The pictures on this page show the various stages of a patio project that I recently completed for a customer at Blyth in Northumberland.

Before the brickwork could be undertaken I first had to prepare part of the existing lawn area to provide a flat surface for the patio itself and a suitable set of foundations onto which I could lay the bricks for the patio wall (if you look closely at the photograph on the left you will see that the original lawn sloped down towards the house itself so I had to remove a substantial amount of earth/turf etc?)

The picture shows a situation where the patio area has been cleared and the foundation have been dug out and filled with concrete so that the brickwork will be properly supported below ground level.

The earth that was taken away from the lawn area (the pile of soil etc on the left of the photograph) is about to be removed and the patio area prepared for the laying of the decorative slabs

On the right or below on mobile, you can see the patio project at a stage when the bricks had been laid to construct the walls and the ground where the patio was going to be installed was in the process of being prepared

The decoratrive slabs that make up the finished patio area are normally laid on a bed of sharp sand and cement (although on occasions a layer of dolomite is used to create a stable bed for the patio area).

When the slabs have been laid mortar is applied between them to prevent the effect being spoiled by soil and weeds accumulating in the gaps.