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Patios Make Being Outside Easy!Patios provide living space just outside the house on an easy to maintain, beautiful hard surface. They are usually seen at ground level, but can be elevated. A raised terrace is great because you eliminate the steps from the house however they are more expensive than a ground level one. On your landscape design, make the area outside your door a wonderful living space and you will enjoy it again and again!
The brick in this patio is a beautiful compliment to this white frame house. It is the perfect addition to the landscape design. The white planters act like a rail by keeping people safe on the upper level, yet adding the softening effects and color that plants offer. Notice the graceful, black, powder-coated aluminum rail coming down the steps. The black color makes it fade away, so it doesn't become the focal point. It adds just the right touch. This construction is very strong being built on a base of 4-inch thick concrete and the brick pavers have a mortar joint.
This terrace is as elegant as the house. It fits nicely in this nook off the family living space. Elevating this hard surface puts it at the level of the door making it so easy to access. You don’t have to navigate steps until you want to go to the back yard.
Pennsylvania Bluestone
is the surface and it is edged in brick. The gorgeous brick steps have bull nose treads (the fronts of the bricks are rounded). The low wall that supports the patio is supporting a lot of weight. There are a few ways to do this construction. Be sure it is engineered properly and built correctly!
This elegant, formal living space is stylish and private! Pennsylvania Bluestone is the surface. The planting areas in the center of the patio are edged in Belgian Blocks (granite). The brick walls are the same color as the house and give the utmost privacy while becoming a natural extention of the building.
Decorative concrete is a very popular outdoor surface material! It is a great imitator of natural materials. If not put right up to the “real thing” it can fool a lot of people. For this reason, I never use it next to the natural material. For example, this stone-look pattern is a natural next to this brick and frame house. If it were next to a stone house it would look like a counterfeit. Here its look is distinctive and the cost is a fraction of its “real” counterpart. This new patio is gray, decorative concrete stamped with a random rectangle stone pattern and edged with a 4” x 8” brick-size pattern. These owners have a beautiful, carefree and durable surface for their new outdoor space!
Concrete Pavers
come in a number of shapes, sizes and colors! There is no mortar used in their construction, so the cost of installation is much less than a mortared surface. This garden has a patio that sweeps into the walk that carries the homeowner to the detached garage. An attractive, easy circulation system around their property has been created.
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Buckingham Slate is the surface of this stunning outdoor room. The pattern is called irregular. It is built on a concrete slab and there is a mortar joint between the stones. I like to see tight mortar joints (not over ½ inch) between any stone surface I design. This assures the surface’s look is more stone than mortar. This is especially true with irregular shaped stones because the mortar joint is a fairly standard width with regular shaped stones (rectangles). Notice the low stone wall on the right. We had to dig into a hill to create a level spot. The shrubs in the background give lots of privacy.
