Courtyard Makeover

From Australian Handyman Magazine

Kate gets down and dirty (and a serious work-out!) transforming her boring backyard into a stylish garden retreat.
What started out as a simple garden tidy-up escalated into bigger and better things when we decided to tackle an entire courtyard in order to get some outdoor entertainment elbow-room.

Download Courtyard Makeover Project PDF

What you'll need

Raincoat
Gloves
Safety Glasses
Earmuffs

Yard broom
Wheelbarrow
Tape measure & pencil
Stringlines
Sponge & bucket
Spirit level
Spade or shovel
Rake

Pliers
Paint roller kit & brush
Mattock
Hammer
Builder’s square
Bolster
2 scredding rails
Aluminium screed or timber board

Little did I know that I was about to embark on my first real physical DIY adventure, getting down and dirty with concrete trucks, cursing blisters from shovelling and discovering muscles I never knew I had! If you don’t mind getting your heart rate pumping and enjoy a bit of good old manual labour, then I recommend taking on your own courtyard makeover DIY-style. Although your back may never be the same – putting your feet up in a cosy courtyard at the end of the day is certainly worth the effort!

Design handy hints
Things to consider:
■ How you want to use your space
■ Movement of the sun
■ Any views or sightlines to add to your setting
■ Gardens and plants to add colour
■ Unusual shapes in paths, paving, lawns or garden beds
■ Main traffic and entrances to gates, steps and doorways

How much of what – measuring up
Purchasing pavers, concrete and sand is not as easy as it sounds. You may need to whip out the calculator for this one! Before ordering concrete, paving sand or pavers, you’ll need to calculate the area to be paved. Square or rectangular areas like mine are the easiest – just multiply the length by the width to get your area. Pavers are sold by the square metre.
Concrete is sold by the cubic metre, so you need to measure length x width x depth. I ordered ‘Paverbed’ mix from Boral, which is made especially for paving, and is more economical than normal concrete (it’s also a softer mix and much easier to manage!).
Bedding sand or packing sand can be ordered by the tonne or cubic metre. I allowed about 25mm depth for the sand. Talk to your local landscape supplier to find out what’s suitable for you.out there.”

STEP 1

Preparing brick wall
My old brick boundary wall had seen better days and was crying out for a makeover. The brickwork was so bad that I couldn’t just paint over it. I had to call in some help to get the smooth rendered finish I was looking for. Before the help arrived, I gave the wall a really good hose-down to get rid of all the creepy crawlies and then, armed with some construction adhesive, glued on exterior angle beads, to ensure a straight finish on the edges. My nasty old wall was now ready for its face-lift!

STEP 2

Rendering feature wall
Rendering is definitely not for beginners – there’s a real art to it. I called on the professionals for this one, and just helped out with the mixing and sponging. As this was such a small area, the transformation was really fast and made an immediate difference – well worth getting in the pros!
HANDY HINT: Acrylic render is great as it does not require the normal 28-day curing period before painting. You can get stuck straight in and apply a fresh coat of paint the next day.

STEP 3

Painting the wall
As we had used acrylic render, the wall could be painted the very next day. I chose Dulux Fine Texture paint, which has fine sand mixed into it, in a gorgeous shade of plum called ‘Yarwood’. I went for a bold colour as I wanted this wall to be a feature of my courtyard. The paint was really easy to apply – I just rolled it straight over the render, giving it two coats for a lasting job. (I really don’t want to be doing this again in a hurry!)

STEP 4

Excavation
Now it was time to roll up my sleeves! I had loads of old concrete to break up, a old water sump to fill and a huge pile of dirt that had to be shovelled and levelled – just to get me started. I called in some muscle, but it still took the best part of a day before we emptied the last load of rubbish into the skip bin out front. It’s a good idea to set a couple of stringlines across the entire area, to double-check the ground is roughly level – otherwise you might run short on your concrete calculations.

STEP 5

Forming up
Working out the finished paving height involved pegging out the new area and running stringlines around the pegs. I then had to mark the finished height on each peg with a permanent marker, allowing for 75mm of concrete, sand and, of course, the height of the paver (Diagram 2). I nailed scrap lengths of timber together to create the formwork needed for the concrete pour, and used a spirit level to check the fall needed for drainage.

STEP 6

Laying reo
The steel reinforcing mesh came in 6.0 x 2.4m rectangles, and was easily cut to shape using a pair of bolt-cutters. The reo sits in the concrete and prevents it from cracking – you don’t want all that hard work to go to waste. After laying the reo in the formwork, I tied it all together with a pliers and wire ties. OK, I’m finally ready to take on the concrete truck.