Finishing Touches - Mulch Makes Everything Look Better

I finished laying the slate patio on Mother's Day. Since then we have enjoyed breakfast, lunch and dinner...and of course S'MORES on it. It has functioned as the outdoor living area we hoped for.

Although I 'finished' on Mother's Day I did spend another 4 hours making everything stronger the following weekend. I put on the knee pads and used a paint stirring stick to manually compact the stone dust in-between every joint...yes you read that right - every joint with a 2 inch wide stick (there is probably a medical diagnosis for someone like me). Then I filled the newly compacted cracks with more stone dust. Happy to say the slates now feel snug as a bug in a rug.

So now it is finally safe to say....I.AM.DONE.

...or am I? I looked around and the slate patio looked great, but the landscaping around the slates?...not so much. The grass and weeds were growing and the dirt areas just looked...dirty. It is a good thing that mulch makes everything look better.

Mulching Process:

• Paige and I went around the whole patio and removed all the weeds. 
• Karen weeded the gardens
• Then I removed the grass around the entrance walkway 
• I also went around with my flat shovel and cut a nice 4 inch deep edge around the whole parameter. 
• Place landscape fabric in as many areas as possible to keep the weeds at bay
• Cover with 4 inches of mulch

Mulch Colors

• Premium Brown - This is my color of choice - it is almost black when first laid out or when it is wet, but dries to a dark natural looking brown. There is no dye in this mulch. Does not stain clothing, but will make you look dirty!
• Dark Brown - this is a dyed mulch. Stains clothes. The dye wears out/fades on top from the rain/sun leaving it not looking so dark brown after a while.
• Black - Great looking when first spread out, but again this is a dyed mulch. Stains clothes. The dye wears out/fades on top. Looks gray after a period of time.
• Red - Another dyed mulch. Same problems as above and I consider this the commercial mulch. Every Dunkin Donuts, gas station, medical building uses the red mulch. I do not want my house to look like them. 
• Playground - Natural wood chip mulch. Light tan color. No dyes. No dirt. Will keep your kids clothes cleaner than any other mulch.

Mulching Tips

• If planting flowers - I like to mulch first, then plant flowers. Just move some mulch out of the way and plant your flower and push the mulch back around the flower. Flowers are delicate and can easily get trampled or squished during the mulching process.
• If planting shrubs I usually plant the shrubs first and then mulch. Shrubs need a much larger hole and you will make a mess of your mulch if you mulch first.
• Notice I said a flat shovel for making my edge. A flat shovel makes a much nicer looking natural border than a spade shovel. The rounded bottom of the spade shovel makes an uneven edge.
• 4 inch deep edge is important too. This way you can place 2 inches of mulch and still have 2 inches until the top of the edge. This way if grass is growing up to your edge, the grass will stop when it hits the air. If you place your mulch all the way to the top of the edge where it meets the grass, your grass will just keeping growing into your mulch bed. I learned this the hard way.
• 4 inches of mulch over the rest of your garden area is ideal for blocking out weeds...but landscape fabric is better...unless you are placing the mulch on a steep hill that will be walked on often. If this is the case you may want to skip the fabric because the fabric is slippery and the much will slip down when walked on revealing the fabric - again I learned this the hard way...so I know!.
• Freshly laid mulch can have an 'aroma' for the first few days after being spread out - and not in a good way - so keep this in mind if you are having guests over...this is one you don't want to learn the hard way...
• I like to place the mulch into a medium size plastic garbage can and carry it to where it is to be spread out.
• Yes using a wheelbarrow is less strenuous, but my way is faster and easier to control.
• Much faster to lay the garbage can on its side next to your pile of mulch and push the mulch into it with a spade shovel than it is to fill a wheelbarrow one shovel full at a time.
• The garbage can allows me to control exactly how much mulch I dump out and where I place it. 
• It is easier to tip-toe through the tulips in a flower bed than to maneuver a wheelbarrow around all the flowers.

Some photos to show you what I mean:

3 truck loads (4.25 yards of mulch)

Paige getting into the action

 Before & Afters

Before                                                           In Process

After - Nice Mulch Bed

Before                                                          After

Before

After

Before

After

Mulch really is the finishing touch that make everything look better.

Now the project is complete!

