High terrace with natural stones ideas

Hello everyone,

we are currently planning the construction of our terrace. It should look similar to the terrace in the photo afterwards.

Our exit door to the terrace is about 80cm above ground level. We want to build a raised terrace to avoid having a step from the house onto the terrace. Around the outside, there should later be a natural stone wall with a small flower bed in between.

My idea for implementation currently looks like this: 1. Strip foundation 80cm deep along the outer edge of the paved area (slight curve) 2. Then place formwork blocks (30cm wide) up to the height of 80 cm as an edge strip for paving The formwork blocks I would notch on the inside to achieve the curve 3. Fill formwork blocks with concrete 4. Fill interior space with gravel and crushed stone and compact 5. Pave surface with paving stones or slabs up to the top edge of the formwork blocks 6. Then build the natural stone wall around the outside. I would put a 20 cm layer of mortar under the wall 7. Afterwards fill the area between the formwork blocks and the wall with gravel and soil.

What do you think of the current plan? How would you carry it out?

Elaborate, but doable.

Since I am a fan of wooden terraces and you asked about possibilities, I’ll suggest an elevated wooden terrace. It is also much easier to build.

Looks nice in the sample picture. Your implementation will work, but it can also be done less elaborately. Which stones do you want to use and what sizes?

Yes, I have also thought about a wooden terrace. But achieving the look like in the picture with that is rather difficult.

I thought of using 50cm x 25cm x 17.5cm formwork stones and then placing another row of natural stones in front with 40cm x 20cm x 11cm.

You can do it that way, but the terrace will continuously settle because everything is freshly filled in and you can't properly compact that much... So you will have to renew your paving every 3-5 years or it will become very uneven.

Ok, do you have a better idea so that this does not happen?