r/hardscape

I haven't had any experience in hardscape before,

This trash can pad project is the first project I did work. Please rate this and feedback. I am sure its far from perfect but learnt alot during the process.

For these pavers, i excavated almost 4 inch and added sand for levelling and then pavers. Put the lumber 4x4 treated to kind of restraint the slope and used paver base stone under the lumber base. Used galvanized spikes 12" to anchor with the ground

One thing still I like to work on may be is the access to the driveway. It has a slope of 6 to 7 inch. Appreciate the tips here

A couple of large scale seat/retaining walls my coworker and I have been working on since before Thanksgiving, enjoy!

Machine lay, machine graded

About 95% completed with this project. They just finished the retaining wall and the end facing out has some pretty rough cuts. If it were facing the backside I might not care that much but it's the first side you see. Am I nitpicking and I'll stop noticing after some time or is this sloppy work?

I reposted this with another photo, since the perspective is a bit confusing in the first one. The patio gravel is about 12” above the level of the dirt and has a 1” drop per 12” of run for drainage away from the house.

I am getting some work done by landscapers in the backyard, which includes sod and a patio under a second floor deck. I noticed that the aggregate and gravel they used to raise the patio for a decent grade ended up being about 4 inches (10 cm) above the concrete piers for the deck posts.

I brought it up to the landscapers, and they were super professional. They said they hadn’t done stone around posts before, and they will look into it and will redo it if necessary.

I just want to confirm that this is a tear out and redo right? They should still be able to get proper drainage with the patio lower down.

I quoted my buddy for his stairs I’m thinking most likely a full rebuild for 4 stair cases. Is there a chance it’s just a partial rebuild north Jersey.

Worst step is about an inch and a half difference in level.

Seems like in he past their option was just shimming.

I’m trying to save this guy money. Not really trying to do a full rebuild.

Thoughts? Hoping to get away with 3in gravel new sand bed.

Finishing the gas work tomorrow and taking a much needed longggg weekend. Hope everyone has a great holiday!

When I run a compactor on this after installation, will this level out or do I need to pull this up????

I’m driving myself nuts with getting these perfectly level.

Thanks in advance…..

Ok so this was suppose to be an easy redo of a 40 year old walk that is messy . I’m under maple trees so digging down not an option . Because of major erosion I dug out the stones in the front and jacked them up on a bed of stone . So it doesn’t turn into mud slide . Btw doing it in sections , that’s why it’s not all ripped apart , dealing with family crisis ‘s . When I first tried laying it , I quickly realized that I was going to end up with a cliff , if I kept trying to keep them flat . So then I attempted in these photos to every so slightly stagger each row lower . It helped the cliff situation , but it feels wrong . Is it wrong ? I’ve spend so much already on this little patch for crushed rock , drainage rock and sand .. this project t was suppose to be labor not costly .
How do I do this ? Thank you !!!!

Just bought a house in an estate sale and the lot needs some work, including the patio. This flagstone has certainly seen better days and has settled and, obviously, has weeds growing through it. It's on a terrace with (what used to be) steps leading to the lawn.

I'm not a hardscaper by any means, but I'm not afraid to put in some work. I imagine the stones are worth keeping and using.

I'm guessing if I want to keep the patio as it is, it's a removal, re-grade and bring in new pea gravel then reset the stones? Polymeric sand between the stones when re-graded?

Am I out of my mind? I imagine I'm in for a slog, if not a multi-year project as a diy-er. Helpful input would be greatly appreciated from the professional community. I'm on Canada so there's the annual freeze/thaw to deal with.

I’ve built this wall to separate my restaurant from the highway. Originally I wanted the wall closer to the road but had to set it back for the DOT right of way. I wanted to paint the name of my restaurant on the wall. However I’m now thinking I’d like to paint the large area on the ground in front of it. From the wall to the highway shoulder.

The area I’m trying to paint is currently not smooth enough. I’m looking for tips on correcting the surface before I paint. The only thing I can think of is laying down a thin layer of portland cement.

Any suggestions on what pavers are close to this style and color( not too gray) . Any suggestions would be appreciated

Hi everyone.

We extended our patio in April with the idea of putting a covered roof over it. When the contractor poured the concrete, unfortunately we did not like the color. We picked the color terra-cotta. In the book it looked brown with a hint of red, but it came out very orange and red. We asked the contractor to not seal it as we planned to use this product from Brickform called Cemcoat Plus. We had to wait 28 days for the concrete to cure before we could do it so we moved forward with the next phase of the build, which was the roof. Talking to a local contractor who does concrete resurfacing he said that it was fine to move forward with building everything and then coloring the concrete at the end. All of that worked fine and we built the roof over the patio.

Fast-forward to now and I decided to apply the Cemcoat, the Antique It, and Sealer myself. The Cemcoat went on fine, the color looked pretty good, it was the desert tan, setting up a good base for the Antique It. So the problem starts with yesterday I applied the Antique It, and we let it dry for eight hours. It dried with this white smokiness all around the concrete as well as rings around a lot of of the impressions. So I did some further research and watching videos and read that if there’s some white lines that that it’s normal. So I decided to seal the concrete thinking that once the color is enhanced by sealing it that the white would subside and blend in and go away. Unfortunately they did not. The white rings and smokiness is still prevalent throughout the concrete. Also, I sprayed on the sealer with a pump sprayer and it seems to have applied well other than in the impressions. It has pooled in a lot of them and now they are this cloudy muddy pockets of sealer.

Any help is greatly appreciated. I’m thinking that I have to strip off the sealer and redo the Antique It, but I’m not sure why it came out the way it did the first time and I don’t want to do it again until I have some experiential insight.

Can anybody help me with the following?

1. Has this happened to anyone before?
2. Can anyone identify what caused this?
3. What’s my next best course of action?

Here’s the timeline and process that I went through for reference.

April 8th - New concrete is poured and stamped. We asked the contractor to not seal it.
June 20th - Power Washed the concrete
June 25th
- 9am - Applied Triple Seven Bond Coat Primer from Brickform
- 10am-12pm - Applied first coat of Cemcoat Plus.
June 26th
- 10am - Applied second coat of Cemcoat Plus
June 27th
- 11am - Applied Antique It. Allowed to dry for 8+ hours.
- 8pm - Applied Water Based Sealer.
- 11pm - Applied second coat of Water Based Sealer.

See pictures for further Details.

June 27th, yesterday, it was high humidity most of the day, like 70-90% humidity most of the day, so not sure if that was a factor.

But any help is greatly appreciated 🙏
Just want to get it done and move on to enjoying our patio this summer. Thank you.

Hello. My husband and I bought our home in Sept 2025 and our backyard was left in disarray. The patio was already sectioned out but the patio pavers were never laid (as seen in the back of the picture). We finally decided we should lay them but we don’t really know how to properly clean them. We have power washed them and used Zep driveway and concrete cleaner on them but it didn’t work. Any suggestions??? TIA.

Got some pavers in the drive way that over time have lifted up for some reason. I had people install them but my moneys tight and I wonder if I can challenge myself with the skill of replacing it at the costs at the materials only. Any pointers? Suggestions?