you likey

[custom patios]

hey, heres a couple shots of one i was finishing lately.

[MuirView Design]

Yo Steve,

That job really turned out nice. Looks great with the pergola up and the pillar caps on. Did you end up doing all the woodwork or did you find someone with them pre fab? What kind of lights is she going with?

[mrusk]

Job looks good. A bluestone patio would of made it look great!

Good curves.

[mckeeland]

looks great man. do you do all of you own masonry?

[cgland]

What's the deal w/ the wall caps? Are they custom? It looks like they are pre radius'd (if thats a word) Nice work BTW.

Chris

[custom patios]

thanx. i do all my own templating and cutting. then i bevel the edges and then thermal them. this creates your own bullnose. good eye.im glad you noticed.

[GreenMonster]

very nice. I'm not a big fan of the classic brick look, but that's quite nice.

[cgland]

What do you use to thermal them? Simple benzo torch?

Chris

[mrusk]

Yea how do you termal it yourself?

[custom patios]

actually, i bought a portable welders kit. it was about 400 bucks. you want an oxygen and acetylene kit. the trick is to wet the flagstone first. very important. flagstone is a sedimentary stone formed by pressure. there are lots of capalaries in the stone, and they are filled mostly of air. spray the stone down with water and give it a minute to absorb into those capalaries. when you heat the flagstone up quickly, the air is forced out so fast it produces thousands of mini explosions. have you ever taken a small piece of flagstone and thrown it in a fire. DONT. it will explode.The trapped air inside expands and blows the stone apart. its not deadly or anything, unless your eager eyes are right there. so why the water? it controls the reaction to popping thousands of pieces off the surface. if you dont water the stone, youll produce a bad piece. it wont blow up or anything, the entire stone has to be heated. for more info on welder settings p.m. me.
thanx, steveo

[MuirView Design]

i think he means flaming the edges with an acetylene torch. The stone is thermal top blue stone......pre thermaled.

[custom patios]

acetylene alone doesnt produce as nice a finish as with combining oxygen. the oxygen intensifies the temperature. the stone is called a thermal top bluestone. just the top was thermaled. it was 16 inch wide stock. 6 and 8 foot straight lengths. I fabbed it from there, down to a 12 inch wide curved capping. bullnosed the inside and outside edges and flamed it.

[kris]

Nice work ... would there be a different way of attaching the pergola beam to the columns they are sitting on?

[yardpro]

beautiful job

[mckeeland]

we did some thermal finish on some bluestone treads that we cut last year. the spraying water is the key. i tried it without and irregual pieces just going shooting everywhere. works very well.

[custom patios]

the photo your looking at isnt quite finished. i did some fancy little trim work aruond the base to conceal the plates. yeah, theres probably a bunch of ways to do the posts , but i chose to anchor them thru the flag with 5 inch bolts to a plate. this way they can be replaced instead of thru column construction.
steveo

[cgland]

When thermaling a piece of bluestone, must it be a constant flow or just a spritz here and there?
Chris

[custom patios]

chris, all you have to do is make sure the stone doesnt become too dry. i usually just spray down the stones(cover them good) and then torch away.if the stone starts to take longer to flame i wet it again. fire up your acetylene between 5-10 on your guage. then open the oxygen and get a nice sharp point.molten pieces will fly off that stone.
steveo

[Evening Star Lighting]

Nice Job Custom!,

Did you finish off the top of the Piers, where the posts go up? (hide those strong tie brackets)

[custom patios]

yes. if you look closely at some of the pics youl see the base trim that i did to hide them. thanx for the complements
steveo

[Grn Mtn]

love the work, totally noticed the capping with the bulnosed custom job, what happened to the stairs up to the deck?

anyway, since nothing wrong with the hardscaping, got a question on the softscaping. in picture 3 the bed next to the garage looks pretty deep and open all the way out to the yard, but in picture 4 its filled up with dirt to the top, how did you transition to the yard? just slope it down? and did you waterproof the walls were the dirt was piled up? any kind of irrigation?

btw, the brick goes great with the house.

