Saturday, July 02, 2011
Sitting on the patio.
Since our conservatory has been built our garden has been a little neglected. Our collection of patio slabs were just sitting on top of the ground, here and there. This was a work-around to stop soil erosion and Barney bringing muck into our home. The plan was to lay these patio slabs properly.
Gail has a walking disability and was frightened of the ground because it was not flat. I am like a mountain goat and I can walk anywhere, so it was not a problem for me. Eventually we decided to bite the bullet and from a friend's recommendation, we hired in a guy called Kenny. Gail wanted the garden to be flattened from fence to fence down by the laundry post and patio slabs laid from there up to her kitchen window. This was a big job which would require some special tools I did not have and the moving of a fair amount of earth. Gail forbid me from having a go myself and said I should stick to driving coaches.
Kenny does not drive coaches but is a self employed brick layer. As well as regular brick laying, Kenny does a lot of patio's including our friend's, who recommended Kenny to us. We had a look at the patio that Kenny made for Linda and could see the quality of his work. Linda's garden now looks the business with a nice clean and tidy finish to her paving.
Kenny finished our patio last Friday and we are really proud of it! It was a real joy to sit out there tonight, having a good beer and reading a book. Kenny did not take the piss and reckon that we needed to have all new slabs, which would have increased the cost. Kenny measured out the area we wanted paved, measured our existing range of very different patio slabs from previous projects and declared that we needed just 10 new patio slabs to complete the job.
Kenny set to work and dug a trench to support a low retaining brick wall. Kenny then broke up the earth and flattened it across our garden, from the kitchen window down to his row of bricks. Then Kenny laid the base, followed by the footing and then the slabs. Kenny did not lay the slabs just to fill the space but laid them to make a statement out of the many different shapes, sizes and styles. This looks lovely and a lot of thought has gone into it. There is a maturity to our patio that makes it look established rather than new. The fit and finish is tight, tidy and new though! This new patio is higher than our old patio sections and because Gail is not a mountain goat, Kenny made a ramp out of a slab from our kitchen path, so that she could crawl up with her walking stick.
We are very happy with our finished patio and have a garden to be proud of. Gail has a usable garden area because she is sure-footed and should not fall over. I am very pleased at what we have got for our money, Kenny was not being greedy but realistic and did not talk the job up. My dad loves sitting on all the different chairs as he smokes his pipe and drinks my beer.
Thank you Kenny, if you ever do a search on the internet!
Since our conservatory has been built our garden has been a little neglected. Our collection of patio slabs were just sitting on top of the ground, here and there. This was a work-around to stop soil erosion and Barney bringing muck into our home. The plan was to lay these patio slabs properly.
Gail has a walking disability and was frightened of the ground because it was not flat. I am like a mountain goat and I can walk anywhere, so it was not a problem for me. Eventually we decided to bite the bullet and from a friend's recommendation, we hired in a guy called Kenny. Gail wanted the garden to be flattened from fence to fence down by the laundry post and patio slabs laid from there up to her kitchen window. This was a big job which would require some special tools I did not have and the moving of a fair amount of earth. Gail forbid me from having a go myself and said I should stick to driving coaches.
Kenny does not drive coaches but is a self employed brick layer. As well as regular brick laying, Kenny does a lot of patio's including our friend's, who recommended Kenny to us. We had a look at the patio that Kenny made for Linda and could see the quality of his work. Linda's garden now looks the business with a nice clean and tidy finish to her paving.
Kenny finished our patio last Friday and we are really proud of it! It was a real joy to sit out there tonight, having a good beer and reading a book. Kenny did not take the piss and reckon that we needed to have all new slabs, which would have increased the cost. Kenny measured out the area we wanted paved, measured our existing range of very different patio slabs from previous projects and declared that we needed just 10 new patio slabs to complete the job.
Kenny set to work and dug a trench to support a low retaining brick wall. Kenny then broke up the earth and flattened it across our garden, from the kitchen window down to his row of bricks. Then Kenny laid the base, followed by the footing and then the slabs. Kenny did not lay the slabs just to fill the space but laid them to make a statement out of the many different shapes, sizes and styles. This looks lovely and a lot of thought has gone into it. There is a maturity to our patio that makes it look established rather than new. The fit and finish is tight, tidy and new though! This new patio is higher than our old patio sections and because Gail is not a mountain goat, Kenny made a ramp out of a slab from our kitchen path, so that she could crawl up with her walking stick.
We are very happy with our finished patio and have a garden to be proud of. Gail has a usable garden area because she is sure-footed and should not fall over. I am very pleased at what we have got for our money, Kenny was not being greedy but realistic and did not talk the job up. My dad loves sitting on all the different chairs as he smokes his pipe and drinks my beer.
Thank you Kenny, if you ever do a search on the internet!
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