Stone patio installation in Norton, 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 Norton that usually means larger lots and drainage that has to cross the yard, so the path and patio drain together instead of fighting each other. Long runs need a low point designed in, not discovered after a storm.

With bigger lots, the patio is often set back nearer the tree line, and the path out to it drains with the same low point.

For a patio in Norton the things that decide the result are boring ones: how deep the base is dug, whether it is compacted in lifts, where the surface sheds to, and how the edge is held. Get those right and the pavers you picked at the yard will look the same in ten winters. Get them wrong and no amount of pretty stone will keep the field flat.

• 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 Norton's grade and drainage, not a cookie-cutter layout