Posted by ga_red_clay (My Page) on Mon, Apr 28, 08 at 18:15 Can any one give me a step by step plan. I cant figure out what to do with this "Patchmaster" junk that I put down. Should I round up and plant seed? Sprigs? Sod? What should I do next month in May? I dont want to pull the neighborhood down by having a crap lawn. Here's a step-by-step plan: 1) Water deeply & infrequently. Deeply means at least in inch of irrigation, the goal being to get moisture down 8" to 10" deep in the soil. Infrequently means no more often than once a week in the heat of summer & about once a month in the cooler months. You want the top of the soil to completely dry out between waterings helping to kill off shallow rooted weeds. 2) Mow frequently at the lowest setting on your mower. If your mower will mow the grass down to 1 inch, then mow when the grass gets up to 1-1/2" (no higher than that.) Mowing this frequently will encourage bermuda's horizontal growth & thickening, while discouraging many weeds as well as help to avoid scalp/swirl marks in your lawn. 3) Fertilize every 30 to 45 days throughout the growing season (from now til fall) with a fertilizer only product (avoid weed-n-feed products.) What fertilizer you use is less inportant than steps 1 & 2 above, but I personally prefer organic & use feed grains, specifically soybean meal once a month during the growing season & a single app of alfalfa pellets once each spring & fall. If you don't want to use feed grains, then the next best thing would be to use some 34-0-0 urea slow release fertilizer. 4) Buy a Weed Hound to remove the few weeds you have there. You shouldn't need any round up to remove that other grass you planted, the heat of summer coupled with the cultural practices I outlined here will have that bermuda crowding it out in no time. 5) Mulch under your trees out to the dripline of the trees & install some sort of edge border also if you'd like. You could perhaps find some flowers or groundcover that suits your taste that enjoy the shade your trees provide. (You already know the bermuda doesn't do well under there.) Follow these steps & let us know how it looks at the end of summer, I think you'll like the results. Good day, Dan

When you are on a tight budget, the worst thing you can do is cut corners and skip the research. Right now - not counting the work you did - you are out the cost of the benderboard, the sand, and the black pebbles, and have wrecked a lot of granite tiles you could have sold or traded for some decent stepping stones. If you started with granite 12x12 tiles and broke them, they are way too small and thin to ever stay put on a sand base, or any kind of a base. Just the pushing of your feet as you walk will shove them around. Having them on as much as 5 inches of unpacked sand doesn't help at all. An unmortared stone path is made of 1 1/2 to 2 inch flagstones (any really flat stone will do) that are big enough for an entire large shoe to land on it, or larger - 12x18 or larger, sometimes as much as 3x4 feet. They are laid on firmly packed flat substrate (native hard-pack dirt is what I prefer), and leveled by shoving dirt around and under them until they don't rock. Then the gaps between the slabs can be filled with crushed gravel. Go back and section by section redo the walkway by puylling out the granite shards and black pebbles, Then rake the sand out of the way and LEVEL the substrate. For a reasonably budget walkway, set aside a few bucks a week and make a few concrete pavers using readymix and a mold. You can embed the granite shards and black pebbles in the pavers if you want, but you need to have about 2 inches of concrete for weight. To embed the granite and pebbles, lay then pretty side down in the bottom of the mold and carefully pour the concrete over them, then level the top and let it cure slowly in the shade. Check the HYPERTUFA forum for advice. OR: check some of the ratty dumps along the rivers and creeks for busted up sidewalk slabs and recycle them.

See here's the deal as I see it: Everything they wrote in true. Stone is natural. It has fissures...inclusions...it comes in varying thicknesses. Those things in and of themselves are not flaws in natural stone... ...until that stone is made into a countertop. Then they become flaws. Inclusions and fissures weaken slabs. That's why you see quite a few "flawed" slabs being resined. Granites are usually filled with epoxy resins, marbles with polyesters. The resin fills the fissures, can fill the inclusions, and the process turns a flawed weak slab into a less porous, stronger material. I think I'm getting off track though, so back to your clause. The part that really irks me is "...pieces may not match seam to seam due to movement of color and thickness of material. Also that material thickness can vary up to 1/4"." If they put a period after "...due to movement of color" and left it at that I'd still be suspect, but I'd be okay with it. Sort of. Pieces may not match seam-to-seam due to movement...yeah, I can see that a little. But you'll have that a bit under control by seeing the slabs yourself. Pieces may not match seam-to-seam due to thickness...followed by: Material thickness can vary by up to 1/4 inch...they are essentially asking you to approve an installation that could possibly have a 1/4" height differential. I have to say that marble, I really don't think it difficult to work with. While I've sized slabs and done simple edging on marble slabs, I've never had a problem working or installing the material. And I've done master baths in near 100% marble. If you want marble, go with marble. Make them install what you want. The fact that they tanked your first install seems more due to careless worksmanship than due to flawed material. If you were willing to go to the added expense of having someone repair your flawed deck, consider having the company you're now involved with provide you with replacement slabs of marble, but you hire a new fabricator to do the new fabrication and installation.

Amy, How frustrating for you. We had trouble with our exterior colours too, and had some regrets along the way (not so bothered now though). I have used the services of a on-line colour consultant called Your Home and Color Coach.com (Barbara Meglis). I believe her fee is just $25.00/question. I bet she would respond with a helpful colour choice for your siding (tends to be BM colours). I am also a follower of Maria Killam -- who is a Canadian colour consultant. She is very talented at seeing why colours don't work together, and suggesting a solution. However, her advice does not come cheap. Not sure how much she would charge for a single colour suggestion for the siding, but no doubt her solution would be great (despite $$$). BTW her site is full of valuable info for those renovating/building and decorating -- and of course reading her site is free. Maria often talks about the problem with pinky beige (could be your stone is pinky beige?) and how it fights with other beiges (although your siding is more grey than beige). Best of luck. I can imagine how hard this must be for you!! Carol