"Mommy Wants S'mores on the Patio for Mother's Day"

Previously on Restoring the Splendor, I had just finished laying out and compacting all the Crusher Run with lots of help from 6 year old Lily. While we were working together, My Little Helper mentioned that it would be great if the patio was ready for Mother's Day (7 days later), because "Mommy wants s'mores on the patio for Mother's Day."...she is sooo funny....love her!

I told her that would be nice but there is still a lot of work to be done and I don't think daddy can get it all done by then. She went on to tell me, "no worries - you are the best so you will get it done."

As Monday and Tuesday came and went Lily continued to giggle and pull me to the side to secretively whisper in my ear about how excited mommy is gonna be about the s'mores...and a few days later it had expanded into pancakes on the patio for breakfast, too, instead of the Mother's Day tradition of breakfast in bed. Oh brother! I became a man on a mission! Yes, making mommy's day special was very important, but keeping my Superman status in Lily's eyes was just as important!

Carly Supervising
the Work

I had to buy these

Several of our wonderful neighbors donated to our project too! Mark & Michele donated a pile of slates (pictured right) that I used for the uphill walkway that will welcome guests from the yard to the patio. Also Peter and Trish donated some very thick and heavy slates we used as the step off the door we use the most. Those slates will take the most pounding so it is nice to know those are sturdy! Thank you all!

My pallet of slates delivered

Even with the great donations and the found slates Karen unearthed from under the sod and dirt on day one of this project on April 12th - I still had to buy 100+ slates from Faddegon's Nursery. I chose Faddegon's because they are local, I like the friendly and knowledgeable staff, and they gave me a pallet and left me alone to pick every slate myself. I purposely was looking for 1/2" thick slates. A little light duty for most patios (most people use 3/4"-2" thick slates), but I was trying to match the thickness of the 225+ slates I already had. Faddegon's delivered the slates during the week. Then I moved them to the patio area that evening.

Baseball, softball and other family commitments kept me from doing more during the week, so with Lily's (oops I mean mommy's) Mother's Day's expectations on my mind, I knew I had to take a 1/2 day vacation on Friday if there was any chance of getting this done. I borrowed the company truck and went to George's Market on the way home to get the first of 3 loads of Stone Dust (for you do-it-yourself-ers - in the end I used 4 yards of stone dust).

Laying Down a Slate Patio - Part II

In Part 1 of my How to Make a Slate Patio posts, I discussed how to prepare the site to make a sturdy base. I will now finish that process...hopefully in time for pancakes!!!

Day 1 - Friday

Step 1 - Test Your Pattern

I started laying down a completely random example of the non-pattern I planned on using and then got Karen's approval (obviously most important step!). Since I only did a test area and was going for a completely random look, I did not number the slates. But if you are doing your own patio and you lay out every slate in exactly the pattern you want, then remember to number every slate with chalk and take digital pictures of your example so you can place them down in the same order again.

Test pattern and screen guides laid out in background (see step 2 below)

Step 2 thru Step 8 - Work a section at a time

Working in 4 foot sections:

• Step 2 - I laid my 2"x3" boards (discussed in my previous post) parallel to each other on their flat side in order to get a very smooth surface of stone dust 1.5" thick. 
• Note: assuming you used a level during the preparation of the site as discussed in my first post about this process you do not need to re-level anything. Just lay down the boards and move on...of course me being me - I checked for level and proper pitch away from the house again anyway!
• Step 3 - I made piles of stone dust in each section using my wheelbarrow.
• Step 4 - I used a metal rake to preliminarily level the area
• Step 5 - I hand-tamped the area of stone dust to compact it
• Step 6 - I then used another board placed between both 2x3's to screen the stone dust to a perfectly smooth surface that was 1.5 inches thick (see below)
• Step 7 - I picked up the 2x3 on the inside edge of my working area and filled the void left by the wood with stone dust
• Step 8 - I then laid out some of the slates in a random pattern in the section I just smoothed out, making sure to leave access to the remaining 2x3 for the next section.
• There were some open voids in the pattern, where I would need to cut a slate to size in a later (see Step 9)

Lay down the 2x3 making a new 4 foot section and repeat steps 2 thru 8 until the whole patio is covered. Sounds easy doesn't it?! Sure it is easy to write about it and read about it, but it is a killer on your body!

