Major Landscaping Help- Surprising Grandparents?

Question

my grandparents have a beautiful inground swimming pool- however their age and finances etc have held them back from the upkeep of the landscaping around the pool area. This weekend my brothers and sisters and hubbies were going to get together and surprise them and -re-do it while they are gone out of town for the weekend. We only have about $150 bucks though. We thought we could just weed and re-do some of the areas where it was landscaped with small crushed rock- but is now overgrown with weeds. Tonight me and DH went out and measured just those smaller areas and as long as I'm calculating right I came up with needing 27 square yards of river rock- at $25 dollars a yard that's over $550 dollars- which obviously we don't have. Guess I didn't think it would be so much. HELP? Any advice on any alternatives????? It's just completely over-run with weeds- it's been 15 or 20 years since it was landscaped- they just cant keep up w/ the upkeep anymore. IDEAS?

Answer 1

your math is wrong.  your calculation of the square footage is correct however your price quote of $25/yard is per cubic yard not square yard.  What you need to do is decide how thick you want the rock (maybe two inches?) allowing every cubic yard to cover 18 square yards of landscaped area.  This lowers your cost substantially as one cubic yard (36 x 36 x 36) can be divided up into 18 square yards 2 inches thick (36/2=18).  Otherwise feel free to just weed our their landscapes... even weeding is nice enough to be a very good surprise. :-)  Good luck!

Edit: if I'm doing the math correctly (without a calculator, so maybe I'm wrong)  I believe two cubic yards of river rock will cover your family's landscaped area.  If so, think about getting some landscape fabric and putting it below the river rock so as to regulate some of the weed growth and save your grandparents some work in the long run... :)

Answer 2

OK - here's the math you need -

A = Total sq. ft. to be covered = 245 sq ft

B = Depth of material = up to you (3" is good for this estimate) = .25 ft.

A X B = cu. ft. required

245 X .25 = 61.25

You need 65.25 cu. ft. of stone to do the job

There are 27 cu. ft. per cu. yd.

61.25/27=2.27

You need 2.27 cu. yds. of stone to do the job.

Thats about 3 tons of stone - it's usually sold by the ton.

Don't forget the weed barrier cloth and also the delivery charge.

Answer 3

I am not quite sure about your calculations.  What I would do is weed and clean up as much as you can (free) and then get $150 worth of river rock at the local garden center and spread it as far as it will go.  

Then give your grandparents and IOU for the rest.

Good luck and have fun.