SAN JOSE — An outdoor kitchen island can greatly enhance the function and enjoyment of your backyard. If you’re thinking about installing an outdoor island, here are some considerations you should take into account:
Shape 
An outdoor kitchen island can be designed in a few different configurations, including straight, L-shaped and U-shaped. The configuration you choose should depend on the size and attributes of the site on which you’re building.
Seating 
When designing your outdoor island, it’s important to consider the entertaining area. You want to make sure your guests have the best possible view, so consider what they’ll be looking at while they’re seated. You should also consider the proximity of the barbecue to the seating area. Situating these two areas near each other will allow you to comfortably cook and entertain at the same time.
Siding 
Siding plays a major role in the aesthetic look of an outdoor island. Some popular choices include natural stone and stucco.
Countertops 
Like siding, countertops are important for aesthetics, but they also play a functional role. Granite is a popular choice because it offers both beauty and durability. Tile is another popular choice with several options available, including porcelain tiles rated for exterior use.
Features 
Outdoor kitchen islands can accommodate an almost limitless number of features. Here are a few to consider:
• Fire features (such as a fire table) provide ambience and warmth on cooler nights.
• Refrigerators and icemakers make it easy to store perishables and serve cold beverages.
• Specialty cooking features like side burners, griddles, smokers, and pizza ovens can expand your culinary potential and accommodate specific cooking needs.
By carefully considering these design and installation options, you’ll be able to make the most of your new outdoor kitchen island.

Considerations for an Outdoor Kitchen Island

Discover essential tips and considerations for designing an outdoor kitchen island that blends functionality, durability, and style.

Considerations for an Outdoor Kitchen Island by Roger Van Alst

By Roger Van Alst of {BR} Black Diamond Paver Stones & Landscape, Inc.

3 Material Choices for a New Driveway

How to Minimize Landscape Water Consumption

The Benefits of Paver Sealing

The Benefits of Polymeric Jointing Sand

Tips for Installing Outdoor Porcelain Tile

Video: Benefits of Paver Sealing

If you have a PA installation on your property, it's worthwhile to consider the benefits of having it professionally sealed. Today, we're in San Jose with diamond certified expert contributor Roger van Al of Black Diamond paper stones and Landscape to learn more.

At Black Diamond, we often get asked as to whether sealing a Paving installation would be a good idea. Sealer is an option for a client on a new Paving installation or something that can be done for an older P project to be redone and then sealed. Generally, customers should expect to pay a little over a dollar a square foot to have a new Paving installation sealed and up to about $2 per square foot to have an older Paving Stone installation cleaned professionally, cleaned, and then have a sealer applied to restore it to a like new finish.

Sealer has some options to consider. Most sealers are available with a joint sand stabilizing feature. This will cause the joint Sands to be stabilized or locked into place to prevent any weeds from growing and prevent ants from getting into the joint sand. Also, there are different types of finishes that can be applied with a sealer. The matte finish is available which won't change the color of the sealer much or color of the P much. There's also an enhancing finish which will deepen the Hues and enrich in the colors, and a wet look, a wet look is a glossy finish that will enhance the colors the most, but a gloss finish also will show wear over time more quickly in areas that either heavy traft or areas that are exposed to the elements.

Sealers can be applied in as little as a day, and then within 24 to 48 hours, the area can be used once again. They do dry fairly quickly on a typical job site. The sealer would be applied with a pump sprayer and a squeegee to work that sealer into the sand joints. Here in the office, we'll just use this simple bottle and a rag to apply it today, and you can see the enhancing that occurs. Most sealers when initially applied are going to have a Milky finish, and then as it dries, that finish is going to turn more into a just a color-enhanced look.

Pavers that have a finish that is textured will benefit definitely from having a squeegee where you can pull the excess sealer across the P and work it into the sand joints, especially if it's a sand joint stabilizing sealer where you want those sand joints to lock into place. The sealer will dry in a few hours to the touch, and then you won't want to drive on it or put your furniture back for at least 24 hours. To learn more from local top-rated companies, visit our Diamond certified expert reports at experts. Diamond certified. org.

Video: Benefits of Polymeric Sand

When installing new pavers, one additional measure worth considering is the application of polymeric sand. Today, we're in San Jose with Diamond Certified expert contributor Roger van Alst, a black diamond paver stones and landscape, to learn more. At Black Diamond, we often get asked if polymeric sand would be a good idea for a new paving stone installation.

Polymeric sand is essentially a sand that has a polymer added to it. That polymer is a bit like a glue and that goes in dry but then once the sand is moistened, it will activate and harden, a bit like a grout. Light becomes a solid sand surface between the joints of certain pavers. Polymeric sand is essential; these paving stones have a gap that's about a quarter inch wide, and typical sand would migrate too much in that paving stone installation. By the use of a polymeric sand will prevent that migration from occurring. It's also useful to have polymeric sand around a pool deck where sand would otherwise potentially migrate into the pool. The polymeric sand will harden in between those joints and prevent it from moving.

