Hey I'm Kevin, A landscaper, stonemason, hardscape specialist, and instructor at Hardscape Canada Training Inc. and the Pacific Horticulture College! I work for Integral Design + Build in Victoria BC doing my part to build custom homes as well, so i'll be sharing a lot of good info from some of the best carpenters in the game too!
I am happy to share with you my hard earned knowledge and show off all of my tips and tricks to help you with your projects!
See all of our full length courses and info at www.hardscapetraining.ca
Thanks for sharing. Very helpful! This confirms what I’m reading in The Stone Builder’s Primer, but good to know what local experts are using exactly in terms of materials and gear etc. I’m looking to try my hand at some rock walls and stairs with natural stone found off-grid at a property up not too far from you, up in Desolation Sound, but it’s boat in only! So a lot of hurdles even getting material there. Appreciate your videos for the small scale work that I can try out up there. If the small walls and steps work out, might try to make an old timer type foundation or small cabin…
Kev what size drill did you use and what size are the W&F's. I used 5/8" W&F's (5/8" bit)on basalt (hard) and it is like a hot knife thro butter. Rocks that are permeable or porous can deform internally and disipate the expansion stress and are ineffective. Best I got was some spalling or flakes from the rock. Now I have to decide on bigger W&F's or another way like Dexpan. What is your experience?
Awesome... there's nothing quite like rough stones being brought into beautiful harmony with each other. Kinda like how Christ is building his church. 😊
I would have loved to see the excavation and the dumping of the 3” road base and the steps along the way. With that said I truly appreciate the straight to the point short video about the overall steps and the attention to detail in the editing, and the important parts of that driveway. Great video! (Now if everyone understood they should like the video if they even watched it you’d have an appropriate number. It deserves more that’s for sure.)
Beautiful work. What is the screeding material that you are brushing into the joints at the end? Looks to dark to be sand... stone dust from the road base?
Have a question I’m stumped with as I’m building a paver patio. I’m making a 14x14 patio and connected is a pathway from my driveway that is about 13 ft away. The issue I have with my slope that I’m stuck on is my driveway is the same height as my starting point at my house and they run perpendicular. Does it make sense to slope the pathway towards the patio from the driveway for that 13 feet and then level it off and continue my slope away from the house? This is my first time doing anything like this and can’t wrap my head around it. So my walkway would slope down right around 1.75 inches and meet the height of the patio slope and then level off and the patio would continue to slope away from the house. Any opinion helps very much as I’m trying to figure out my depths.
Lots of preparation and it may be the most important part of the job I cannot stress how important this is for sheading water less pain on you feet cleaning and the list go on
hey, very nice video. So in short, could you please give me a general idea of WHAT possibilities there are, in terms of what you can chisel/cut out of rocks? Lets say I go pick up a bunch of natural boulders/stone of varios sizes.. what are some possible things that can be built? ( I have a background with tiles.. I love working with concrete/stone, I dislike wood. I also love landscaping, so I want to see what projects can be done for free or near free $). Judging from this video, I guess bricks can be made, so that means I could eventually build some walls. I am assuming, (unfortunately) that flagstone CANNOT be made from natural stones found in the wild... can they? unless, is a concrete saw all you need, and you make slices? But anyways, yeah.. could you give some ideas please that can be done if you have the rocks/tools/time. Thanks, meanwhile I will google of course.
You refer to a "lift" about a hundred times without defining/describing it. Just a heads up for future videos as it leaves people lost unless they know that term, which is tricky to find on the internet to define for regular folks.
Depends on the height and length of the wall. You just want to set up strings wherever you see that you would find something to work up to helpful. There’s no hard rules!
I love this video, rock walls are so creative and good for the brain. Thank you for sharing the level line. Does the dry mortar set firm and does it resist the elements of freezing?
Hey thank you! Yes indeed it does, just be mindful that wherever water may enter or accumulate it has the chance to freeze and cause cracking due to expansion
Question for you on the subbase. I’m doing my own patio and am a little hyper focused on the slope. Does the dirt have to be a perfectly flat, sloped surface or if it has a little bit of variance can it be made up with the road mix? Trying to make sure I do it right and am new to this. Thanks!
I’m sorry, this is not really clear. If you’e attempting to explain this for beginners, pretend you’re trying to teach a child. I couldn’t relate the info to sloping, it only showed strings lines 1 & 2” below the top line, but how does that cause a slope. Please give more detail & close up of everything. Sloping for dummies would be good. Make step by step from placing the stakes to creating a slope.
Old vid so not sure if you'll still see comments, how did you ensure that each stake was at the same height originally? Going down from the top by X inches will only matter if they're all starting from the same height....is that where the laser level came in? Without a laser level what is the best alternative?
Hey you just need the stakes to be close to the final height, you are actually using a marker to make a line on the stake that denotes your height and where to attach the string to. You could use level a string with a 4 or ideally 6’ level all the way around and use that as your initial height, then do you slope calc and drop the lines on the side you want to slope to. It’s not as accurate as the laser but definitely still works!
@@HardscapeCanada Thanks! A 4' level is what I thought you'd recommend. I'll give it a shot like that, or maybe pick up a laser level. I was able to find one on Amazon for under $100.
Hey you can use the square footage multiplied by decimal feet of depth to get cubic footage.I usually use the Google search bar and type in “your amount” convert to cubic yards. Once you have this number it is wise to add 20% when ordering to account for compaction. For example: 10 x 10’ square patio = 100 sq ft. 100 x depth (of 8”= 0.666 ft) = 66.6 cubic feet. Convert to cubic yards = 2.467 or 2.5 cubic yards. X 20%= 0.5. So add that to total and you get 3 yards.
I been doing alot of research on making a paver patio for my walkout basement, currently I have a deck and it's rotted because no sun ever hits this area. If I replace the deck wood it will just rot again in a few years it rotted in just 10 years treated wood and maintained the stain. Anyway, what base would be best for this type of condition? If I do sand it will stay moist and become a breeding ground for skeeters. I was thinking crushed stone, but not sure if it would be as easy to prep.
