Decks, Patios, Porches and Docks - I don't know if I can describe this...

but here goes. I am getting estimates on a paver patio, and had a 4th guy come today. He brought up an issue that the others had not mentioned. The area where the patio will be is a small section of my back yard, extending off a sidewalk, and around my deck. I attached a file - my attempt at a drawing of the site - don't know if that will come thru or not. Anyway - the issue is the slope. On the left side, the slope of the yard is greater that the slope of the pavers should be, so the guy proposes have the pavers higher than the adjacent grass, and having a retaining material of some sort. I really do not want a 3" step up off the grass (it will slope up even to the sidewalk, but the back couple of feet will be high). Can anyone suggest a better way to do this - like maybe a retaining material that is not "abrupt", one that could allow for a safer rise to the paver level? My concern is that kids (and that is one of the reasons for the pavers - grass is getting trampled here) will trip over such a step. Any ideas? I hope the drawing is clearer than my description!!

I'll try again...

You could use a retaining wall to support the base for the pavers, and build the slope of the soil up to that level so that there is only the break in grade from the surface of the pavers and the wall to the grassy surface.

I had a similar problem, at least I think I did from your description...

My patio is attached to the back of my house and is about 24' wide and 18' deep.

The side of the patio is pretty much level from corner to corner. The two corners away from the house dropped about 2 feet and 4 feet. So a rough survey at the corners looked like this (I hope this works)...

(0') --------------------------( 0')
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
(-2')-------------------------(-4')

What I ended up doing was putting a step inside the patio.. so that the bottom right corner was about 8" lower than the other corners..

That does 2 things.. it makes it so I dint have to build up the retaining wall as high around that corner.. and it aesthetically gave the patio a two-tiered depth. The lower corner being offset from the rest of the patio, makes it an ideal eating or gathering area..

you can check it out here..

http://members.cox.net/louiepatio/patiopics.html

-sleepy floyd

Wow - you did a great job on that. I see what you mean, but this end of the patio is kind of a "pass-through" section of the yard. My lot has one of those city water pump stations on the back quarter, and so I built a fence, and landscaped to camoflauge the pump station building and make my side more attractive. The way the lot is situated, from the fence, at that corner - up to the sidewalk behind my deck - is only about 7 or 8 feet wide, then the area opens up past the inside corner of the fence. So with that narrow width, and that being the access to the rest of the back yard, it would not be practical to put a step in there. The only thing I could do, would be to drop down from the sidewalk, and I think I'd be asking for a broken ankle if I did that.

I think I will just have to add soil and even out the side slope. Not sure that there is any other way to handle it.

hmm... not sure I fully understand your description.. if you've got a sketch or picture, send it to me.. zglouie@yahoo.com

another thing you could do, if you don't like having a railing along that side, is do built in benches along that edge.

http://www.exteriorwooddesigns.com/patioportfolio/octagonlarge.jpg

I'm still contemplating how to incorporate something like those into my design..

-sleepy floyd