Garden upgrade: How to lay a patio
Like many others in 2020, we were extremely grateful to have a garden that we could spend time in during lockdown.
Our garden is a challenge - it’s tiny (6m x 5m), covered in artificial grass and isn’t easy to access. But - we wanted to be able to make the most of it.
Without being able to completely renovate the garden, we took on a mini project to upgrade it on a budget of £250, so we tackled the following:
Seating area
Garden furniture
Lighting
Seating area
We inherited a very old, very rotten small (2.1m x 2.1m) deck. It was so rotten that you couldn’t stand on it and it was home to some of the largest spiders I’ve ever seen in my life. So first things first was to turn this into a space that we could actually use to sit on.
Decking area we inherited. Rotten and full of spiders - I recruited Chris to get rid of it because there was no way I was going near that spider pit.
It turns out that laying your own patio is surprisingly easy, we were able to buy everything we needed from Wickes and completed it ourselves over a weekend.
Lay out your slabs on the grass to get an idea of the pattern and size, and take a photo for reference
Dig a hole of the required size - luckily we already had a hole from removing the decking
Lay weed membrane in the hole
Fill your hole with subbase (we used tarmac ballast), and make sure it’s flat as possible - use a spirit level. You can use a tamper or hire a wacker plate to flatten the subbase, but we just stamped around on it with our feet.
Use Slablayer on top of your subbase. Slablayer is a pre-mixed sand and cement mix that you water with a watering can and it sets. Amazing!
Once you’ve watered your Slablayer (following the instructions), lay your slabs on top and hammer down with a rubber mallet. Use your spirit level again!
Point the gaps between your slabs with more Slablayer.
The one thing I will say is that we slacked on the “using a spirit level to make sure everything is flat” step. By no means do we have a professional finish - but - we were on a budget, and it is miles better than what was there before!
Garden furniture
Now that we had a flat(ish) surface to put some garden furniture on, the next step was to choose a comfy seating area. If you have a small garden, I’d recommend thinking about how you’re going to spend time in the garden, and plan your furniture around that.
For example if you plan to have lots of BBQs and eat outside, make sure you’ve given yourself adequate space for a good sized dining table. If you’re a sunbather or plan to spend your time in the garden horizontally (like me), then use more space in the garden for some comfy seats that you can recline on.
We decided that we’d be unlikely to eat out there (unless a G&T with some pringles counts…) so invested in an outdoor sofa.
We went for the modular Ikea Applaro sofa so that we could add to it if needed. Image from Ikea.com
When buying outdoor furniture consider the following:
Wooden outdoor furniture looks lovely and is comfy to sit on, but it’ll need varnishing yearly
Metal furniture will rust unless you keep it dry
Plastic garden furniture can look very cheap very easily!
Consider an outdoor storage box to keep cushions in
Outdoor furniture covers are a must have to protect your furniture from the elements!
Mood lighting
I had visions of gorgeous festoon lights hanging across the garden, but until that’s possible I settled on some battery powered lights that I attached across the fences. If you don’t have a mains socket outside, battery powered lights are a good option (ours have lasted a year and are still working fine), or you can also go for solar powered.
Citronella candles are also a good idea to give extra lighting in the evenings and also to ward off the bugs!
Finally, I painted our fence with a fresh lick of paint and we called it a day!
Overall I was really happy with the improvement and we’ve been able to actually enjoy the garden. I have more plans coming, including tackling the plants and a small fence update, so part 2 will hopefully be with you soon!
If you’d like my help with your next project, inside or outside, check out my services and I’ll be happy to get involved.