Patios, Pathways, Steps

Patios, Walkways, Steps

Every flagstone patio is like a jigsaw puzzle without a solution

The position of each stone should be visualised before placing it, especially when they weigh up to 150 kilograms each

On my first patio commission I collected large pieces of stone and put the pattern together with no

cutting, same as the furniture. The client would fill the gaps with topsoil and plant thyme in it (2006)

Ravenscliffe

area, 2012

For the next patio I dropped the no-cutting rule because the rocks were all freshly split and broken anyway, so there was no ancient patina to preserve. I chipped most of the pieces to fit them tightly in order to minimize weed growth between the rocks.

The result was spectacular

M

Staircase

and

Patio

on

Lake

Bernard,

Sundridge.

Ontario

(2012)

Trinity United Church, 2012

I cut the stones and laid them out at my workshop to keep all the noise and dust far away, then transferred them to the site

Walkway (2013)

The client requested very low steps to drive the snowblower up and down so I cut deeper into the grade and lowered that end of the walkway

Walkway (2017)

The clients' ancient walkway was spreading out and becoming hazardous, and they were becoming unsteady in their later years. They needed a new path to provide safer passage

I bridged the gap to the dock by carving footings to fit the angled bedrock, then placing a large sawn and trimmed flagstone over them, then added a second stone to reach the old wood steps, until they are replaced

I rounded up dozens of field rocks around the property to define the walls and borders of the garden

Big retaining wall in a small space (2017)

You don't complete a major landscaping job, you survive it

The biggest rock was too heavy (at over a metric tonne) to carry in the position in which it would be laid, so I showed the client how to rotate it by balancing it on a small round stone

Parry Sound Courthouse Staircase (2018)

I was thrilled to have the opportunity to help apply granite

treads to the newly reconstructed steps and landings

I was given creative licence to do the middle landing in a multi-point pattern, with a few colourful highlights dropped in. When the dust was washed off the beauty of the granite was revealed again