The Cascadia team did a nice job replacing my old cement patio and one stone pathway and one gravel walkway with used brick. They use Mutual Materials as their suppler for the brick. Even though Mutual Materials design book shows this brick being installed as pavers for a driveway, I was disappointed at just how many of the brick they delivered were broken, chipped, or deeply cracked. I selected a different brick from the same line for the border, and those brick were much harder and in better shape. Steven later explained this as being a fact that because I had selected the so-called used brick, that it had been tumbled to give it that used look and was more fragile and meant more for vertical walls, chimneys, and such. If that was the case, I wish sales rep, Nick, had mentioned that up front.
The job started on time, and for the most part it went according to plan. There was supposed to be a project lead that could manage and communicate with the workers that would be on site. Unfortunately, that did not happen, as the lead contracted Covid the day before the project started. As a result, there were some issues with communication that made it necessary to remain available and watch for problems in an effort to prevent re-work and contact the business owner, Steven, whenever I saw a problem, had a question, or concern.
The project had a few challenging areas to work around and the team seemed unable to work through them in a way that I found both functional and esthetically pleasing. Steven said he would come do that work personally, but that never happened, so I ended up finishing those last few areas myself.
The final task was to sweep sand into the joints. I was expecting them to use polymeric sand but ordinary play sand was used. Further, there was no use of a plate compactor with a pad afterwards to get the sand to fully fill and settle the brick. Steve said polymeric sand couldn’t be used on brick, but I’ve seen numerous brick patios that used polymeric sand with no issues, provided you use one of the newer products designed for narrow joints and little or no haze. As a result, within three weeks and some rain, I’m already seeing a number of gaps where the sand has either settled or flowed out the sides. I guess I’ll be blowing and pressure washing the rest of it out some time and be putting down something like Dominator Polymeric sand myself in order to prevent weeds and ants from getting a foothold between my bricks. One other thing I had discussed with sales rep Nick was that I absolutely wanted my new brick patio and walkways sealed as soon as weather permitted. I made the mistake of assuming he included that in the written proposal I signed, but later I learned he had not. So that is going to be something else I will have to do, or another $1,500-$2,000 to have Cascadia do it.
In the end, I believe I got the patio, walkways and lighting I envisioned, and it came at a fair price, but it did require more oversight from me than I was expecting and did create a bit more stress and frustration at times than it should have. While I would recommend Cascadia Outdoors to others without reservation, I would advise that they carefully read the proposal for explicit detail of everything that will be done and insist on discussing it with Steven. The process Nick described to me during his sales pitch, is not the process the workers followed at my home. When I questioned Steven about this he explained why he felt this or that step wasn’t necessary in my case. Having been an engineer for Boeing for 32 years, I take processes very seriously, so when steps are skipped, I get concerned. Also be prepared to deal with communication issues and if you feel uncomfortable about anything, don’t hesitate to call Steve to work it out before it goes too far. As with any big project, there will always be some issues, but I found Cascadia and Steven to be some of the best I’ve worked with.