As you can imagine, planning a patio requires a lot of prep work – starting with clearing the area. In the case of MH, this means removing a tree. Specifically, a dead tree covered in vines (including poision ivy) but still a very large tree. Here is the tree years ago before I went on my “killing” mission.
Tree covered in vines
Luckily, over the past year or so I have been on a mission to kill all things viney or with thorns. This particular area has been sprayed (repeatedly) with brush killer and vines have been cut at the root. Luckily, those things actually worked and we were able to get through many of the layers of vines – some of which had actually leapt across to the roof!
After some brush killer and vine cutting
What an eyesore! Luckily, with Laurie’s patio plan, the tree had to go and we had Ray and my dad to help take it down.
Grateful for my dad – he can handle the big chain saw
The interior of the tree was hollow and at one point we could see through it!
Timber
With the tree gone, the area was ready to prep for the new (gigantic) patio. Woo hoo! First, we started by tilling the soil.
Pre till
Post till
Then we tamped the soil to compact (for the base).
Post ground tamping
Now we are ready for the next steps – preparing the base!