Landscape

Backyard transformation — lawn out, gravel and pavers in

A yard that had stopped being usable, taken back to bare ground and rebuilt as a surface that works in the wet half of the year.

≈ 3 days≈ $8,500 incl. materials

See how it was done

Finished back yard: gravel field with a paver border and a tidied boundary fence

Project type

Landscape transformation

On site

≈ 3 days

Project investment

≈ $8,500

Including materials.

These figures describe this one completed project. Every job is different: pricing moves with scope, materials, access, existing conditions and what the preparation turns out to need. The only number that means anything for your house is the one on a written estimate after we have looked at it.

Before and after

The same yard, a month apart

Two photographs from roughly the same corner of the house. They are shown side by side rather than under a slider, because they were taken by hand and not from a tripod — a wipe between them would be pretending to a precision that is not there.

The back yard before work: patchy wet grass, a concrete pad and a weathered lattice-topped fence — Before

The same back yard after work: pavers laid against the house and the rest of the yard in gravel — After

How it was done

Nothing here was laid over the top of what was there

A gravel yard put straight onto tired lawn sinks into it by the second winter. Most of these three days went underground.

The existing condition

Grass worn through to bare and mossy patches, sitting wet, with a concrete pad and a boundary fence that had weathered hard. Usable in August, not the rest of the year.
The top layer came out

The upper layer of soil was excavated across the yard and cleared off site, along with everything growing in it.
This is the step that costs money and the step people are tempted to skip. Organic material left underneath keeps breaking down and keeps settling, and whatever is laid on top follows it down.
Ground preparation

With the yard down to clean ground, the area was prepared and brought to level for the new layout — the shape of the paved area and the run of gravel around it decided at this stage, while it was still easy to move a line.
Hardscape and pavers

Pavers were set out and laid to form the paved area against the house and the path that carries down the side, past the exterior unit and round to the door.

The paved run down the side of the house
The boundary fence

The fence was worked over as part of the same visit rather than left as the one tired thing standing round a finished yard.

The boundary edge after the work
Gravel and clearing up

The remaining area was filled in gravel, the edges tidied against the pavers and the fence line, and the spoil and offcuts taken away.