Example of Screening the Stone Dust
You can also see the previous sections completed by using steps 2 thru 8 above

Knee pads and gloves are mandatory for this type of work

In the above picture you can tell it is still early in the process on Friday...How? I am still smiling and don't look like a beaten down and battered man.

By the end of Friday I had worked from 1-8pm and got about half of the area done. My in-laws came Friday evening to visit for Mother's Day. When they saw how sore I was, they lovingly suggested that I take it easy and not try to finish by Mother's Day. I jokingly said to them, "Do you even know me?"

Day 2 - Saturday


Started at 5:50am on Saturday. I knew it was relatively quiet work so the neighbors would not hate me. Just repeating Steps 2 thru 8 above. I had to get an early start because like for most families - springtime Saturday's are spent mostly going from one ball field to another. I had to help coach the twins at A-Ball at 10am and then go watch the end of Paige's softball game. Around 8am it started raining on me. It was not so bad for me. It kind of felt nice. However, it was not so nice to the twins. Their game got canceled. More time for me to work! The picture to the right shows how far I was able to get done on Saturday morning...




...because luckily the rain had stopped in time to see this!

Paige playing catcher for the first time this year!

After the game I was able to finish laying out the rest of the patio by 3pm. Then came the next step.

Step 9 - Cutting Slate

After I was done laying out the majority of the full pieces, I had some (many?) smaller squares and rectangles that I needed to fill in with pieces of slate. I would need to cut the slate to size. I realized slates are cut to size at quarries before being shipped, but as a homeowner I had no idea what to expect. I talked to my brother, Jim, who owns Select Shower Door, Glass & Mirror in Cold Springs, NY. Besides windows, mirrors and shower doors, he does a lot of patios and all other facets of contracting, too. He told me it was easy, but very dusty so to use a face mask and work away from the house. He told me to buy a diamond circular saw blade (or to rent a wet saw for less dust).

Personally I see one of the huge advantages of doing all my own work (besides the satisfaction of a job well done) is that I get to buy new tools - no questions asked!!! It is hard to believe that I have been doing home improvements since 2005 all without owning a corded circular saw (or a table saw for that matter)....and I have done quite a bit of extensive woodwork both at this house and my last house. My trusty 18v Ryobi rechargeable 5" Circular Saw and some homemade saw guides (I'll discuss these in future posts) got me through those projects with relative ease. But for cutting through stone - I figured I needed to go old school. I picked up a diamond blade and an inexpensive corded circular saw.

Besides being uber dusty cutting the slates was easy! Not as easy as cutting through wood, but it was much easier than I had anticipated.

Even though the slate cutting was going well - I was hurting. It took me about 2 more hours to cut all my pieces and lay them out. I was shot. Karen came home from shopping for flowers and plants at Faddegon's with her mom and I said "uncle." I had no more juice...and I was starting to feel sick. It was 5:30 and my day was done...but the patio was not.

As I walked around the house stiff and moaning Karen made me promise I would not try to finish it and just take Sunday off. I promised (but my fingers were crossed).


Day 3 - Mother's Day

Step 10 - "Grout" the seams

It was nice of the sun to join me

I woke up on Mother's Day feeling like garbage. But I knew I only had 2 hours of work left to make the patio ready. So I got up before the sun and started working. By the time the sun had come over the horizon (pictured right) I was about halfway done with sweeping the stone dust between the crevices.

Grouting - Finishing Touches

• Dump piles of stone dust along the patio
• Sweep the stone dust into the crevices
• Walk around on patio looking for loose slates
• Because most of my slates were hidden underground for decades they did not have squared edges anymore. Therefore they could rock under foot. (The new slates did not have this problem)
• Hand compact the stone dust around and under the loose slates until properly supported
• Sweep more sand
• Wet all the seams with a house to help settle all the stone dust

The above finishing touches will need to be done a few more times over the coming months as things settle more, but that is to be expected with any natural slate patio (i.e.-not mortared in with cement or gator dust), but especially if you are reusing slates that have some rounded edges.

To the left is a picture I took after I had sprayed all the seams with water to help settle the stone dust. I actually like the vibrant colors when it is wet. They do sell sealers than can be added if you like the wet look. I am not going to do that because I am not sure how natural it looks...plus I would want to live with it as is for a while and enjoy it before making a permanent decision like that.

