Stone patio installation in Mansfield, 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 Mansfield that usually means grade that falls toward the house, and a base dug to the 30-inch frost line so nothing lifts in March. The lots run from flat to a foot of fall in twenty, so the slope is read before any stone is set.

Most Mansfield patios get laid out off the back door and run toward the low corner of the lot, which keeps the walkout clear and gives the water a direction.

Every patio quote that comes in low usually skipped one of the four: depth, compaction, slope or edge. In Mansfield 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 Mansfield's grade and drainage, not a cookie-cutter layout