Past its prime patio

Good intentions are no match for the passage of time. This tamped crusher dust patio was professionally installed over a decade ago and was once an ideal place to watch the tides turn. Over time the edging eroded and weeds infiltrated the stone area. On the right side wild roses took over the garden and the lawn in that area.

Crusher dust isn’t ever going to be completely maintenance free and this patio will need some edging and light weeding. There are a lot of hidden features that should make it last longer this time and helped to deal with the problems it was currently facing. In order to address the invasive and unwanted roses all the earth was removed down three feet. A double layer of geotechnical textile and 4 inches of crushed stone was laid as a barrier under new garden soil before adding an permanent upper layer of weed barrier and mulch ready for replanting.

The original patio was well laid a decade ago and there was no reason to tear out all that work and material unnecessarily. Originally a good base layer of surge was laid and then about 4 inches of crusher dust was used. I opted to pull back that existing material and install a permanent layer of weed barrier 4 feet around all of the edges and re-use the existing crusher dust as a base for the new patio. Half a yard of material that was contaminated with weeds or stone was trucked off site. A fresh yard of dust was brought in to resurface the patio before being thoroughly tamped when damp.

There was no reason to throw away the good base here and unnecessarily truck out and replace about 10 yards of material and bring in heavy machinery in to do so. With about 10 hours of work the homeowner had her favorite spot to sit restored to it’s former glory. Over the next decade or so this patio will only require the front edge to be maintained and the odd weed seed that happens to germinate on the surface to be pulled. About 20 minuets a year. The careful installation of top quality barriers means that it should take a lot longer that 12 years to fall into the same state again. If you have a patio just like this that could use some help going from past its prime to the prime spot in your yard feel free to reach out!