Woodway is large, wooded lots and a town of 1,384 people. The canopy is the landscape. Lawns live in the gaps between old trees, the soil stays shaded and cool, and privacy is the reason people bought the property. Shade patios stay slick if they stay wet. Pitch and a clear canopy above the sitting area matter as much as the paver color.
Snohomish County · ZIP 98020 · 2020 population 1,384
A dry enough floor under trees
We will prune for clearance as part of the planning, or we will tell you the patio should move into the light. Building a beautiful floor in permanent drip, over roots, is a maintenance burden.
The base stops where the major roots start. A smaller patio that does not hurt the tree is the better project. We would rather lose four feet than ring-cut a fir.
The ground in Woodway
We are not opening these lots to the street. Pruning is about structure, light, and keeping limbs off the house, done so the screen of trees stays. Under that canopy the lawn is the hard part: moss, thin grass, and roots at the surface. Aeration helps the pockets that get some sun. The deep shade wants a different floor — bark, ferns, and the understory that is already trying to grow — not another season of seed that germinates and dies.
Hardscape, when it belongs, is a terrace or a quiet patio in a clearing, built for wet shade so it does not turn green and slick. Bark on the beds keeps the mud down and the edges readable from the house. The work should look like it was always in the trees, because it is.
How we do the work
A patio here is a roof at ground level. It has to shed water, it has to sit on rock instead of clay, and it has to meet the door without holding a puddle at the threshold. We build in pavers most of the time because a paver field can be lifted and reset. A cracked slab is a demolition.
We talk about furniture, the grill, and the way you actually walk out before we draw a rectangle that looks big on paper and tips water at the house.
What we look at first
- The door threshold and which way the yard falls
- Downspouts landing in the patio area
- How many people, and whether there is a fire pit or a cover
- Access for excavation
What it costs more to ignore
Drainage and the base. They are the unphotogenic half of the invoice. Cutting them is how a patio gets rebuilt. We would rather build a smaller floor on a real base than a big one on clay.
Furniture first
We size the floor to the table you own, the grill lid that has to open, and the walk around them. A large empty patio with the table in a puddle is a bad large patio. Bring the measurements.
Fire pits
Set in a place the smoke can leave and the embers are not in the bark. The pit sits on the same honest base as the patio, not on four pavers in the dirt. Clearance to the house and to branches is part of the layout, not a surprise after the first fire.
More from this crew
- Patio installation across the region
- Paver installation in Woodway
- Hardscaping in Woodway
- Retaining walls in Woodway
- Landscape design in Woodway
- Patio installation in Edmonds
- Patio installation in Mukilteo
Sources for the climate and the water
- USDA plant hardiness map for choosing plants that can take a Snohomish County winter.
- EPA WaterSense on watering less once a lawn or a new planting is established.
- EPA Soak Up the Rain on keeping roof and yard water from becoming someone else’s problem.