The benefits of polymeric sand are that it's going to obviously lock the sand into place. It won't migrate, there won't be any weeds able to grow between the pavers, and no ants or insects will investigate in the joint of the pavers. One disadvantage is that the structure, which was flexible, is now a monolithic surface solidified with that sand. So if there's any shifting that occurs due to clay soils expanding or contracting, or ground movement, ground shifts, then there can be a fissure that appears between the joints, essentially like a crack between the joints where the polymeric sand is separating from the paver. It is easily fixed by applying more sand or scratching out that area and reapplying sand in those areas.

Polymeric sand is about a dollar fifty, a little bit plus or minus depending on the application and the type of joint, and how much sand would be required per square foot. But you should expect to pay somewhere between 1.50 and two dollars a square foot for adding polymeric sand to your installation.

To learn more from local top-rated companies, visit our Diamond Certified expert reports at experts.diamondcertified.org.

Video: Considerations for an Outdoor Kitchen Island


When you're looking at building an outdoor island, there are certain considerations that you definitely want to take into account. The first consideration is the shape of the island. Would you like a u-shaped island, which this is. You can also consider a straight island that'll have just one straight line, and then an l shape is usually a good idea if you have the space for it.

When you're deciding the location and the shape, it's important to consider the entertaining area. You want to make sure your guests have the best view, so consider what they'll be looking at when sitting at the island, and then also where the barbecue itself will be located. By giving your guests the best view and a good place to sit, you can both cook and entertain at the same time. When you only have just a barbecue, you end up having a choice of either burning the meat or entertaining your guests. So, this way you can definitely do both.

Also, you want to consider the siding that you'll place on your island. This particular island has a natural stone on it. It's a cladding that goes on the hearty backer of the board. This natural stone is an emerald green natural stone from Sui. You can also consider a stucco surface on the side. The countertop in this case is a granite countertop, which is a beautiful option. You also can use a tile. There's various tile options that you can place on the top as well as certain porcelain outdoor-rated tiles for the island.

This particular island has a fire feature. This is a fire table, great where you get those cooler nights to be able to turn this on for both ambiance and warmth. When you're looking at equipment, you obviously want to consider a refrigerator. This particular island has both a wine fridge and a meat beverage fridge, so these are excellent choices for any island. This is a side burner. This one's called a power burner by Fire Magic, and you also have your standard side burners as well. This is if you would like a larger pot for lobsters and large quantities of corn.

The barbecue itself, there's lots of choices here, but consider the size of your barbecue. When you're installing equipment, you always want to make sure your island is big enough. You're going to need the size of the equipment and at least six inches in between each piece of equipment, and then many people will consider an ice storage chest or an ice maker. In this case, lots of storage drawers and potentially a sink. If you are considering an outdoor sink for your island, do keep in mind that there are additional costs associated with plumbing. The wastewater has to be brought to the house and then sent out through the sewer system, and then there's plumbing required to bring the water out to the island itself for hot and cold.

You can consider having a local centralized insta hot underneath the sink, or you can attempt to plumb the hot water if you're not too far from the house. So by having a beautiful barbecue island, you can entertain while having the functionality of an outdoor kitchen. It really does create that additional living space in the outdoor environment. Thank you.

Video: Hardscape Material Options



When planning for a new driveway, walkway, or patio, the first thing you'll need to decide is what type of material you'll want to use. Today, we're in San Jose with diamond certified expert contributor Roger Van Alts of Black Diamond Paver Stones and Landscape to learn more.

A lot of times, I get asked, "What are my choices for hardscape?" Hardscape being the, you know, the surface that either is gonna be used for a patio or a driveway or a walkway or even a pool deck. Let's talk about driveways.

For a driveway, there's typically three choices someone can go with: asphalt, they can have concrete poured in place, concrete or stamped concrete. And then, of course, there's paving stones.

Asphalt is inexpensive on the initial installation. It's a little bit flexible so they can move with ground movement before it will crack. And also asphalt is a product that can be used over long span so that's why it's seen often in roadways.

And disadvantage to asphalt is that it will crack over time. It does the need to be maintained, so it's important that it be crack-filled and sealed, which does increase the cost over time. And it's not as attractive, it has, you know, one color just black.

And also, there's concrete. So concrete comes in two forms, you have regular port-in-place flat concrete. You can also have stamped concrete. The flatwork concrete is attractive and strong, but it is just one color, of course. And concrete, especially in California, will crack with the earthquakes, is pretty much guaranteed to crack.

