Stone patio installation in Foxborough, MA

A patio is a floor that lives outside, so it gets built like one: dug out to depth, a crushed stone base compacted in lifts, a screeded bedding layer, and pavers restrained at the edge so the field can't creep. The visible part is the last inch. Everything that decides whether it's still flat in ten years is underneath.

In Foxborough that usually means flat lots and heavy spring water, so the slope that sends water away is planned before any stone goes down. Without that, spring thaw sits on the patio instead of running off it.

On the flat lots here the patio usually wants a slight crown away from the house, and on the wet ones the first week is often drainage before any stone.

Every patio quote that comes in low usually skipped one of the four: depth, compaction, slope or edge. In Foxborough the grade and the frost line make all four matter, so we walk the yard, set the fall away from the house, and build the base before a single paver is set.

• Full-depth excavation, not a skim over the existing grade
• Crushed stone base built in lifts and compacted between each pass
• Slope planned to shed water away from the house
• Edge restraint set so the field stays put
• Worked to Foxborough's grade and drainage, not a cookie-cutter layout