Mukilteo drops toward the ferry and the Sound. Salt reaches the lower streets, and the hills above the terminal shed water down through yards that were cut into the slope. A flat inland detail does not survive on these lots. A patio with a view is also a patio in the weather. Salt film is maintenance. A base that washes out the downhill edge is a rebuild.
Snohomish County · ZIP 98275 · 2020 population 21,246
Pitch, salt, and a base that will not wash
We compact a real base, we restrain the downslope edge, and we pitch away from the house even when the view is the other direction. Those two things fight each other on a hillside, so the patio may need a drain, not a compromise that sends water at the door.
We tell you the surface will need washing. That is the marine air. It is not a defect in the paver.
The ground in Mukilteo
Hillside runoff is the job. A patio with a view is also a patio that can send water at the house if the base and the pitch are wrong. We build the drain before the pavers, and we hold the bank with a wall that has rock or drain tile behind it, not a decorative stack sitting on the sod.
Salt-tolerant natives belong on the exposed edges. Pressure washing is how you get the marine film off a walk and a railing; it comes back, so we treat it as upkeep. Lawns on the upper, slightly flatter streets behave more like the rest of the county — clay, moss, shade from big trees — and we maintain them that way. The waterfront lots are a different trade: erosion, wind, and a view you do not want to block with a hedge.
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.
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.
Edges
Plastic or metal restraint, spiked into the compacted base, then buried so you see paver, not a black strip. An edge against soil with no restraint is the row that opens up.
More from this crew
- Paver installation across Snohomish County
- Patio installation in Mukilteo
- Hardscaping in Mukilteo
- Gravel installation in Mukilteo
- Pressure washing in Mukilteo
- Paver installation in Everett
- Paver installation in Edmonds
- Paver installation in Mill Creek
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.
