Type of Work
Patios, Walkways and Steps in Sandy Springs
Stone laid on a base that will not move, with the water taken somewhere rather than trapped.
Hard surfaces do two things on a Sandy Springs property. They give you somewhere flat to stand on a lot that mostly is not, and they add impervious area to a watershed that already sheds fast. Both matter to how the work gets built. Structurally, a patio on clay subsoil lives or dies on its base: excavated deep enough, filled with a graded aggregate, compacted in lifts, with a bedding layer of the right sand and a positive fall away from the house. Skip any of that on this soil and the surface reads flat for two seasons and then dishes. The second consideration is where the displaced water goes. Every square foot of paving is a square foot that absorbs nothing, so the runoff has to be given a route before it finds a foundation, a neighbor or the low corner of the garden. Which is why a patio here is designed together with the drainage rather than after it.
What the scope covers
- The layout tested against the fall of the ground and the root zones of the trees before anything is drawn, because on some lots the answer is that the patio moves
- Excavation to a real depth, graded aggregate base placed and compacted in lifts, and a bedding course appropriate to the paving material
- Positive fall built into the finished surface, away from the house and toward somewhere the water is meant to go
- Paver, flagstone, bluestone and poured options priced side by side, including the joint treatment each needs to stay put on a slope
- Permeable paving where added impervious area is a problem, with the deeper open-graded base section that makes it work
- Steps set on footings rather than on fill, with consistent risers, because a garden step that varies by an inch is the one people trip on
- Edge restraint and a drainage path at the low edge so the base is not slowly washed out from under the surface
To have this priced on your own property, call (404) 737-3568 or use the quote form. Someone walks the yard, takes measurements, and leaves a written scope with a price on it. No charge for any of that.
Read next
On patios and paths, specifically
- How much base does a patio need on clay?
- More than a patio on sand, and the depth is the part quotes disagree about most. The excavation has to go below the soft surface layer into something that will not move, then come back up in compacted lifts of graded aggregate, with a bedding course chosen for the paving material rather than a generic pile of sand. Compacting in one deep push looks the same on the day and is not the same at all, because the bottom of the lift never reaches density. Nothing about any of this shows in a photograph, which is exactly why it is the first thing to ask about.
- Why do patios here dish or drop at the edges?
- Usually because the base stopped short of the edge, or because water got underneath it. A base has to run past the paving line and be held by an edge restraint, otherwise the outer course has nothing under it once a few storms have washed the shoulder away. The other cause is the low edge of the patio being a dead end: water runs across the surface, reaches the last course and soaks straight down into the base, taking fines with it. A drainage path at the low edge is a small line on a quote and it is what keeps the surface flat.
- Pavers or poured concrete on this soil?
- Pavers are more forgiving. Clay subsoil moves a little with moisture even where the clay is a low-shrink kaolinite, and a segmental surface accommodates that by flexing, whereas a slab telegraphs it as a crack. Pavers also come up and go back down when a drain has to be run underneath, which happens more often than anyone plans for. Poured concrete is cheaper per square foot and cleaner under furniture, and it makes sense on flat ground away from trees.
- Will a patio make my drainage worse?
- It can, if the water is not accounted for. Every square foot of hard surface is a square foot that no longer absorbs anything, and on a sloping lot that runoff has to go somewhere before it finds the foundation. The usual answers are a built-in fall to a collection point, a permeable section where the added area is significant, or a drain line tied into whatever already carries water off the property. Patio and drainage design are one job here, not two.
- How close can a patio go to a big oak?
- Further than most plans assume. Compacting a base over a root zone does long-term damage that shows up years later as decline, and by then the patio is finished and the tree is a removal bill and a gap in the canopy. Where the layout has to be near a large tree, the options are a floating deck, a surface on a shallow open-graded section, or moving the patio. The tree usually wins that argument on value alone.
From the Yard Notes
More on this, written for north Fulton
Why the Best Month to Plant a Tree Here Is October
UGA Extension calls fall the ideal time to plant most woody trees, shrubs, vines, groundcovers and perennials in Georgia. The reasoning is about roots, not weather.
English Ivy Is Not a Groundcover Problem, It Is a Tree Problem
The City of Sandy Springs runs a public campaign against English ivy. On a wooded lot the case is simpler than the ecology: it loads the canopy and hides the trunk.
Georgia's Watering Hours, and the Exemption That Matters Most
Georgia allows outdoor landscape irrigation only between 4 p.m. and 10 a.m. The 30-day exemption for newly installed plants and turf is the one that matters.
Usually Booked Together
Work that tends to arrive in the same scope
Landscape projects here group themselves around water and grade. A new patio changes where runoff goes, a wall changes the grade above it, and planting into a slope only holds if the water crossing it has somewhere else to be. Pricing the pieces together is usually cheaper than pricing them one at a time.
Landscape Design and Planting
A drawn plan for the whole property, then beds shaped, soil amended and plants set in the right season
Drainage and Erosion Control
Water intercepted, carried and released where it can do no harm, so it stops moving soil and standing against the house
Retaining Walls and Grading
Slope turned into usable ground, with drainage behind the wall rather than pressure
Shade Planting Under the Canopy
Beds that work in four hours of filtered light, planted without wrecking the roots holding the trees up
Find out what the yard would cost
Call (404) 737-3568 or use the quote form, and a Sandy Springs landscaping company prices the work at no charge.