Patio and gazebo area - a plan

Well, those planters proved to be a non-starter - the bottom of them was essentially made from balsa wood, so there is no way that they would have stood up to the weight of the gazebo and the slate. So, I went for four plastic ones, not dissimilar to this:



The main difference being that the ones I have got sit flat on the ground, and have a horizontal pattern instead of the vertical one shown. I need to pop some holes in them before I put them in place.

I have managed to point about half of the patio (the area where the gazebo is) today, and then had to pressure wash all the cement dust away - this has revealed weak/missed areas which I will repair as I go with the rest. Not much likely to happen tomorrow as I am in and out during the course of the day.

The next area I need to tackle is the worst corner, so if I get a chance tomorrow I will cut up the scrap wood (firewood) to clear the way and with any luck I will get it levelled up on Wednesday, then point the rest of the patio on Thursday and the job should be a good 'un for the weekend...... famous last words....

In a hell of a lot of pain now though, so it is time for painkillers and alcohol

 

I will, I promise

 

I reckon the weight of the gazebo and the slate bearing down on the plastic base will be sufficient to prevent it slip-sliding around - the slate is a fair old weight (just ask my car, it clearly felt the weight on the way home today), and the slate will pin the flat 'foot' of the gazebo frame into the tub.

@"M" - those wooden planters looked nice in the picture, but in reality they were rubbish - cheap, flimsy, and very inconsistent in finish, as well as being a lot smaller than the picture would suggest. Even the colour was a bit on the naff side in the cold light of day. The ones I have will have approximately 8cm of intrusion into the space for the side curtains, and that won't really matter all that much as we more often than not have them in the retracted position.

Here is an idea of how they will work:


The drawing isn't the best, as the sides are not as steeply angled as that, which minimises the intrusion. I have stuck one under a leg tonight just to see what it fits like, and I cannot move the blighter, even without the slate.

I have a 'lash' in place that ties the gazebo to the house (it is tied around an old cast iron soil pipe that is deeply embedded into the ground and the eaves, and solidly bolted to the house), as well as one to one of my half barrel planters (on the left in the earlier photo); the first will remain in place, but the second I am going to move to lash to one of the concrete fence posts behind the barrels. Depending on how stable it proves to be, I can add a third on the other side and lash it to the shed base - that will mean that it has some sort of tie on three sides.

 

I am going to cut quite sizeable holes in the bottom (about half inch diameter each) - it will be slow, but hopefully

 

I have hole cutter bits for my drill @Tetters - I figure the slightly larger diameter holes will allow better water flow away.

 

Just getting an alert on this reminded me that I forgot to update this thread; the plastic pots with slate in them have proved to be absolutely rock solid and the gazebo hasn't moved even in stormy weather - so much so, I have even been able to remove the lash between the gazebo and the house.

Here is a photo showing the containers, taken immediately after it was done (as you can tell by the empty pots!)




And here is a short video of the lights being tested.

 

Our gazebo has sides, not that we always use them, so we didn't go with plants around the poles in the end - we have just got loads of planters knocking around the patio that we can sort of shuffle into place when wanted. Having said that, you could quite easily sit small pots in the top of the planters, standing on the slate, and they would look pretty good.

I need to re-check the lighting this evening ahead of the clan descending on us tomorrow. I will try and get some more up to date images tomorrow and post back.