By Paul Colbert
Falling leaves and pumpkin spice lattes. Crisp nights and gloriously mild afternoons. There’s a lot to love about autumns in Pennsylvania. Daytime temperatures drop into the 50s and 60s, and at night there’s just enough chill in the air to put on a jacket. It’s a great season to lounge in your own yard and enjoy the fall colors. Here are five tips for using your hardscaped patio into the fall.
Our world is one that thrives on balance. We enjoy foods that are sweet and foods that are salty. We watch some movies that are funny, others that are serious.
And in our backyards, we mix hardscaping – patios, pathways, stones, rocks and decks — with softscaping: things such as trees, plants, flowers or grass.
Without softscaping, your yard would seem harsh and forbidding, a sterile, uninviting place.
But without hardscaping, it would feel messy and overgrown. As you search for hardscaping supplies in PA, think about choosing these materials to give your property the right balance.
If you’re planning on selling your home at some point within the next year or so, you’ve probably been doing a fair amount of research on ways you can add value to your property.
You’ve probably also noticed the one phrase that seems to pop up over and over (and over) again in articles about increasing your property value: “curb appeal.” In the worlds of DIY home remodeling and property value enhancing, that phrase is everywhere.
Yet whether you believe in the power of curb appeal, it’s not always easy to know exactly which upgrades to make when you’re hoping to enhance your home’s value. Study after study, however, has shown us that landscaping is almost always the best investment you can make in value-adding property scenarios.
Not only have these studies proven that landscaping enhances your property’s curb appeal, which in turn increases its value. They’ve also shown that landscaping can significantly increase the rate at which you can expect your house to sell.
Word on the street – or, better said, in the great outdoors – is that outdoor living is a major trend and it’s here to stay. You see it in camper van remodels, the revival of camping and hiking—and, of course, in the increased number of patios popping up left and right., in gardens all over the country.
The beauty of a patio is many-splendored, as this relatively low-cost and low-maintenance upgrade to your property can serve a great number of purposes. It can be a decorative addition, with a beautiful structure and hanging plants all over it. It can stand as the new family gathering space for fun-filled board game nights outside or cozy summer lunches. Last, but not least, it allows you to enjoy time outside, either socializing or reading, without being exposed to the scorching sun and its harmful UV rays.
That said, where do you start, when you’ve already decided you want a patio? We’ve put together a quick list of tips and tricks, selected from the experts, and here’s what they have to say about your soon-to-be favorite outdoor hangout.
Polymeric sand is used to fill joints between pavers, including concrete pavers, stone pavers and brick pavers. The fine sand is combined with additives, usually silica, and forms a binding agent after it’s mixed with water.
Using polymeric sand instead of plain sand has many benefits including:
When you are designing or building a surface, whether it is a patio, sidewalk, driveway, or any other surface, there are a myriad of product options available. Products used for these surfaces generally fall into two categories, pavers and slabs. The basic difference between the two categories is the difference in load that they can bear. The relative strength of each option is a result of the product’s thickness and surface area. The larger the size of the product, the thicker it must be to be considered a paver and not a slab. Manufacturing process also plays a role in the relative strength of the finished product. For instance, products made using wet cast manufacturing are inherently weaker and are nearly always considered slabs.
Pavers and slabs may look similar, and most manufacturers offer lines of both pavers and slabs in Bucks County PA. There are general rules regarding the use of these products. If the surface is designed for pedestrian traffic, such as a patio, sidewalk, pool deck, etc., then either pavers or slabs are suitable. If the surface application needs to carry a heavier (vehicular or commercial pedestrian) load, then pavers must be used.
Bucks County Pavers
Example of a paver
Pavers come in a breathtaking variety of designs, colors, and shapes. They can emulate many other surfaces, including brick, flagstone, cobblestones, and many more. They are made from a variety of materials, such as brick, concrete, and natural stone. Natural pavers are more expensive than the synthetic versions. However, in recent years concrete paver design has evolved in such a way that they can easily and convincingly emulate natural stone.
The home remodeling or improvement project that adds the most value to your home, behind only kitchen and bathroom renovations, is creating an inviting and functional hardscaped outdoor living space. If you have done work on your home recently, or if you are budgeting for an upcoming project, chances are you’ve searched the web for average project costs. Quite a few websites offer price ranges, most of which are loosely based on formulas, costs in your region, and average industry labor costs. Some even offer the dreaded “price per square foot” estimate that can leave you with more questions than answers.
When reviewing these websites, I found them to be severely lacking in both the information each provided, and the information each requested. They asked only for my zip code and the square footage (SF) of the patio. That’s it. Based solely on these two questions, I was given estimates ranging from $6 per SF to $15 per SF – not a helpful or informative range. No website asked me for my soil type and none seemed to care about the access to my property and to the project area (maybe they could just carry 50 tons of stone through my 3′ fence gate).
They didn’t specify, so I was left wondering if all paver types and styles cost the same. I also hope the fact that my yard drops 2 feet from one side of the house to the other side will not be a problem. In short, I was left with quite a few questions. Are there any special considerations because I am in a new home? What if I don’t want a square patio? Where will all of the runoff water go? What about adding steps, walls, stone pillars, or a fire feature? Do I need to worry about permits?
