence. Imagine it would look much nicer aesthetically if the sod came up close to the patio level and then gradually tapered to the back corner. Would remove the possibility of potential incidents with kids or whatever.

In the end, it's your backyard. If you like it as is that's all that matters. :)
 

stoney

Part of the unwashed, middle-American horde
Jul 26, 2006
21,514
7,056
Colorado
Understood. I was referring specifically to the area by the rear patio area where it looks like there's at least a 6-8" difference between the blue stone and the sod. Especially at the fence. Imagine it would look much nicer aesthetically if the sod came up close to the patio level and then gradually tapered to the back corner. Would remove the possibility of potential incidents with kids or whatever.

In the end, it's your backyard. If you like it as is that's all that matters. :)
I know you were referring to that. We were seriously limited by the county how much we could change the grade. We added a few inches as is. They would have dug down, but the large tree in the corner has rooted into our yard. If they had tilled through the roots, we'd have liability if the tree fell...