I met one of my heroes

I was dropping a friend off at the Windsor airport and standing there outside the terminal was Mike Holmes (of Holmes on Homes). He was in town for the Windsor Home & Garden Show.

I only got to talk to him for a second or two because he was catching a flight, actually I was a bit starstruck so I really didn’t know what to say anyway, and he was still a really down to earth guy. I really like and follow his philosophy of doing things right from the ground up. It’s very frustrating for me seeing things that I know are done wrong and with some of the things I’ve seen so wrong that it’s actually dangerous.

I’ve seen so much crappy work, some of it landscaping related and some of it having to do with other aspects of construction, and I just don’t understand how contractors can do that to other people. I don’t know if it’s just lack of knowledge or if they actually go in intending to rip people off. For example, I’ve seen foundations on brand new homes that have dozens and dozens of cracks, there’s no excuse for that, my house is almost a hundred years old and there are only two small cracks on the whole foundation. That’s just an example of what I’ve seen I could go on typing for a weeks about all the wrong, dumb, backwards, and dangerous things I’ve seen.

Well I’ll get off my soapbox now, I just thought it was cool meeting Mike Holmes. I wish I could have talked with him longer, without being so tongue tied due to being starstruck, and what I really wish is that I could get to work with him.

Making a patio

We just finished our first patio install of the year, it was only 5′ X 8′ however it still has to be done properly in order to last.

That means digging down between 10″-12″ then tamping the base with a power tamper, after that you have to fill in with screenings to between 8″-10″ then wet and tamp the screenings with a power tamper. The screenings will compact about an inch then you add sand up to an inch or so, this part requires some adjustment in the field because it depends on the thickness of the patio stones you are using, you want to make sure that after you install the patio stones they will be level with the existing surface. Lightly tamp the sand with a hand tamper then put down the stones in. If you are using interlocking pavers you would run a tamper over them after putting some lose sand on top, however with cement patio stones you can’t tamp them as they would shatter into a million pieces so you just have to stomp them down.

After you sweep some loose sand into the cracks, voila, you have yourself a new patio that will last for years.