H. Patio Completion and Clean-up

Patio completion is just a final section on wrapping things up. How does it look? Did you remember to take lots of pictures? Did you send them to us so others can gather ideas for their yard? We hope you did.

So now you have to complete areas around your patio, and maybe do a bit of repair work.

If you had tarps on your lawn, hopefully, they weren't down for too long and the grass will come back.

If you are sodding up to the edge of your patio, be sure to take a square nosed shovel and scrape out the rocks, sand, and junk along the edge. This will allow you to put a minimum of four inches of topsoil there below your sod.

If you are putting in a buffer of decorative rock and/or shrubs make sure you put down a good industrial strength landscape fabric to limit the weeds. You can never really eliminate them completely, but you can surely deter them by using fabric.

Make sure you use a flexible landscape edging between the rock and the lawn as well. This will keep the grass from migrating into the rocks and keep the rocks out of your lawn.

You don't need to excavate down very far to do this. You will only need about 3 to 4 inches of decorative rock. This is 2 inches to cover the fabric and another inch or two as a buffer.

Decorative rocks can be quite expensive, but the extra inch or two will save you from constantly having to move rocks around to cover the fabric. This fabric will surely become exposed as the rocks move or get kicked over time.

Hopefully you installed some patio lights as well. Most people use their patios for entertaining and patio lighting is a great addition.

Now you are finished. It's time to clean up. Do you have any stones left over? If so then consider using them in the yard somewhere else. Maybe you have a few that just weren't quite patio quality but would be perfect stepping stones from the patio through the decorative rock to the lawn?

It never hurts to keep a few extra pieces around in case the unexpected happens. If a heavy object cracks or damages a stone, you have a replacement.

If you have quite a bit left over, you may want to take a few back to the stone yard if they have a return policy. Some other people use them in and around the garden, or make things like garden pots with them.

There are also recycling opportunities, if you can find a place that takes aggregates for recycling in construction or road building. I have used places like this and the fees are usually pretty low. ($5 was the cost for me.)

If you have any left over sand, gravel, or any other materials a neighbor or someone else locally may need it. Bargain finder magazines and web sites may be a good place to advertise this.

Make sure you thoroughly rake your lawn. This is very important, as you don't want to cut your feet from sharp pieces of broken stone, or send them out from a mower blade into a window.

Congratulations, you are now finished your project. Kick back in a nice lawn chair and enjoy all your hard work. It's a great feeling of pride and satisfaction doing it yourself. Not to mention the fact that you have just added value to you property.

I really hope you found this information useful. If you did please feel free to tell us about it and don't forget to send us your stone patio pictures so we can add them to our picture ideas section for others to see. If there is anything you feel we can improve on please let us know that as well. We can only improve with your feedback.

Thank you so much for visiting our site and come back any time if you wish to do any other landscaping projects. Also pass this on to others who may find it useful as well.

The Dream Yard Team.

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Table of Contents: Flagstone Patio

Introduction: Flagstone Patio

A. Flagstone Patio Site

B. Flagstone Patio Tools

C. Flagstone Patio Materials

D. Flagstone Patio Site Preparation

E. Flagstone Patio Base Preparation

F. Laying Flagstone Patio Stones

G. Flagstone Patio Edging and Jointing

H. Flagstone Patio Completion and Clean-up