Decomposed Granite and Other Materials for Walkways and Patios

By Leslie Patten

This eBook describes Decomposed Granite (DG) applications as well as other materials to use for patios and walkways. Includes 26 photos. Do-it-yourselfers will find a full description of how to install a proper, hard DG patio step-by-step. Homeowners who want to use a contractor will discover all the information to give their contractor to install proper drainage, and the exact methods for obtaining a beautiful DG patio or walkway. In addition, Patten looks at alternative materials, such as concrete, pavers, or flagstone, and when these materials are preferable to decomposed granite. Techniques for a flagstone DG patio are different than a pure DG installation and Patten goes over those as well. Types of DG, colors, choosing benderboard or other edgings, and alternative mixes are covered. A must-have for anyone thinking about patio materials, and especially decomposed granite.
Sections include I- Decomposed Granite Installation II-Questions and Answers on Decomposed Granite (taken from real homeowners with installation problems) III-Other Materials to Consider.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Leslie Patten
• Release date: Mar 16, 2014
• ISBN: 9781311458438

Leslie Patten

Leslie Patten is a well-known landscape designer in the Bay Area of California. Her work has been featured in Mill Valley’s Outdoor Art Club Garden Tours, in the Marin Independent Journal, Marin Art & Garden Center tours, the Garden Conservancy, and Marin County Stormwater Pollution Prevention Program tours. She grew up in the Los Angeles area and went to college at the University of Santa Cruz. After college she spent the next thirty years living all over Northern California, in Lake, Sonoma, Marin, San Francisco, and Santa Cruz counties. She has hiked and backpacked all over the state, including desert, mountain, and coastal regions, gaining her familiarity with native plants and their habitats.Leslie’s background is in horticulture and botany, but she also has naturalist training and worked for over eight years at a museum lab preparing wildlife specimens of museum quality. She has assisted with spotted owl studies, as well as wolf and grizzly bear studies as a citizen scientist. Her knowledge of tracking, wildlife, and native plants of the West greatly enhances her ability to create successful designs and wildlife gardens. Low water gardens has been her specialty in the Bay Area for over twenty years, but she also has designed tropical, English, and Zen gardens. Her expertise is best described as a habitat specialist.She now splits her time between the wilds of northwest Wyoming and the Bay Area. Her ongoing blog can be seen at www.thehumanfootprint.wordpress.com. Her business website with photos of many jobs can be viewed at www.ecoscapes.net.

Book preview

Decomposed Granite

And Other Materials for Walkways and Patios

By

Leslie Patten

www.ecoscapes.net

www.thehumanfootprint.wordpress.com

Published by Far Cry Publishing

Cody, Wyoming

Smashwords Edition

Copyright © 2014 by Leslie Patten

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted without the express consent of the author.

All photos by Leslie Patten

First edition

Decomposed Granite and Other Materials for Walkways and Patios

Table of Contents

Part I – Decomposed Granite Installation

A Note about Stabilizers

Part II – Questions and Answers on Decomposed Granite

Problems with Initial Installation and How to Solve

Additional DG Techniques, slopes and other applications

Part III – Other Materials to consider

Pebble or Gravel Paths and Patios

Large Pavers set in various mediums

Manufactured Patio Pavers

Concrete base and Concrete Patios

Part IV – TerraKoat Instructions

About the Author

In this eBook I’ll give you an overview of several patio materials, but will focus on decomposed granite, otherwise known as DG.

I’ve broken this pamphlet into three sections. First I’ll explain how to install a DG walkway or patio. When I did this post of DG patios in my blog, I received hundreds of questions. Because the questions illustrate real life situations, many where homeowners were trying to do-it-themselves and got into problems, I’ve decided to include many of these questions and answers in the second part. The third part of the eBook will be a short section on other materials for patios and walkways.

Part I – Decomposed Granite Installation

What is Decomposed Granite? Decomposed granite is essentially the small fines of granitic rock; rock that has been weathered and broken down into a fine silty-like substance. In most landscape yards, if you ask for DG, you’ll have a choice of just a few colors—possibly gold, dark brown, and grey. But as we’ll see, I’ve tried out several other techniques to obtain different colors.

I've done 100's of decomposed granite patios and walkways in northern California and learned a few things.  When I first began, the industry didn't have what’s called a 'hardener'.  That made for a semi-successful installation, because in the winter your walkway was mushy at best.  With the advent of hardeners, the DG comes out quite nice, with minimal mush. But everything, and I mean everything, is in the preparation.

I recommend you order your DG pre-mixed with the hardener (many landscape outfits will deliver like this). Having the landscape yard mix it for you ensures that the hardener has completely covered the DG. If you want to avoid the extra costs and mix it yourself, you can mix it in a wheelbarrow per the proportion instructions, but I prefer to rent a small concrete mixer and use that. Sixteen (16) pounds of hardener per one cubic yard of DG is the usual recommendation, but check with your local landscape yard. It is very important that the hardener be fully mixed into the DG. Mixing by hand in small batches in a wheelbarrow takes time and you might not achieve this. If you mix in a wheelbarrow, it is best to have one person mixing and another laying and tamping the DG.

Prepare a bed that's about 5" deep.  You’ll