One of the most important living areas at the Narragansett Idea House in Narragansett, RI, is in the backyard, where a sizable courtyard is taking shape.
Tradesmen are installing Unilock concrete pavers according to the landscape design plan by Jon Zeyl, of Landscape Creations of Rhode Island. The plan calls for a circular fire-pit area in a herringbone pattern, surrounded by square and rectangular areas for outdoor seating near the screened porch and dining between the outdoor kitchen and plunge pool.
“The idea was to not just create one huge rectangle,” says Zeyl. “We wanted welcoming spaces, logically broken up by geometry, that would make people want to use this area.” An advantage to using the Unilock pavers, he adds, is that their size, depth, and thickness are more consistent than natural stone, which contributes to ease of installation.
“We created definition among the areas by choosing different types and colors of pavers, but they are all a standard size,” he says.
Beneath the courtyard’s finished surface is a carefully engineered base. Crews lay down a fabric underlayment that, as landscape contractor Jon notes, “sort of wraps everything together, helps it to move with the freeze/thaw cycle here in New England.” On top of that goes a compacted crushed-stone base, followed by a mortar-setting bed of 3-to-1 sand to type-2 cement mortar—a system designed to keep the pavers stable through Rhode Island’s seasonal swings.
Pro Tip: When planning a paver patio that needs to handle runoff, consider a permeable system like the one used at the Narragansett Idea House. On a related This Old House project, landscape designer Jenn explained that beneath a similar courtyard sits “about 40 tons of crushed stone,” with perforated pipes underneath and all the downspouts tied in—so the patio itself becomes part of the property’s drainage solution.
