Hardscape
Patios and walkways
Flagstone, compacted gravel, concrete pavers or clay pavers. A well designed walk or patio adds both value and enjoyment to a home, and new work gets blended into whatever is already on the ground.
Chapter 01
Flagstone, concrete paver, clay paver, or compacted gravel
Four materials cover almost every patio or walkway Cloverleaf builds. Flagstone is irregular natural stone that reads as landscape rather than pavement. Concrete pavers come in the widest range of colors and shapes and are the most forgiving material to lay a pattern in.
Clay pavers hold their color for the long run because the color is fired into the clay itself, not mixed in as a pigment that can fade. Compacted gravel is the answer where a path only needs to stay walkable and dry, without the cost of a set paving surface.
Two Cloverleaf crew members in green shirts laying a herringbone paver patio and cutting a curved edge against an existing concrete pad
The base decides whether the surface holds
A well designed walk or patio adds both value and enjoyment to a home, but only if the base under it is compacted and graded correctly first. That work happens before a single paver or flagstone is set, and it is the part of the job nobody sees once it is finished.
Get the base and the grade wrong and the surface heaves, settles unevenly, or pools water within a season or two. Cloverleaf's crews build the base to the material going on top of it, not to a single standard poured the same way every time.
Chapter 03
Blending new work into what is already there
On one Oshkosh job, the driveway and the existing back patio were two different colors of brick, laid in two different patterns. The new walkway connecting them had to blend both colors and both patterns so the transition from driveway to patio read as one seamless job, not three.
On another, a small existing concrete patio was cut with a curve so the new brick patio and walls could blend into it rather than replace it outright. The owner also did not want a straight walk, so the path was meandered with a varying width to increase the effect. This is the part of the job stock photography never shows: making new hardscape look like it grew out of the old.
Cloverleaf — A graduate landscape architect has been on staff here since 1999. Call (920) 235-1200.