So ... what is the compelling need for installing concrete blocks that later require camouflaging?

IronBelly

I hope you have rusty red flooring. If you don't, you soon will.

As has been pointed out, that native red clay stains everything! A consideration in your planning. On the other hand, you certainly could try your idea. If it is not satisfactory you will have a ready-made solid base for installing a brick or stone patio in the future.

nandina seems to know more about this project the the other comments. I wouldn't expect anyone from Iowa to be helpful since your soil is much different from SC soil.
Are there any ole timers out there from the southeast? Remember when yards were sweeped instead of mowed? Lawn chairs sat on the hard red clay. There were not any paved walkways to front doors. No mud was tracked into the house since the ground was so compacted. Some of the clay in my patio area that I am building is the same type of clay in Catawba pottery.
With this little bit of history I hope to hear from someone who knows about clay patios and who lives in the southeast.
BTW, the concrete blocks will not be as noticable once plants start growing around the patio next spring.
You can see some improvement already in this photo.
{{gwi:52621}}

Well please share your knowledge with us! This yankee (not a Yankee... fan though!..) has never seen such a clay patio before.

Toad,
It is my feeling that you should continue on with your idea. I think you will find that when the clay is very dry and dusty or when it is wet and gooey you will be tracking it into the house. Maybe not. But, the old plantation owners wisely turned Catawba clay into bricks which were used for houses, walkways and patios plus clay products for which the old Edgefield Pottery, among others, is so famous. Press on...it will either work or not. All science experiments begin with a hypothesis.

For our Yankee friends, a "swept yard" refers to a practice brought from Africa by the slaves. It allowed them to keep the surrounding property swept and clear to see approaching snakes, army ants and enemies. A purposeful endeavor, but I have not noticed that swept yards are as efficient as a hardscape surface.

I suppose it may be reasonable to not "expect anyone from Iowa to be helpful since your soil is much different from SC soil." However, a number of years back, I actually lived in South Carolina (WeÂre talkin sho-nuff, here.) and am quite familiar with the red clay of which you speak. I am aligned with Nandina in suggesting that you indeed, "Press on...it will either work or not."

However, that still leaves my dangling query as to why you are using common concrete blocks to encircle this area. I really see no compelling need for them. So  I must be missing some relevant facts here. It seems that they add a layer of complication requiring, as you stated, camouflage.

This is, after all, a design forum. I rarely find it beneficial to solve one design problem while creating another. Perhaps we could explore this concept a little more and/or you could supply a few more missing pieces of the puzzle to help us better understand.

Thanks,
IronBelly

I had a landscape professional look at it on site yesterday. He loved the idea.
Soil here in the central to lower Piedmont and 'Foothills' USDA plant zone 7 is a lot different from zone 8, 6, 5 etc.
Even if you may have lived in the south at one time perhaps you forgot to consider the different soil types in each zone. South of me in zone 8 has more of a sandy soil. So it would be silly of me to try to create a hard clay patio there. I would have to haul in the clay. Of course there is zeroscaping where the soil in a front yard could be completely different from the back yard, etc.
As far as the concrete blocks it was either creating a natural rock retaining wall or use the existing blocks which were left over from constuction. You need to look closer at the photo so you will see why a retaining wall was needed. I have seen very pretty patio areas which concrete blocks were used.
Now with that said anyone is invited to respond to this post who actually knows the soil here in zone 7 lower Piedmont or 'Foothills' area. No bashing, please!!
A relative built a house with a red clay basement in Anderson SC. The floors were the natural red clay. There was never a problem. I know this will work just wish it was used more often.
{{gwi:52622}}

I don't live in Carolina, but I do live in zone 7/8 Arkansas. Some photos of my clay ....

{{gwi:52623}}

{{gwi:52624}}

A good clay can be a wonderful asset to a gardener. With the addition of sand, this clay was converted to a grass patio, seen in the photo below. There is no sprinkler system used. Where my neighbors used about 15 inches of water over the 30 week growing season, I only needed 3, and my grass looks better.

{{gwi:8511}}

It will take only about 3 tablespoons of that clay to stain all the flooring in your house.

