When providing landscape designs for Clients, often patio designs are part of the agenda. Budget is often a concern. However, a patio can be designed and then priced with different materials.



I recently did a design for Clients that included a patio, walkway, grading, and plantings. There was also a seat wall at the patio. They wanted to use dry laid patterned bluestone for the patio and walkway. The wall was to be brick with a bluestone cap, since there was brick on the house. Bluestone and brick work well together.

After pricing the project, it turned out that it was way over my Clients' budget. There were many things factored in by the landscape contractor that caused high pricing.

The landscape contractor had to allow for extra travel time. This was the contractor I highly recommended for the project since his work was excellent, but he was a distance away. In addition, his pricing reflected the time it would take to make proper cuts in the stone to make sure that each piece was completely square, which means straight. This is necessary so that the joints are the same width throughout and not skewed. If joints are uneven, I feel the project looks unprofessional.

The patio also required fill, as the grade sloped away from the house and the land had to be made level. The retaining wall was curved, which indicated more labor time.

I specified the bluestone cap at the top of the seat wall to be in sections no shorter than two feet. In addition, each piece was to be cut to follow the radius of the wall so the bluestone cap would be curved also.

All of the above situations and design details led to a higher costs. I offered options to my Clients. We could eliminate the seat wall. We could also reduce the size of the patio. Substituting tumbled pavers for bluestone was another choice, as this would reduce the paving costs.

They chose to use concrete pavers for the material, since they loved the design and did not want to give up any patio space or the seat wall. I presented some paver patio design ideas. Decorative concrete block was now to be used for the seat wall. The wall and paver colors were nicely coordinated and also went well with the brick on the house. The various colors in many bricks often fight the tumbled pavers which also have various colors in them. However, I selected a Belgard paver that worked extremely well.

After all was said and done, the price of the project was reduced from $52,000 to $35,000. It goes to show that materials can make a tremendous difference in landscape costs. My feeling is that if it is a good design, it won't really matter. Although bluestone is beautiful, it is the design of the landscape in its entirety which will make for a nice project.