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Permeable Walkway on a Deck Landing

There is no limit to the design of deck landings homeowners can build to beautify their front yard.  It all depends on your imagination, your local building codes and the purpose for which you intend to use the residential deck landing.  A great option is a deck landing with a permeable walkway .  If your deck is low to the ground, you have many design options for its stairs. Because low decks require only one or two steps, building codes may not require railings or landings. You may decide to set the stairs at an angle at a corner of the deck using wide steps to give the deck a contemporary look. To heighten this effect, incorporate several angles for the same set of stairs or add an additional set of stairs off another corner of the deck. If the deck is high above the ground, railings and landings will be required according to building codes. One design idea is to use a landing to mark a change in the direction of the bottom portion o...

Tips on Deck Replacement and Raised Patio

Deck replacement and raised patio is about making your landscape looking good in general.  Ideally, you have to replace damaged decks and raise your patio from time to time to make your front a sight to behold and expensive repairs later on.  Here are some tips provided by landscape contractors to make your deck and patio look perpetually new. Dings, scratches and stains are the most common things you’ll need to repair on your deck, and ease of repair varies widely depending on the materials you use. For certain types of decking materials, pressure-treated wood, cedar or redwood are recommended: These types of wood are remarkably easy to work with when you get a scratch or gouge on the surface. All you need to do is sand the boards until the stain, scratch or gouges disappears and then re-stain, paint or seal the deck to give it a finished look again. Tropical hardwoods are so dense that they rarely have significant scratching issues. However, the wood rea...

Every Home Needs Landscaping Repair and Restoration

  Before   After After three or four years, your once beautiful landscape project will inevitably turn into an eyesore and a liability. There’s no escaping this problem.  Perhaps the pavers on the walkway become uneven or the gaps between the pavers grow wider and unsightly.  Worse, your entire patio may now be leaning towards your home causing rainwater to slowly erode its foundation. This happens to every home with a landscape attraction out front even if the landscape work was done by a good contractor.  Blame it on the elements and the wear and tear brought by time as a matter of course.  So it behooves upon the homeowner to look for landscaping repair and restoration .  In case the landscape contractors you originally got made a shoddy job, the imperative is for you to find a team that can repair the mistakes done on your yard. The team you need is one that can move in quickly to properly level pavers, support retainin...

Grading and Drainage Crucial in Water Gardens

In terms of design and care of water gardens, grading and drainage are key considerations.   You just can’t install a water garden in your landscaped yard without a proper grading and drainage system. This is because inefficient or inadequate draining can result in all kinds of hazards that can cost you in the long run.  If outdoor spaces are not designed with drainage in mind, un-drained water can cause a variety of problems in your yard. For example, standing water can compromise the structural integrity of the foundation of your home and any other outdoor structures. It can also jeopardize the health of your plants if their roots become water-logged. This is a particular concern for water-sensitive plants. Poor drainage management can potentially cause other serious dangers such as mosquito infestation and inconveniences such as soggy lawns and unsightly, muddy swamps. It is therefore important that you take these potential challenges seriously....

Great Landscaping Ideas for Front Yard and Backyard Area

There is no homeowner that won’t desire a landscaped front or backyard. A landscaped lawn is desirable in both economic and aesthetic sense. It does not only increase the value of a residential property but also lifts one’s soul that nature and a green surrounding provide as a matter of course. That said, a homeowner without a landscaped front who now wants to build one has a good number of options in going about it. If you’ve never gone through a landscape design before, chances are you’ll be surprised by all the choices available for beginners in this area. The same principles that guided your room setup inside the house may be used to guide your designs out front.  Here are some great landscaping ideas for beginners. First, draw a list of your particular needs and wants. Do your kids need a play space? Do you want to grow vegetables? Does your family often gather on a patio? Then do some very rough sketches of the yard with thoughts of where you want to place...

Do Your Own Hardscape Repairs

Winter can be rough on your homes, especially your hardscape which is perpetually exposed to the elements. When the last signs of cold weather melt away, you can find yourself heading into spring with pitted driveways, cracked asphalt and crumbling landscaping. So it’s important to make repairs before summer heats up and puts further stress on these important areas. Doing your own hardscape repairs isn’t difficult. You’ll save money, and doing it yourself gives you the opportunity to get some outdoor exercise this spring. You may need professionals to pour new asphalt but repairing existing asphalt in your hardscape can be done by yourself. For pothole repairs, start by sweeping and removing any loose materials from the area needing repair. Next, pour ready-mix asphalt in the trouble spot and spread evenly to a depth of no more than 2 inches at a time. Use the back side of a shovel to compact the material. And since there is no oily tracking with this material, ju...

Walk Patio Repairs can be Easy in Five Ways

Is your walk patio or outdoor living spaces are in need of repair or maintenance and you’re stumped about what to do? Relax, it can be relatively easy. Those with experience in walk patio repair will tell you all you need is to start with an old fashion inspection of the problem. It could be a sunken patio base or a chipped piece of concrete or deteriorating mortar. Whatever the case, repairs will come easy once you look closely into the problem. The reason is that assessing the basic issues leads to solutions. Here are five ways that can be easily worked with walk patio repairs.   The first thing you need to do is look very closely at your existing mortar joints. Look at the color of the sand. Believe it or not, not all sand looks the same. Sand is simply a collection of very small rock particles, and the color of individual sand particles can be vastly different if the particles come from a variety of black, red, white and gray rocks. Visit different building s...