The bottom line is that dozens of questions need to be considered when budgeting and planning for your paver patio project. Only a qualified hardscape contractor is equipped to look at all the factors that affect price, functionality, and the feasibility of your dream outdoor oasis. An experienced, accredited contractor builds 50 or more projects like yours annually. He or she will determine what makes your project unique. And what makes your project unique will influence the price – never accept a generic estimate that is drawn up on a “price per square foot” basis. You want a unique project, so demand a unique design and a detailed price. Continue reading
With spring on the way, rain is in the air. Rain means runoff, an environmental issue about which homeowners, business owners, and local municipalities are growing ever more concerned. A traditional paver or slab installation has a solid stone base underneath and tightly filled joints. This surface is almost completely impermeable. Because of this, it is graded to force water off the hardscaping area and onto surrounding ground or other permeable structures.
Major manufacturers of hardscaping products, such as EP Henry and Techo-Bloc, first introduced packaged outdoor fire pit kits around 2009. Prior to that, fire features were limited to portable options, such as Chimeneas, and complex custom installations. Since the first fire pit kit was introduced, kits have evolved to offer a variety of colors, textures, fire options and even alternate use options such as water features.
Outdoor fire pits can be built from a wide variety of materials (see our article on fire pit basics for an overview). However, kits are definitely the easiest, fastest, and safest approach. Most outdoor fire pit kits consist of concrete manufactured wall material which assembles in to a circular “pit” and a set of accessories which contain the fire protecting the concrete. The accessories include a screen which can be placed over the dwindling fire to prevent sparks from escaping.
The wall material forming the outdoor fire pit comes in a variety of textures. Each manufacturer tends to select a finish and a set of colors that will match their major sitting wall products making it practical to add a fire pit to an existing patio or to build a sitting wall around an existing outdoor fire pit. The accessory kit usually includes either a bowl or a liner. The bowl option also includes a grate on which to build a fire generally suitable for warmth, ambiance, and perhaps toasting a marshmallow or making a s’more. The liner option shifts the fire down to the bottom of the pit making larger cooking projects possible.
The accessory package is usually at least half of the total cost. That is because the metal inserts are specially designed to dissipate the heat and protect the pit wall. The wall / pit may usually be purchased without the insert but in that case the wall must be protected with fire brick and fire mortar or fire clay. Although not expensive options, fire protection installed in this way can be messy and may detract from the appearance of the fire pit.
Fire pit kits are generally a perfect circle, meaning that once tightly in place, nothing is going to move the wall block. Consequently, no gluing is necessary. The insert sits on the top of the pit and can be easily removed. This presents the opportunity to use the “pit” area for other applications when summer heat does not inspire building a fire. Other outdoor fire pit uses include planting, installing a water feature, and creating a cold drink cooler.
Building an outdoor fire pit can create both an attractive and functional addition to your outdoor living environment. Many material options exist. Read our article on fire pit basics for an overview.
Three major natural stone approaches can be considered: Boulders, wall stone, and packaged stone outdoor fire pit kits.
Natural stone provides several advantages:
• Naturally fire-resistant. Natural stone is not combustible and will absorb and dissipate heat naturally. It gets hot, but it will not “pop’”
• Relatively low in material cost. Boulders and wall stone have a wide range of costs but very attractive alternatives exist at the low end of the cost range. A standard pallet of wall stone (3000 pounds) will allow you to build 22 facial square feet of fire pit, e.g., a round fire pit 18” high and 4 ½ – 5 feet across. You would need about 2 tons of boulders to build the same shape. Starting cost for this quantity of stone should be under $300. And there is no additional cost to create fire-resistance.
• Flexibility of design. Natural stone be stacked or laid in whatever shape you desire. Boulders will tend to fit best in a rounded shape. Wall stone can be stacked in angular or rounded designs. Both wall stone and boulders are available in a huge range of colors, textures and individual shapes. The uniqueness of each piece of natural stone provides one of its greatest appeals.
Installation cost presents the biggest variable with natural stone. Whether using a contractor or attempting a DIY project, the larger the natural stone you select, the more difficult it will be to move and manipulate. Special equipment may be necessary to put a large boulder in place. If individual stones need to be shaped to achieve your hardscape design, you or your contractor will need special tools. These factors can overwhelm the cost savings in the raw materials.
Although limited in availability, packaged natural stone outdoor fire pit kits do exist. One interesting option is a kit made from granite counter top scraps cut into wedges to form a circular outdoor fire pit. The price for the kit varies based on how high you want the structure to be but it is an interesting “green” alternative which is extremely easy to build, relatively low cost, and quite unusual in appearance. Most recently, FireBoulder has introduced a fire feature made out of one large boulder. The manufacturer selects suitable boulders, drills out the core to place a gas burner and lava rock, and provides the installation kit for connection to natural gas. Clearly not a DIY install, this new product definitely expands the scope of outdoor fire pit kits.