The After Pictures!


I am glad to say I had the patio furniture in place by 8am and Lily and I were able to say "Pancakes are served on the patio!" Happy Mother's Day Karen!

 
As for the patio furniture - I need to give a shout out to Karen. This furniture was ugly. It started this past week as white and peeling. It would actually shed flecks of paint every time we moved it....plus Karen said the white did not match our house. She prepped and painted the set this week. They look great! Thank you honey!

We will be cleaning up the edges by adding mulch and landscaping over the coming weeks/months/years but that is a separate project!

You know what? It turns out Lily was right, because mommy (and all of us) enjoyed s'mores roasted over the fire pit on Sunday evening. Yum!

Walkway entrance from the yard

BEFORE & AFTER

This Before picture is not a true Before. It actually looks almost decent in this before picture. Trust me it did not look that way when we started the project. We did not even know most of these slates existed until Karen unearthed them. She dug into the ground and heard a "Clang." She found about 30 slates this way!

Luke just hanging with me on the patio
showing me his best Derek Jeter batting stance

I am very happy with the results. All-in-all what Karen started as a quick and easy patio project on April 12th became a much expanded and a completely renovated 500 sq ft outdoor living space by May 11th.

I am glad to say I was able to spend a lot of time sitting on this patio on Sunday. I made sure Karen got to do what she wanted for Mother's Day first. Luckily for me that involved just watching the kids so she could be free to plant new flowers and shrubs around the house. After those several days of busting my rump, being asked to sit and watch the kids was A.O.K. with me. I explained to the kids that I could not play daddy-monster tag that day, but I would be happy to just sit on the patio and watch them play on their playground... and thankfully this time they were fine with just that.

"This will be a quick little project"...yeah, right!

"Nothing in the world is worth having or worth doing unless it means effort, pain, difficulty…" Theodore Roosevelt

Really. I started this patio rehabilitation because it was going to be a quick, little project. I mean how bad could it be. My thought process - "Pick up the current slates. Get rid of the grass and place the slates back down. No big deal."

Before - doesn't look like much, but there actually is a natural (very natural) patio under there (literally)

Before - randomly placed slates - many unsupported

As with any project - it kept expanding. As it got bigger I realized I better do this the right way - which is code for "more work," thus expanding the project even more. I am now 3 full weeks into it. 

I have been through the 3 'R's' of Home Improvement in these 3 weeks. What started as a weekend slate patio rehabilitation ...then turned into a slate patio restoration...that then turned into a full blown slate patio renovation & addition.

The 3 'R's' of Home Improvement - these may not be Webster's definitions, but in my head...

• Rehabilitation - minor fixes to an already establish structure
• Restoration - medium to major fixes without tearing down or tearing out completely
• Renovation - tear down or tear out and start over

• not an 'R' but worth mentioning:
•  Addition - make it bigger while you are at it

This process has expanded in part because I have yearned for a patio to hang out on and watch the kids play since I became a homeowner in 2005. However, our first house did not have a location suitable for a patio expansion. Not the case at this house. I had the perfect location, it just needed to be rehabbed - or so I thought. As I started the work I kept making it ' just a little bigger'...then I would look at it and figured if I make it just a little wider then I will never have to mow this part of the yard again. After it was wider, I got to thinking "wouldn't be nice if it wrapped around the bushes and down to the yard too." Next thing I knew my 200 square foot patio now has a footprint of 525 sq feet! How'd that happen?!

How to Renovate/Make a Slate Patio - Prepare The Site

Step 1:  See what you have already


Our plan originally was just to re-use the slates we had. Pick them up and set them back down in a better fashion. Karen went out to start getting some dirt off some of the partially hidden slates. Low and behold she found 30 or more slates completely covered that we had no idea were there! Bonus. We thought now the patio can be bigger!...and so the expansion had started...

Step 1 - Karen unearthed these slates.
Honestly - 75% of these slight were completely covered by dirt and grass

Step 2:  Pick up current slates


I went around with Lily (I told you she is My Little Helper, right?!) and we pried up every slate. We cleaned them off and placed them in piles based on shape and size. You will see the piles in later pictures.

