← Yeti Trades Co. · Portfolio Limestone & Laurel · portfolio site Get a site like this for $1,999 →
Patios & terraces

A patio is mostly what you don’t see.

The stone on top is the easy part. What keeps it level for twenty years is the base under it, and in Nashville clay that base has to drain.

Limestone & Laurel / Patios & terraces
A landscaper setting concrete pavers by hand
A sunken circular patio with stone steps
Our base, in orderExcavate past the topsoilGeotextile over the clay6–8 in compacted aggregate1 in bedding layerStone or pavers, edge restraint

Why patios heave here

Clay swells when it’s wet and shrinks when it’s dry, and Middle Tennessee goes from soaked in March to cracked in August. A patio laid on a thin bed of sand over that clay moves with it. A patio on a deep, drained, compacted aggregate base doesn’t.

When we hit rock

Sometimes the limestone is right there. That can be good news: rock doesn’t move. We level to it, drain around it, and occasionally design the patio to show it off.

Patio ranges.

01
Concrete pavers

Permeable options available.

per sq ft
$32–45
02
Flagstone on aggregate

Tennessee fieldstone or Crab Orchard.

per sq ft
$40–60
03
Flagstone on concrete, mortared

Formal terraces.

per sq ft
$55–75
04
Seat wall

Capped, 18 inches high.

per linear ft
$180–260

Continue reading.

WallsStone wallsPatios on slopes need them.FireFire featuresThe next thing people add.NotesWhat’s under the yardThe clay and the rock.
Aerial view of outdoor chairs on a deck framed by plantings
A paved patio and shed in a planted backyard
A dining table on a lawn beside stone steps
Black-and-white photo of a columned porch

Picture it level for twenty years.

Begin a consultation
A Yeti Trades Co. portfolio site

The design-build landscape site, built in seven days.

Seventeen pages: a cross-section of what’s under a Nashville yard, a design-build process with the fees stated, an investment guide with real ranges, and both Tennessee licenses shown.

Start my website All thirteen sites →