Backyard Patio and Side yard ..... finally

[footprintsinconc]

well its been like two or three weeks since i finished this project but didnt get a chance to post some pictures.

i already have a patio that was build into the house. when i did backyard landscaping back in 2005, i couldn't decide what to use for the extended patio that i wanted to build away from the house. so we just put down 1/4" minus. this was the worst decision, because we trecked the dirt onto our patio and then into the house all the time.

so, i finally did the things that i should have done back when i did my backyard:

1. i resurfaced my existing patio with a resurfacing grout from hd and stamped a "roman slate" pattern into the resurfaced surface. we then applied a solid color concrete stain. we then applied a contrasting color semi-solid color stain on top of it to give it a faux look. the color looked real odd to us initially, but i think we may like it, who knows.
2. i also resurfaced + stamped the concrete pad outside the garage side door.
3. then i took the 1/4" minus out of the patio extension and made a walkway from the side gate to the backyard. there were just the 3/4" rock there.
4. i then bought the "coble stone" 16" x 16" x normal paver thickness tiles from lowes and installed them on a 3/4" to 1.5" bed of sand. i put the paver edger (black plastic edging) to keep the tiles from moving away at the grass area. put lock tite sand into the joints and the groves in the tile and wet it. after, it dried out, i sealed both the resurfaced concrete patio and the paver area with a sealer to protect the surface and to help keep the pavers in place.
5. lastly, i finally painted the patio corner shelves that i built very long time ago with the HF hvlp gun (the same one that rockler and woodcraft carries) and installed them into the patio.

here are the pics: -- btw thanks ed for the post on inserting pictures into the body of the text, it worked!

full view of the patio, extended patio and patio shelves:


another angle of the patio to get the real color:


close up of the roman slate + finish of the resurfaced patio:


close up of the patio stones:


side walkway looking towards the to the side gate:


side walkway looking towards the backyard:


concrete pad at side door leading into the garage:

[SARGE..g-47]

Looks really.. really good Omar. And either you or your camera did an excellent job with the pictures also. The side yard looks great also.

Well done and I'm sure your wife is finally a happy camper...

Regards...

[iceman61]

Very nice job Omar. I don't know which I like better, the cobblestone tile or the roman slate resurface. Both look great! How thick is the grout on the resurface? You got me to thinking about my patio slab now.

[stormdog74]

Very nice work, Omar.

Did you use crushed granite for the side yard path? Do you have a border for it? The reason I am curious is that I have a rough plan to do the same sort of thing and am looking for any tips you are willing to share! Thanks.

[Pappy]

Great job on all 3 areas, Omar!

[lrogers]

Well done! That looks like something you would see on HGTV.

[ironhat]

Beautiful. Could you please re-design my area? Have you thought of a side business?

[docrowan]

Very nice. Looks like a lot of work, but the results are great!

[footprintsinconc]

thank you all for the nice comments. sarge, you are correct, LOML is real happy with the way it turned out.

the resurfacing grout that i used came in 40lb sacks from hd called 'top'n bond' resurfacer. it was like $10/bag. it has a polymer in it to help for bonding purposes. if i were to redo this, i would consider the product that they sell at lowes instead which is like $25/bag. the reason why i say this is because i dont think it has the polymer in it. initially we just wanted to a semil-transparent stain. the polymer is what made it a little difficult for the semi-transparent stain to be absorbed, thus resulted in a very gray undertone. to over come this, we then did a solid color stain first, then the semi-transparent one.

the resurfacing grout can be spread to an 1/8" thick min to a 1/2" thick maximum. the thickness of what you spread on depends on what pattern you are stamping. the cobble stone or other designs that had deeper ridges, required at least 1/4" to 3/8" thick, but the 'roman slate' pattern didnt need anything thicker than 1/8". so when we spread the grout over the surface, it was anywhere from 1/8" to 1/4" thick. the grouted surface didnt need to be level, since i was going to be stamping a random pattern into it, so it helped save a ton of time.

another thing that i would advise those who want to do this is to add the base color into the grout before applying it. with our patio furniture on there, when the chairs get slid across, in just a couple of spots, at least i can see the gray resurfacing grout. had it been colorized, it wouldnt be noticeable.

stormdog74:
i only had 3/4" rock in the side yard at first. i just cleared all the rock in the area where i wanted the path, and just dropped in the 1/4" minus (which is crushed rock dirt with maybe 30% of it being 1/4" or less size rocks). i put down about 2" to 2/1" thick layer of this stuff. compacted it with a tamper, then watered it and let it sit until the surface was somewhat dry and then retamped the pathway to get it in firm. the srounding 3/4" rock which is about 2" thick as well is what formed the border for the pathway. if you dont want any of the side rock making its way onto the pathway, you can put a border made out of brick on edge, pavers, rip rap rock, it all depends on what is the look you are after. i used rip rap where ever i raised the side yard walkway by about a 12" when i did my landscaping, here are a couple of pictures:




well, i never considered as a side business, i dont think i am an expert at any of this. just learned as i went along. feel free to email me or pm me if you have any questions and i would love to help where ever i can.

it was real simple, but it just took time and energy, especially out in the sun in az

[RAFlorida]

Omar, my hat's off to you for a great looking

job! It is impressive and functional all around. Wished I could do such great work like that. It looks like you use xeriscape in some of your landscape too.

[Whaler]

Great job, the only problem I see with it is it reminds me of how much I miss Arizona.

[John Hunter]

Very nice.

[Turaj]

Wow! That is a great job! And a lot of work too!!! Can you come up and help me do mine

[poolhound]

Looks great, what are your rates?

[footprintsinconc]

thank you for encouraging comments!

RAFlorida, i didnt know anything about xeriscape, until i did our front and back landscaping. there was a lot of planning, since this was the first time, but overall it was a very enjoyable experience, learned a lot. my front yard is totally xeriscaped, infact all the bushes and ground cover in the back is also dessert adapt plants.

i dont have any fees yet , i wouldnt make a good contractor because everything would take forever!