Useless Projects

[Mosesandstick]

That's really neat! Had to read it twice to figure out what was going on.

[Mandella]

Very nice!!

I always fail at least once on the precise measurements for a solution like that though. I've learned over time and many dammits later to buy several times over whatever material is needed for the repair...

[Samwise]

My newest project is going to be laying some flagstone to replace a paver pathway that I'm dissatisfied with.  This is something I've been wanting to do for years, but I've had trouble finding a landscaper that does the kind of thing I'm envisioning and will take on a small project.  Recently I came across this guy's blog and he makes it all sound easy enough that I'm just gonna tackle it myself.

The utilities are all marked, I've got all the equipment I think I'll need, and I've picked out the rocks, so all that's left to do is actually break ground and then hope I can see it through in a reasonable timeframe instead of having an embarassing gravel pit in front of my house for months.  

[RhyssaFireheart]

It worked for what I wanted, but I put down a small brick pad at the bottom of my desk steps years ago and they've held up pretty well.  And I'm fairly sure I did a bare minimum crappy job.  Pavers may be different, but I think the basics of digging out the pathway and getting that even, then a sand layer over a packed gravel base before laying the pavers and filling the edges in with fine gravel/sand.  It was more time consuming than anything else from what I remember.  I probably should have used a plastic edger to keep the bricks from spreading over time, since mine have.  Nothing too terrible though.

[Samwise]

It worked for what I wanted, but I put down a small brick pad at the bottom of my desk steps years ago and they've held up pretty well.  And I'm fairly sure I did a bare minimum crappy job.  Pavers may be different, but I think the basics of digging out the pathway and getting that even, then a sand layer over a packed gravel base before laying the pavers and filling the edges in with fine gravel/sand.  It was more time consuming than anything else from what I remember.  I probably should have used a plastic edger to keep the bricks from spreading over time, since mine have.  Nothing too terrible though.

Yeah, that's roughly what I've got right now, except with brick-shaped pavers instead of actual bricks.  The motivations for redoing it are:

1. Although it was an upgrade when I originally installed it (the front yard area was just a pavement slab when I bought the house) I've decided I don't like the look any more in the context of how the space has evolved.  The plantings in the front yard have reached a nice naturalistic look now that they've matured and filled in, and the concrete pavers kind of clash.  It doesn't help that they're a sort of pink faux brick color instead of looking like a more natural terracotta -- the fakery is even more obvious because I've since added some actual brickwork.  Since we got the house repainted recently, that path is now the ugliest thing you see when you look at our house.  My thinking is that neutral-toned flagstone will blend a bit better with the yard and provide a smoother visual transition from the sidewalk to the house.

2. The joints and the sand base suuuuck from a maintenance perspective.  Weeds grow in the joints and are difficult to pull out, and I'm pretty sure a colony of ants has been excavating the sand and contributing to some of the vertical settling and shifting that's happened over the last decade.  The new thing is going to have one inch joints filled with path fines instead of sand; slightly coarser, should be less hospitable to weeds and ants alike, and the wider spacing means that when weeds do take up residence they won't be wedged in there like James Franco so I should be able to pull them out cleanly.  With larger flagstones, the weight should be sufficient to keep things from shifting horizontally.

[Sky]

Would a plastic or simple landscape barrier fabric help with weed if you put it under the stone bed?

[01101010]

Would a plastic or simple landscape barrier fabric help with weed if you put it under the stone bed?

In theory, yes. It helps on large swaths of area, but not so much in smallish places. And even in large areas, youwill still get weeds pushing thru most weed block unless it is a heavy plastic sheet - which has a whole host of drainage issues.

[Samwise]

There is weed fabric under the pavers, and it might theoretically help with stuff like blackberries that shoot runners from underneath if there were any plants like that nearby, but the problems mostly come from grasses that take root from the top down, above the barrier.  You'd think stuff like that would be easy to yank, but the pavers are set so close together that the roots wedge themselves in there and can't be dislodged (instead the leaves get torn off and new ones sprout from the established roots).

I'm somewhat skeptical that there are any cases at all where the weed fabric underlayment is useful, since if something is determined enough to push its way upward through a few inches of gravel and/or decomposed granite in search of sunlight, I can't imagine a layer of fabric stopping it for that long.

[01101010]

Yeah grasses that can set up in the detritus between rocks are a pain in the ass - weeds like dandelions with their amazingly long root systems are even more so. Only real thing you can do is pull or poison (both of which are really only temp though poison lasts a little longer but might not work if you have pets).

[Samwise]

I've had really good luck with decomposed granite (aka "stone dust", "screenings", or "path fines") in my backyard paths and am going to use that in place of sand on this project.  It doesn't 100% stop weeds, but they have a really hard time establishing deep roots, and are consequently very easy to pull when they do make the attempt.  Since it's all "dry" any holes or divots that develop over time can be fixed by just sweeping it clean and topping it up with more of the same stuff.

There's also "polymeric sand" which is sand with plastic gunk mixed into it -- I was almost going to use that, but that blog I linked earlier had a nice article on it that convinced me otherwise.  Sounds like it's basically like mortar in that it's good as long as it lasts but is a pain in the ass to fix when it cracks.

[Sky]

I don't mind mortar much but I don't fix cracks, I remove and replace, which could turn into a pretty big project. That said, masonry caulk will get you by for a year or two and is easy to remove and re-apply. I use it in a few spots where it works better than a full repoint/rebuild. Though I'm talking vertical mostly, as my house is masonry.

I've been wanting to put in pavers to connect my garage's barn door in back to the tiny covered patio behind the house, so I'm taking notes here 

Though to be honest, I'd probably end up in the 'it's a dandy lion garden now' camp and live with it.

[Samwise]

I've been wanting to put in pavers to connect my garage's barn door in back to the tiny covered patio behind the house, so I'm taking notes here 

When I get to the stage of knapping the flagstones to make them fit right, I'll let you know how much I end up regretting my life choices in using natural stone instead of pavers.  I'm expecting it to be tons (literally) of fun but am prepared for the possibility of reality slapping me in the face.

[Samwise]

There was some regret of life choices along the way (my back and knees started giving me warning twinges at various points, so I ended up taking months off in the middle to avoid serious injury), but I got the new path done this month, just in time for trick-or-treaters, and am now glad I powered through.

Before/after:



Some of the intermediate stages:

[Sky]

That's a cool wheeled barrow.

[Samwise]

It's collapsible!  I have no room in my garage for the regular kind but I can fold this one up and shove it in a corner.

[01101010]

Much respect having done that type of flag stone laying job before. Granted, I was 20 years younger and could take the beating, but still rough work.

[RhyssaFireheart]

That turned out great looking!  Nice job!

And I second what Sky said about the wheel barrow.  I haven't seen one like that before, but it makes total sense especially for storage.

[Samwise]

Two years after breaking ground on that path, it's held up great with no shifting and pretty minimal weed intrusion.

That's not why I'm bumping, though, I mostly wanted to share this guy's site which is basically terrarium/aquarium porn and might be of interest to others here.  His obsession with miniature natural landscapes and flowing water is very precisely up my alley of autism.  I've been watching his YouTube channel in the background while I wrangle my child and it's inspiring all sorts of useless project dreams, starting with a cobra lily tabletop fountain that I've bought the components for and will post pictures of if/when it starts taking shape.