Project
Overview
A tired sloped backyard with a failing concrete patio, no drainage and overgrown beds rebuilt from the ground up — new perimeter drainage, timber retaining walls, concrete-and-timber stairs with aluminum railing, charcoal paving stone patio and cedar privacy fencing.
The homeowner inherited a sloped backyard with an aging concrete-paver patio set on settled fill, an overgrown rockery, exposed boulders pushing up through the surface, and no real drainage along the back of the house. After heavy rain, water ran straight against the foundation. The existing pavers had heaved, the boulders had shifted, and the bed walls behind them were starting to slump down the slope.
We started by stripping out the old paver field and breaking up the underlying concrete, hauling everything to a staging pile for disposal. The half-buried boulders were dug out, the slope cut back, and the trench line along the foundation opened up so we could see what we were working with. Demo and clearing took the better part of the first week.
Drainage is the part that decides whether the rest of the build lasts. We trenched along the foundation, laid perforated drain tile in a gravel bed, and tied it into the existing downspouts and storm connection so roof water and yard water both have somewhere to go that isn't the basement wall. Getting this right before any retaining wall or patio goes in is the single biggest reason this kind of project succeeds long-term.
With the drainage in, we built tiered pressure-treated 6×6 retaining walls to hold the slope back and define the patio zone. Each course was leveled, dead-men anchors set back into the bank for resistance, and the backfill placed and compacted in lifts. We then built up a properly compacted gravel base for the patio surface — that base, not the stone on top, is what keeps a paving-stone patio flat for the long run.
To get from the upper yard down to the patio we built combination stairs — timber stringers and risers with poured concrete treads — finished with a powder-coated black aluminum railing for safety and a clean modern line. The railing posts are through-bolted into the timber framing, not surface-mounted, so they don't loosen up over time.
We laid a charcoal-grey textured paving stone over the compacted base with tight joints, full-cut edges where the patio meets the wall and house, polymeric joint sand swept and locked, and edge restraint on the open side. The colour ties into the railing and slate accents, and the texture keeps it from getting slick in our wet season.
We finished the build with new cedar privacy-fence panels along the back and side property line — vertical boards with a horizontal cap detail that warms the whole space up against the dark patio and railing. The result is a usable, level outdoor room where there used to be a slumping slope.
Project Questions
Because anything we built on top of an undrained slope was going to fail. The original patio had no perimeter drain — water was running straight along the foundation. Trenching, laying perforated drain tile in gravel and tying it into the existing storm connection was the first real step. It's also the part you can't redo easily once the patio is back on top.
About six weeks of on-site work, spread between September 2023 and February 2024 with weather pauses. Demo and drainage took the first couple of weeks, retaining walls and base prep the next two, and the stairs, paving and fence the rest.
Pressure-treated 6×6 timbers stacked and pinned, with dead-men anchors set back into the bank at each tier and compacted backfill in lifts. The drainage behind the wall keeps hydrostatic pressure off it, which is the other half of why timber walls last out here.
Not if the base under them is right — which is most of the work. We dug down to a proper depth, laid and compacted gravel in lifts, set the stones with tight joints, locked the joints with polymeric sand, and installed edge restraint on the open side so the field can't migrate. That's the difference between a patio that stays flat for 25+ years and one that starts shifting after two winters.
If you've got a sloped yard, failing pavers or drainage issues, that's a project we'd be glad to look at. Free site visit and honest scope.