Paving stones are the third choice. They are a slightly larger investment upfront, but they're very cost-effective. You can pick from various styles of color and pattern. Also, if someone needs to access utilities underneath the paving stones like a water line or an electrical line, they can lift the pavers, fix what's underneath and put them back, and they would never know the difference. They are earthquake resistant because they can shift and move, and also pavers are absolutely beautiful.

For us,
Patty order to learn more from local top-rated companies, visit our Diamond Certified expert reports at experts.diamondcertified.org. 

Video: Outdoor Porcelain Tile



Lately, we've been getting a lot of questions about porcelain outdoor tile. A few years ago, the porcelain tile companies decided to produce a product that's built specifically for the outdoor environment. It is still a porcelain tile, but it's two centimeters thick, as opposed to the thinner tiles you have in the indoor environment. It's made non-slip, wet or dry, so it's completely safe for the outdoor environment, giving a beautiful contemporary or modern look to the outdoor environment. But there's definitely some special considerations to think about when considering this product for your outdoor environment, as opposed to a paving stone, a concrete paving stone, or even other natural stones in the outdoor environment.

First of all, there are some distinct benefits to this. It is made of porcelain, and as you may know from indoor porcelain tile, porcelain is virtually indestructible. You could pressure wash this for three days straight, and you wouldn't lose one bit of any of the surface off of that porcelain material, so it's extremely tough. It's also very beautiful. They've simulated wood in this particular piece of porcelain tile, but they also have different stone finishes that you can choose from, and they've come up with a screen printing technique that makes it absolutely stunning in the outdoor environment.

There's a few different ways that you might install this product. One is you can lay it on concrete. If you have a porch or a patio that's made with concrete, you do want to make sure that slab of concrete has no cracks in it or any areas that might separate or move, because if that underlayment moves and shifts, the concrete will cause the porcelain tile to crack right along with it. So just make sure your slab is clean and free of any major cracking. It can also be laid on sand. We don't necessarily recommend that for all installations because the sand can allow it to shift or move a little bit too much. This product is only two centimeters thick, so it has no vertical friction coefficient, so as something like a concrete paver tries to shift in between the stones among themselves, there's friction between those that prevent it from shifting. This product being only two centimeters thick does not provide for that vertical friction. So if you're laying it on an outdoor environment, we recommend something called Gator Base. This is an underlayment that goes directly below the porcelain tile, a bit like a subfloor in a house that helps to prevent it from shifting and moving. They also make spacers that will go between the porcelain tiles, providing the perfect spacing between each of them in the outdoor environment. When you fill the joints of these, you want to make sure you use the polymeric sand that's rated for porcelain tile. This is a little bit stickier than the polymeric sand used for paving stones. Polymeric sand hardens a bit like a grout; it's not a grout, but it hardens a bit like that, prevent weeds ants and keep the sand from migrating out of the joints. But make sure you use the polymeric sand that's designed for outdoor porcelain tile. Also, you want to consider in your design that you keep straight lines. Cutting this within a curved fashion requires special tools and it's very expensive. So you want to do your best to design an installation that follows those straight lines and has very little curves. Also, you wouldn't want to use this in an area where you have a lot of different grade changes for drainage reasons. It's better if you have one smooth grade going all in one direction because of the size of these. It's very hard to change elevations or grade in between locations, and because those grade changes can be very difficult to get the water to run off from those. So those are your key elements of porcelain tiles. Thank you and good luck with your outdoor transformations.

Video: Ways to Minimize Landscape Irrigation

Below is the video transcript. Please add full stops, commas and paragraphs wherever required by analyzing the sentiments.

If you want to minimize your water consumption, the first place you should look is your landscape. Today we're in San Jose with diamond certified expert contributor Roger Van Alls of Black Diamond Paver Stones and Landscape to learn more.

The average lawn will consume more water than the entire household does put together with showers, bathing, and washing dishes. So many people have decided to remove their water-hungry lawns and replace them with a water-conserving synthetic lawn or low-water consumption plants.

So, one of the ways is synthetic lawn. So we can remove that lawn and you can put in a synthetic product. These have come a long way since the days of astroturf. We have brown thatches now inside of the lawn, which makes it more realistic. We find the neighbors have to come up and touch it before they can tell that it's actually a synthetic product.

Putting greens are great too for the backyard, so you can make a play area that also will not consume any water instead of the lawn that's there. Customers are also removing their front lawns and back lawns and replacing them with low water consumption plants. So you can have California native or drought-tolerant plants put into a yard and remove the water-hungry products that are there.

Most cities and counties are also offering rebates to clients to remove their lawns and replace it with low water consumption plants. So, check with your county or your city to see if you can get as much as one and two dollars per square foot to remove the lawn and replace it with a drip system to feed those plants.

To learn more from local top-rated companies, visit our Diamond Certified expert reports at experts.diamondcertified.org.

Roger Van Alst: Paving a Road to Success

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