Step 3: Mark your parameter with sting

• I drove stakes into the ground around the parameter. 
• I tied string to each stake making many rectangles...you will see these in later pictures. 
• Using a string level (cheap at any hardware store) I made sure the strings were level from one stake to another along the lengths (the sides parallel to the house)
• For the string lines perpendicular to the house - I made sure these lines were pitched away from the house using my string level. The proper pitch is 1/8 inch per foot - this way rain would flow away from the house.
• Note because of the heavy slope of my area the best I could do was a pitch of a 1/4" per foot. A little steeper than suggested, but will still be fine.

Step 4: Dig down 4 inches from the string in all areas

Oh! My aching back. This was A LOT of work! Took me the better part of 2 weekends and a lot of Advil....thinking back I probably should have rented a rototiller.

...btw - I learned the hard way that it is a little easier to dig after a rain than before. Not easy...but easier.

Digging down four inches - you can see my string lines

More digging...also you can see the piles of slates that Lily and I gathered

A few tools of the trade :-)

Finally after the better part of 2 weekends the digging was done!

Because of the slope of the original yard I had to build up some 'berms" on the low side to hold in my future steps.
I could have gone with bricks or pavers or Belgium block, but we are trying to keep it as natural looking as possible.

After a heavy rain - the puddles tell me my pitch away from the house works

Step 5: Rest for a couple of days
If you are doing this by yourself you will need some time for your muscles to recover.

Step 6: Lay out the Crusher Run (Item 4 or whatever you want to call it)

This weekend (May 3rd & 4th)...I picked up, loaded into a wheelbarrow, dumped, spread out, screened and tamped 5 yards (4 truck loads) of Crusher Run to use as the base of my patio.

5 Yards = 7,500lbs...3.75 Tons!!!

It was a lot of hard work. I was tired. At one point on Sunday I thought I heard Obi Wan Kenobi saying "May the 4th be with you." :-)
.

4 truck loads - 5 Yards - 7,500 lbs of Crusher Run!

Crusher Run / Item 4 / Base Material

My Little Helper - Lily
She hung out for several hours - She said, "This is easy."

At the End of Day 1 (of weekend #4)

By the end of Saturday I had moved 2.5 yards. I had started at 6am...and worked in 2 hour shifts throughout the day. I was glad to have some built in breaks. I took all the kids to Luke's and my haircuts at 8:30am (shout out to Mike at Billie's Barber Shop...and the whole family likes going to Billie's - family friendly). Then Paige had Softball at 11am.  I don't miss any of the kid's games for anything. Then I assistant coached Luke & Lily's baseball game at 4pm. In between these activities, I worked hard and fast. Finally around 7pm we sat down for family movie night. Fun! What can I say. It was a full day!

Sunday I started again at 6am and did not stop until I was done with the base layer.

6am Sunday Morning - Time to Make the Donuts
...also you can see my Screening Rails

Steps to a Proper Base Layer of Crusher Run:

When laying out your base you want an overall base of at least 4 inches to protect you from frost heave. So I am using 2.5 inches of crusher run and then 1.5 inches of stone dust (next weekend).

• Lay out landscape fabric over the dirt
• To get the 2.5 inches of crusher run I laid some 8 foot sections of 2x3's on the ground about 4 feet apart to form my screening rails.
• Note all 2x3's are really 1.5"x2.5"
• So they give me my 2.5 inches in one direction and then next weekend I will lay them flat for the stone dust that will add another 1.5 inches = 4" overall base.
• Note the 2x3's are stiff - so they will even out any dips you had in your dirt from digging. So in some spots your base will even be deeper, which is good. 
• After I dumped enough crusher run in an area I spread it out with my metal rake.
• Then I would screen the crusher run by laying a 4 foot board between my two 2x3x8's and pulling the board towards me removing any excess rocks.
• Screening with the 2x3's will also help give you a nice smooth surface for laying the stone dust on later. 
• Then I tamped the area to compact the crusher run.
• I removed the inside screen rail and filled the hole with more rocks then tamped again
• I repeated this process in 4 foot wide sections until complete.

Voila! - Completed base layer

Ready for next Saturday

I will finish this project and this 'How To Lay a Slate Patio DIY' in the coming days (I hope).

Karen and Lily secretly hoping the patio will be done for Mother's Day. I am not sure that will happen, but it won't be from a lack of trying!