A Landscaper's View

One of our customers had an area on the side of their house where the water was washing away dirt from the house.  There are a couple AC units sitting on concrete pads.  Storm water coming out of the gutter was washing away the dirt and silt mixture causing the concrete pad to break apart.  It is very important to stop a washout when it starts before it becomes a very large issue and compromises the foundation.

The concrete pad was one long section, so we jacked up the slab, packed stones and good dirt under the pad, compacted screenings around the area, and reset the stone patio with mortared flagstone.  We also laid black fabric underneath the steps to prevent dirt from washing out in the future.

This picture shows how much dirt was washed out under the concrete slab.

Here’s flagstone being mortared into place.

Here is the completed project!

Overall, this was a comparatively small project and took less than a day to complete.  Now that the flagstone is mortared in, set on packed screenings, and with black fabric wrapped to secure the dirt, the homeowners should have no worries of dirt washing out with the heavy spring rains that are typical to this area of the country.

On another note, here are a couple pictures that Ryan took.  He’s becoming quite the photographer and has a good eye for details.

Laying flagstone

Leveling the mortar for flagstone