The lake is the point of the town, and it is also the drainage problem. Shoreline lots shed water toward the water, banks erode where wakes and winter rain meet a soft edge, and inland yards stay damp because the water table and the clay do not let a storm leave quickly. A solid patio pitched down the bank is a roof you added over the shore. We break that run with a drain, a bed, or a permeable field.
Snohomish County · ZIP 98258 · 2020 population 34,385
Pavers that do not shed into the lake
The patio itself is built like any wet-climate patio: deep base, pitch off the house, tight edges. The grade beyond it is the lake problem. We do not send the wash straight down a dirt bank.
Joint sand and fines are part of what washes. We lock the joints and we keep a planted edge that can catch what the rain moves. A patio to the water, with bare soil under it, is a job we redesign before we build it.
The ground in Lake Stevens
On the water, the work is the bank and the view. A retaining edge, native shoreline plants such as red osier dogwood, and a rain garden or a drain that slows runoff before it hits the lake do more for the property than a strip of sod at the top of an eroding slope. Fertilizer and bare soil washing into the lake are how a nice lawn becomes a neighbor problem.
Off the water, in the newer neighborhoods, the soils were compacted during construction and the lawns were rolled out on top. They look fine in July and sour in February. Aeration, a real topdressing, and getting the downspouts away from the foundation are the unglamorous jobs that keep those yards from turning to moss. Patios here are for the view. We build the base as if it will be wet half the year, because it will.
How we do the work
The paver is the skin. The base is the job: excavated, built up in compacted rock, deep enough that this climate will not heave it into waves. We pitch the surface away from the house, we restrain the edges so the field cannot spread, and we sand the joints.
A paver patio set on a couple of inches of loose gravel over clay will look perfect in September and rock underfoot by March. We do not build that, even if the other bid did.
What we look at first
- How the water leaves the surface today
- Clay, fill, or roots under the area
- Edge restraint and where the field ends
- Whether the project is a walk, a patio, or a drive, because the base changes
Joint sand
Swept and settled, then checked. Polymeric sand has a place where ants and heavy rain empty the joints, and it has a failure mode if it is installed wet or left on the face. We use it when it helps, and we wash the haze off before we leave.
Sealing
Optional. It deepens the color and can help the joints, and it is a maintenance coat every few years, not a structural need. We do not sell a sealer as what keeps the patio from settling. The base does that.
The base depth
Deeper for a drive than for a walk, and deeper on clay than the brochure drawn for a dry state. We compact in lifts. A single dumped pile of gravel, raked once, is not a base. You should not see waves after the first winter.
More from this crew
- Paver installation across Snohomish County
- Patio installation in Lake Stevens
- Hardscaping in Lake Stevens
- Gravel installation in Lake Stevens
- Pressure washing in Lake Stevens
- Paver installation in Everett
- Paver installation in Marysville
- Paver installation in Snohomish
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.