[custom patios]

grn mtn,
the backs of the masonry walls were parged. there is a drain system installed behind the walls just like a srw. there are small weepholes thru the walls. i think they were 5/8" o.d. pipe.your right about the backfilled bed. it does slope back to grade. she wanted to create more dramatic bermed beds, along with tearing out those deck stairs. ill show you a follow up when she finishes the landscaping. yeah, this homeowner wants to do this part herself.
Steveo

[MuirView Design]

Hey Steve,

Might I request you post some other pics of your masonry work in this thread? Specifically either the blue stone patio out in lower merion or the irregular flagstone walkway with the ashlar style wall. Those are two of my favorites from your fine collection of work.

[custom patios]

thanx adam. your complements mean alot. oh yeah, the travertine walk you just finished that you have in the softscape thread is perfect. the cuts are top notch. i couldnt have done better.really. youve now graduated into the elite club. :humble: :humble:
your buddy, steveo

[lawnkid]

Maybe I missed something. I don't get how you heat the edges with a welder. A welder feeds wire out. It's not like you're tacking a weld on the stone. Do you mean you use a cutting torch setup but instead of settling gas you use acetylene? And you actually cut the stone with the torch like a piece of metal to your preference and then heat the edges to smooth them out?

[custom patios]

sorry about that. let me try to clarify. i only use the torch to pop the outer surface off the stone. this mimmicks a chiseled look. i use a cutting tip on the torch. as far as terminology goes, im not sure that it isnt a welders torch. but no, it does not feed wire. i have never heard of settling gas. are you sure you are confusing that for acetylene, which sounds like " a settle een gas"?
steveo

[lawnkid]

Custom,
Yes you're correct. I always thought that's what it was called :noidea:I actually just took a 8 week long welding class and they never spelled it out when we were talking about torches. We have a cutting torch at our shop setup with acetyleene and oxygen. Thanks for the clarification. How long did it take before you were good at doing cuts like that?

[custom patios]

lawnkid,
to be honest with you, i dont know. i started hardscaping when i was 16. im 35 now. its hard for me to say how long it took me to get to a point i could say i felt i was getting better. i dont know, maybe in my early twenties or something. im always trying to do something different... if the homeowner lets me.
steveo

[MuirView Design]

thanx adam. your complements mean alot. oh yeah, the travertine walk you just finished that you have in the softscape thread is perfect. the cuts are top notch. i couldnt have done better.really. youve now graduated into the elite club. :humble: :humble:
your buddy, steveo

Thanks bro...learned from dee best!

[Meanix]

Excellent Job Steve

[mean bob]

Steve , nice job. Is that in Eagleview? Did you cut your inside radius on your stone wall caps with a 12-14" cut off saw? If so how did you keep the front and back edges of your blade from fkn up your piece?
We have some 7' inside radius cuts to do on 2" thick material and think the leading and trailing edges of blade will keep tering up our piece.
bob Mean

[custom patios]

Steve , nice job. Is that in Eagleview? Did you cut your inside radius on your stone wall caps with a 12-14" cut off saw? If so how did you keep the front and back edges of your blade from fkn up your piece?
We have some 7' inside radius cuts to do on 2" thick material and think the leading and trailing edges of blade will keep tering up our piece.
bob Mean

mean bob, that job was up the road in weatherstone. i just used a 14" stihl. if i understand you right, your asking about the increasing length from the leading and tailing edge of the blade as the depth of cut increases correct? with a 7' radius you will have no problem. the only time the blade may be a concern is when you have a pretty tight radius. if you keep a good rpm rate you can actually bend your blade with a cut to a degree. with a little angle on it you can achieve some tight cuts with some practice.

[mean bob]

steve,
Funny, I never thought of the blade flexing in the saw kerf. We will try it thanks. bob

[Meanix]

Steve,
Would you cut wet or dry to let the blade heat up and flex.