Will Rodgers said "There are three kinds of men. The ones that learn by reading. The few who learn by observation. The rest of them have to p__ on the electric fence for themselves."

Your fence is waiting.

Toad, I'm sorry to be so blunt, but you need a little attitude correction here. You do not come onto an internet forum where participants are sharing their knowledge and experience with you for free, and yell at them for not telling you what you want to hear. You also do not denigrate them by telling them they live in the wrong area, nor by waving your "professional" in their faces. Nor can you by demand conjure up a person with the right opinion located exactly where you want them.

For what it's worth, you have heard from some very accomplished professionals above, and also from some knowledgeable do-it-yourselfers, as you might have known had you researched the forum a bit before posting. Furthermore, some professionals that you find on the ground are idiots, or brown-nosers who will tell you anything you want to hear so you'll hire them.

If you want people to help you on the internet, then politely answer the questions you're asked, and try to open your mind to the answers. Also, don't forget to say thank you, even if the advice isn't quite what you expected. Participants come here to have fun, and being insulted and talking to someone who has a brick wall for a brain is no fun at all. So such posts are usually left to sink without further responses down the forum into oblivion... which is what was starting to happen to your thread before you bumped it up again this morning.

Now, I'll try one more time to frame IB's question so that you'll understand its importance: Is it really necessary to raise this patio and if so why? The patio may in the end be nice and practical, but if it is raised it will look like a sore thumb and if surrounded by concrete blocks it will be butt-ugly, no matter where you live or what you plant around it.

KarinL

KarinL, aren't you coming on too hard towards me? No need to attact me personally.
Why are you calling me narrow minded, rude and stupid?
This should be a fun and informative forum. Please refrain from attacting.

I posted at the same time as PLS, and I don't think it's a coincidence that his and my post basically said the same thing, though he (or she? but I think he) managed to do it far more succinctly.

The message from both of us is that YOU are attacking the people on the forum, and that there is a cost to doing so. That is not an attack on you; it's a friendly warning.

KarinL

Well, I just feel slam-dunked. I don't live in the right zone to say a peep, and my clay isn't red. Mine's black, but I can shape it into big round globes. Say! I just had a great idea! I could make bowling balls out of it. Now, there would be a little breakage issue, but if mess and trouble isn't really a problem, then I'm set.

What do y'all think about that? I'm looking to make the best dang clay bowling balls ever. Now, listen up, only those of you who have black clay, who bowl, and who intend to support my brilliant idea should give me input. You know how I get when I'm crossed.

Wellspring, tongue-firmly-in-cheek

My soil is alluvial glacial outwash with lots of cobbles, but I do have red-clay fired into bricks for my front door stoop.

If the clay in question is anything like the stuff that is used on ball-fields that always stained my uniform, then why would you want to use it? Is there some compelling reason like historical preservation ?

All I know about red clay I learned from this tune:

Red Clay Halo

The girls all dance with the boys from the city
But they don't care to dance with me
Well it ain't my fault that the fields are muddy
And the red clay stains my feet

Well its under my nails and its under my collar
And it shows on my Sunday clothes
Though I do my best with soap and water
That damned old dirt won't go

-- But when I pass through the pearly gates
-- Will my gown be gold instead
-- Or just a red clay robe with red clay wings
-- And a red clay halo for my head

It's mud in the spring and it's dust in the summer
When it rolls in crimson tide
ÃÂTil the trees and leaves and the cows are the color
Of the dirt on the mountainside

Now Jordan's banks are red and muddy
And the rolling water is wide
But I got no boat, so I'll be good and muddy
When I get to the other side

-- But when I pass through the pearly gates
-- Will my gown be gold instead
-- Or just a red clay robe with red clay wings
-- And a red clay halo for my head

-- I'll take the red clay robe and the red clay wings
-- And the red clay halo for my head

Gillian Welch

--Give it a shot, maybe stain your floor in advance so the color is uniform.

It's great. I have a layer of gravel then a 1/3 mix of sand and red clay. I mixed in some Preen this year to kill any plant seeds. An occasional RoundUP spray and I'm good.