If Stephanie Bartron has her way, California's sea of patio concrete is going to start shrinking.
When the Los Angeles landscape designer eyed her clients' slab behind a 1940s Atwater Village bungalow, she knew the concrete had to go. New hardscape and plants would have done the trick, sure, but digging out all that paving was costly, and the waste would just end up in the landfill.
So, Bartron took a different approach. She hired a professional industrial saw operator to slice up the 20-by-20-foot patio into a grid of 18-inch squares. The result is a new focal point for the garden, resembling evenly spaced pavers divided by 4-inch bands of grass. When it rains, storm water percolates into the ground rather than streaming down the driveway and into the street. Little material had to be thrown away.
But the biggest effect was aesthetic. The repurposed patio no longer resembles a basketball court, nor does it dominate the tiny lot.
"By cutting it up, I changed the scale of the concrete from a big slab into an attractive backyard feature," the designer says.
While his two children play nearby, owner Caleb Dewart, a television producer, likes to lounge beneath the mature orange tree that Bartron saved.
"We're really happy we didn't have to tear this up and start over," he says of the patio. "And we like using what we have rather than being wasteful."
Bartron's approach solves myriad design challenges, and the designer has artfully sliced up several ugly patios and driveways for clients. Environmentally conscious homeowners like reducing the waste associated with redesigning a landscape. Budget-conscious clients like getting a lot of bang for their buck.
According to Kenny Grimm, sales manager for Oxnard-based Independent Concrete Cutting Inc., this kind of project requires an experienced operator to cut concrete with a diamond-blade, 37-horsepower saw. Cost: $140 per hour, plus travel charges.
"We're seeing more people reuse their existing material, because recycling your paving is an affordable alternative to hauling it away," he says. "You can get a lot of cutting done for around $1,000."
For yoga instructor Lucy Bivins and cinematographer Eric Schmidt, Bartron recycled front-yard concrete into useful elements, including garden benches and a prominent water feature.
