Flagstone Patio, Calgary… Doing it right.

I have to admit, that we always steered clear of natural flagstone patios, because they never looked good to me. We pride ourselves on the finished look of our projects and the high quality if our installations. The Flagstone patios and walkways that we saw out there installed by others always left a LOT to be desired, in our opinion.

That is until now. We do NOT steer clear of Flagstone Patios anymore. We actually love them, and we love the look of them, we love how much care and attention they take to get them right. Well, let me clarify that.

We stumbled upon a system of installing Flagstone Patios (while researching install techniques), that is  incredibly labour intensive, but produces the best looking finished patio I have seen in a long while in Calgary, maybe anywhere. I am not going to share our new found, but incredibly smart, system, but I will show you the results.

This is Natural Rundle Flagstone, known for it’s dark color, and also know for it’s uneven thicknesses and sharp/irregular edges. These two things combine to make Rundle one of the most difficult Flags to work with making it hard to match up edges, and even harder to provide an even and smooth top surface.

See for yourself. on the left is Concrete Pavers, and on the right is Natural Flagstone. both very flat and useable.

 

 

So, if you want you patio to be uneven, with large gaps, and be totally unusable, don’t call us. We waited until we knew we could install these amazing features to our always higher than industry standards, before we made them available to you! No Flagstone patio is cheap, but it is frustratingly more expensive when you have to install the same patio 2 or 3 times because of installation defects or poor workmanship.

Interlocking Flagstone…

The Customer likes Pavers, AND the customer likes Flagstone. Lets do both!

Can't wait until we're finished! stay tuned.

New Website coming soon...

e are working on a new and dynamic website, which is the reason there hasn't been any updates lately. Have a look at our new Flickr slideshows and check back often to see more projects!







Tell us what you think! info@leedavid.ca or comment below.

Dry Well Water Management...

Our current project had some significant water issues (as usual on our projects), that we had to look after to ensure the quality of the project. We routed all the roof water to the low corner of the yard via underground drainage, then we installed positive drains under the deck and also in the yard on the lowest point on the high side of the new pathway (if that makes any sense). The water from the neighbor and the surface water on the high side of the pathway would have nowhere to go, except into the ground next the the path, causing all sorts of heaving and sogginess, hence the positive drain. These drains were also tied into the underground pipes, directing the water to the low corner of the yard.

Now this low corner of the yard is the low corner of the neighborhood. It is a soggy mess when it rains and for days afterwards. We decided to install a dry well for the retention and dispersion of excess water into the ground, taking it's own sweet time, out of sight and out of sog.

We performed some tests, just to make sure the ground would accept the water. We dug a 4' deep x 8' wide x 1' wide hole, then filled it up with water. The first day it didn't really go down, but in the second day, all but a foot of water had drained away, and the the third morning the hole was dry again. That was good news, so we proceeded to complete the dry well.

We pickup up a 4' long chunk of 12' dia sewer pipe, 30' of perforated drain tile, a 12" round valve cover box and a 15' x 15' sheet of geotex seperation fabric. The Geo-tex fabric is placed in the hole to seperate the dirt from the hole fill material, we drilled holes in the sewer pipe then placed it vertically in the hole, cut the Drain tile into 3' chunks and placed them vertically in the hole as well. The Sewer pipe is in the hole, just in case the homeowner wants to lower a sump pump in and drain the hole manually for any reason.

We then placed a drain pipe and emmiter coming out of the hole, to allow excess water in times of heavy rainfall to drain away normally and easily. We then filled the hole with old herringbone bricks (they leave the most amount of air (water) space. The Drain tile pipes do the same job, giving more space to hold water than if we just filled the entire hole with the bricks. Over the entire hole we folded the excess fabric and then filled the top of the cavity with the material we dug out of the hole initially. The 12" round valve cover box is placed on top the the sewer pipe then backfilled so that the top of the box is level with the final grade. The cap is put on the box and that is the only thing that gives and indication that something is under the ground there! Nice work team, it's the best part of this project that no one will ever see!

We also finished the Pergola, with all it`s little bits and details. It looks great!

Update in Heritage Pointe…

We got a LOT done the last few days before the snowstorm hit last night. The work we completed will allow us to continue as soon as possible, because all the underground drainage is in place and the roofwater is not a factor to our project anymore. Since we were making such drastic changes, we also re-ran the irrigation system to be more efficient and fit the new layout.

This little drain ensures any of the water that collects under the deck is able to run away in the drainage system we installed

The Pergola turned out really nice. We love to take the vision of the customer and make it reality right before their eyes.

A great start to the season!

We are moving right along on our project in Heritage Point. had a great day today, finishing the deck and getting a great start on the pergola!

Nice work Team!

Now Booking for Calgary Landscaping Construction Season, 2010

We are accepting calls for your outdoor construction projects, for the 2010 landscaping season. We are booking fast, so please don’t hesitate to call us right away and get yourself into the queue.

We will provide you a ‘full’ yard project or we can look after your hardscape projects only, so you can look after the soft stuff yourself. feel free to call with any questions you may have!

Call or email

403-819-1948

sales@leedavid.ca

We will talk to you soon!

LANTA Award winner…

we submitted 1 project for consideration for LANTA’s awards this year. We were given an award of excellence for the project, we scored the highest of all the projects submitted, and are nominated to compete in the 2011 National Awards through the CNLA. We are super excited!

The notes from the judges were as follows…

• The overall design is beautiful
• The deck compliments the overall landscape
• What a change from the original ‘non-landscape’
• The aspen grove is a nice touch of Alberta
• Hardscape Excellent
• Choice of plant material excellent
• Very well done, good attention to detail
• Good creativity and continuity
• Great design element, shows creativity
• Great craftsmanship
• Very functional

Thank you judges, thank you very much!

   

2009 Calgary Landscaping Season Highlights, LeeDavid Landscapes Inc.

We are revamping the website and haven’t posted any of out 2009 projects. Here is a sneak peek at what you will see on the web soon…

And here are some more…