Patio Final

The patio is done, and I think it looks really great! I couldn't recommend Meadows Farms more. They did a great job, and the workers were really professional and friendly. And they swept everything up when they were done and didn't leave a single stone behind in my grass.


It was interesting watching these guys work. The foreman's name was Scott (I guess I had to like him from the start!). He had three Mexican guys working with him. All the work they did was purely by hand. Rock hammers and hand chisels. Most of the stone was hand shaped and fit. (The larger flagstones were cut by Skilsaw with a stone-cutting blade.) It's amazing how quickly the guys worked.

Barry was asking about the stone, it's some kind of slate flagstone from China. It's got some iron content in it because the stone takes on a rusty patina that looks really nice. I'm told by the architect, Judy Brown, that the stone is actually cheaper to bring from China than from Pennsylvania. I guess they need lots of ballast for their cargo ships.

The walls are done, but the workers need to come back and backfill with topsoil. That won't happen til after the holiday.

They poured some 'polymeric sand' in the cracks--and this stuff is cool--when you mist it, it sets up as hard as epoxy. It will bond to the stone and provide a solid runoff surface for water, and it looks nice. It will also keep the stone dust from creeping out onto the stone.

Here are a couple more shots.

I'm so glad this is a project I let the professionals do. I kept considering doing this one myself, and everytime I looked at the project, it looked harder and harder. The slope is probably 3-4 feet from the top to the bottom. I finally decided not to try this one on my own. Glad I left this one to the pros.