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Help Needed for Back Yard Patio Project

Julia_WI Zone 5b
4 years ago
last modified: 4 years ago

Hello all,

We are about to start a DIY patio project. We have put some thoughts on what we want and have some basic ideas what we will like to do, but still want to hear your opinions if our plan is feasible or if we can make it nicer.

Here is some basic information about our house:

1. We live in a urban community with a relatively small back yard. We also have a detached 2.5 car garage at the end of the long driveway. The driveway and garage occupy almost half of the back yard area.

2. Besides using the side door through driveway, there is no direct access from the house to the patio area. We currently have no plan to add a patio door in the back of the house.

3. We have limited budget (that's why we decided to go DIY after we quoted several companies), so we don't need anything fancy, but still want the new patio neat, practical and look nice. The patio area is currently just weeded lawn.

Here is the simple drawing of our plan I made through Excel, not to the scale, just the basic idea what we would like for the patio area only, we will take care of rest of the backyard later.



We have decided to use Menards Riverfront Pavers with Holland 4"X8" as borders, here is the pavers links:

https://www.menards.com/main/building-materials/landscaping-materials/pavers-patio-blocks/16-x-24-riverfront-paver/1792915/p-1531204168720-c-5786.htm?tid=-7774252856968916227&ipos=1

https://www.menards.com/main/building-materials/landscaping-materials/pavers-patio-blocks/building-materials/landscaping-materials/pavers-patio-blocks/16-x-16-riverfront-paver/1792913/p-1480576743692-c-5786.htm?tid=632958280872311&ipos=9

https://www.menards.com/main/building-materials/landscaping-materials/pavers-patio-blocks/building-materials/landscaping-materials/pavers-patio-blocks/8-x-16-riverfront-paver/1792914/p-1480576743677-c-5786.htm?tid=632958280872311&ipos=10

https://www.menards.com/main/building-materials/landscaping-materials/pavers-patio-blocks/building-materials/landscaping-materials/pavers-patio-blocks/4-x-8-holland-paver/1793058/p-1444441411401-c-5786.htm?tid=632958280872311&ipos=23

I made a pattern plan with Excel at the size of 24ft by 10ft plus borders, just to get an idea what the patio would look like.



Here are something we are not quite sure and would like to hear your suggestions:

1. Because we are going to DIY, we try to make a square patio and avoid non-necessary cuttings. What is the good option to fill the gap between straight cut pavers and curved area like window well and the driveway? I came across a patio design and kinda like it's idea. We plan to add some limestone around the patio to fill the gap. What do you think about this idea?



2. Will a rectangular patio really look nice in our setting? If we can cut curves, where we should add curves on our patio to increase the overall appearance? Or maybe just like the picture I posted above, add a few curves in the flower beds?

3. We haven't decided if we should add borders on the west side of the patio. What do you think?

4. Last but not least, what color of stones would you recommend? Menards design center gave two color combinations for the paver sets. One called Cobalt, L-Gray/Charcoal, M-Gray /Maroon, S-Charcoal/Maroon, the other color called Sienna: L-Tan/Charcoal, M-Brown/Tan, S-Gray/Charcoal.

we have red brick exteriors. So what color sets is a better match of our house and what color of borders to choose from?

Thanks in advance for all your inputs.

Julia

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