Backyard makeover with decking and paving

ihateusernames

🖼️

The project:

This project has been HUGE!

Taken many years, but chipped away at different sections. It began with the upper backyard and excavated, leveled and paved.

Moved to the pool decking and re-decked.

Fixed and painted pool, re-paved around the pool area to match the upper backyard paving and tidy up the look.

Built staircase to join the upper deck to the lower pool deck

Built a retaining/garden wall

- Materials:

merbau decking, merbau 2.4x45 stairs, pavers, retaining blocks, H4 sleepers, H3 capping boards, gravel, paving sand, roadbase, clothesline, drains, decorative rocks, organic top soil, merbau stain, matrix lattice, H3 posts, H4 Posts 100x100, decorative 90x45 H3 timber, festoon lights, outdoor couch, fire pit, pool paint, pool filler expoxy, grinder cutting discs, screws, bugles, dill bits, spirit level, quick-set concrete, decking screws, joist hangers, post anchors, slotted ag pipe

- Tools:

Ryobi circular saw, ryobi drop saw, jigsaw, ryobi pressure washer, ryobi impact drill, ryobi drill, ryobi grinder, ryobi blower, paint rollers and brushes, madox, spade, crowbar, wheelbarrow, hired a bunnings compactor, hammer, mallot

- Step 1:

Upper Backyard

Excavated (by hand) the sloped, grassed backyard to allow for flat outdoor entertaining.

Paved entire section (about 40 square meters)

- Step 2:

Retained the excavated section with cement blocks and caps. Installed drain.

- Step 3:

Built retaining/garden wall (veggie garden). Yet to be stained.

- Step 4:

Lower Backyard (Pool area)

Removed old, rotting decking & installed new merbau decking. Extended deck over old staircase (next to the new staircase)

- Step 5:

Attached new posts to deck and installed 'matrix' lattice screening

- Step 6:

Re-paved around the pool to bring level & match upper pavers. Installed drain.

- Step 7:

Emptied, cleaned & re-surfaced entire pool.

Painted with proper pool paint & filled

- Step 8:

Built beautiful 2.4m wide merbau staircase to join upper deck with lower deck

Extended decking to cover the old staircase and moved stairs to other side of new staircase

- Step 9:

Built new staircase to join pool area with upper backyard entertaining space

- Step 10:

The kids have helped to transform our backyard over the years!

JacobZ

Hi @ihateusernames,

Welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community, it is fantastic to have you with us.

What a fantastic backyard transformation. It really is a monumental amount of work to carry out yourself. The combination of decking and paving has created a much more practical and inviting outdoor area, with plenty of space for relaxing, entertaining and enjoying time together as a family.

It’s wonderful to see how the garden has developed and changed over the years, but the family photos make the transformation even more special. Seeing the kids grow from little ones helping out in the yard to now all standing taller than their father, who looks very proud of them, is such a lovely touch and really shows how much life has been lived in this space.

You’ve clearly put an enormous amount of work into the backyard over time, and the finished result looks like a great place for the whole family to enjoy.

You should be very proud of what you've achieved. Thank you for sharing.

Jacob