Free Patio! Kind of...

Sometimes opportunities come up and it's difficult to see them. Fortunately, I was able to see this one. Renovating the house is something that takes a lot of time and money so when there is a way to cut some expense and still get good results I try to take advantage of it.

Downtown in Burlington, NC where we live there was an old warehouse that was being demolished. Interestingly enough, Savannah worked at one time for the company that was contracted to do the demolition work. So we stopped by and after a little name dropping we asked if we could collect some of the brick at the perimeter of the job site. They told us we could pick through the brick and take what we wanted as long as we stayed out of their way. So with many, many, trips and good pair of gloves we started to work. Within just a few days we collected over two thousand bricks. These bricks were awesome because we had an assortment. Some were kiln fired and others were 200 year old hand made solid brick. It was going to look very pretty.

As I brought them back to the house it was clear that I was going to have to experiment with patio layouts to make the best use of the bounty. So we tried out several designs just loose fitting the brick. Once we got a good idea of the final layout we started to set the border. I purchased reclaimed railroad ties from Lowe's Home Improvement and I used my Dad's chainsaw to cut the angles necessary to form the overall shape of the patio.

However, it wasn't going to be easy using the reclaimed brick. There was mortar stuck on the majority of the bricks that needed to be cleaned off. So day after day Savannah and I cleaned the mortar off the brick with a hammer and flat bar throwing the slag into the bed that would soon constitute the foundation for the patio. To get the foundation for the bed to be as level as possible, I had a load of screenings delivered and rented a compactor to firm everything up after the screenings were spread out.

Using a 2x4 as a screen tool, I carefully graded the screenings so that water would flow away from the house. Then I used a transit to make sure I had a consistent height across the patio.

When I started to lay the bricks in I used a grinder with a cutting wheel to make all my angle cuts. For the most part the bricks laid beautifully but I had to make peace with the fact that the bricks were of slightly different sizes and so there were imperfections in the fit. In the end, it contributed to the look. Finally I sealed up the gaps with sand mixed with polymer to cut down on weed growth.

I wanted to put in a fire pit in the middle of the patio and my Dad had the perfect item to make it. He had chanced upon an old street drain awhile back that he had failed to make use of and just like as if I was 5 years old again I asked my Mom if I could have it. She said she didn't see why not and I made away with my prize and took it to my house undetected by Dad. It would be much more difficult for him to say he wanted it returned after building a beautiful firepit with it. All of us at times feel the need to practice slight of hand.

With my manly fire pit and a patio which cost me just a few hundred bucks to construct we are ready to host and entertain in our backyard.