Glossary

There are few terms in the world of hardscaping that sound similar but have very different meanings.  But “screed” and “screen” are two that are often confused.

In hardscaping, screeding is the process of striking a board along two screed rails (also called “screed guides”) to evenly distribute crushed aggregate stone between those rails.

The screed board itself can be a piece of 2×4 lumber or square tube aluminum or magnesium alloy.  The alloy boards are far more expensive and typically only the pros go to the expense of having these in their toolboxes, as they never warp and will last a lifetime.  But even the professional hardscaper will use dimensional lumber for screed boards, for those times when the areas to be screeded has obstacles, or requires a notch be cut in a board, or the area is of a size that an alloy board just won’t fit.

So for you, the weekend warrior, it’s off to the local lumber yard or big box store for your screed boards.  It’s a safe assumption that you won’t be working during a downpour, so buying treated lumber won’t be very helpful.  Not to mention it roughly doubles the weight of the board, so unless you’re trying to build a new patio and 20″ biceps at the same time, just stick to the interior stud grade lumber.

Make sure the boards are nice and straight with no twists, and don’t buy any that are longer than 8′ in length.  Anything longer than that and the board will bow as you pull on it, either putting an unwanted crown or swail in your patio base prep.

Screeding is the process pulling/scraping a screed board along a pair of parallel screed rails, the purpose being to level out the material between the two screed rails, be it crushed stone or a coarse bedding sand.

The trick to screeding is to keep the screed board tight to the screed rails without putting too much pressure on the rails.  That can bend them or push them deeper into the base material, making your base preparation come out uneven.

Throughout the industry the more common name for this tool in the hardscapers tool chest is screed rail, but screed pipe is also very common.

The function of a screed rail is to serve as a fixed (but temporary) guide when leveling crushed aggregate stone and/or bedding sand in the preparation of the base for a retaining wall or brick paver patio.

The screed rails pictured at right are simply ten foot lengths of 1″ EMT conduit, available at any big box home store.  If you choose to use the same material for your screed rails, inspect each one to make sure it’s not curved or bent, as this will negatively impact your base preparation, which will in turn have negative consequences on the finished paver surface or retaining wall.

In the case of this 1″ EMT conduit, parallel lengths of pipe are packed into the crushed stone base at the necessary elevation, then small piles of crushed stone are placed between the pipe, where a screed board is used to spread those small piles into the low spaces between those pipe by pulling/scraping perpendicular to the screed rails, from one end to the other.

Many other materials are commonly used as screed rails, including 1×4’s and 2×4’s, different types of pipe, and even materials as large as railroad timbers.  The only real caveat in selecting a material to use as a screed guide is that you select one that is straight to begin with, but that also won’t bend or bow under the pressure of screeding and won’t deform if it gets wet (such as narrow lumber).

This is a fictitious tool, like the things in the Dr. Seuss stories you read to your kids when they were young.  This tool’s desired function is to increase the square footage that a given piece of sod covers.  Most often it’s desired by landscape contractors who realize toward the end of a project that they don’t have enough sod.

It’s at the point of that realization that the contractor will send his or her most junior employee to the truck to find the sod stretcher.  After a few minutes, when the employee returns with no tool in hand and a frustrated look on his face, the contractor will feign anger, demanding the employee go back to the truck and not come back without the sod stretcher.

When the employee finally returns, again without the tool, or sometimes, returning with a jack, because it’s the only tool left in the truck, laughter usually ensues.

Thanks to Seussville for the image.

This, my friends, is your money shovel.  This is the one that gets the work done.  The one that rips up the heavy soils.  Pries on the tree roots.  Works as a lever on those boulders that are too big to lift.

Also called a round point shovel, the spoon shovel more than any other shovel should be the one you’re willing to spend a little extra money for.

As the name suggests and the picture at right confirms, the head of the shovel is rounded, like the shape of a spoon.  It’s the rounded point that allows the shovel the more easily penetrate soils, allowing for a deeper dig per shovel and greater material removal.

We like to occasionally put the digging edge of the shovel to a grinding wheel to keep the edge sharp.  They seem to dig better that way.

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While every hammer ever made has at least two things in common (long handle to generate head speed, and a flat, solid head to impact a target), there are differences among the the various types of hammers that make them particularly useful for a given task.

In this case, the form of the hammer is designed to best modify and adjust stone (and brick and block).  The head of the hammer is a simple, blunt instrument, usually in the shape of a square.  But the business end of this hammer isn’t the head.  It’s the tail.  In place of a claw or other nail-removing tool, the end resembles something more like a pick or mattock, and it’s function is to chip away at hard materials like stone and cast concrete block.

When using a stone hammer it’s important to wear eye protection because the natural direction of a hammer blow on stone or brick seems to send little bits flying right at the hammer user’s face.

And the hammer will perform better, removing more material per swing, if it’s kept sharp.  We like to put ours under a grinding wheel once or twice a season.