I think the work invoved candle pruning a standard pine could be wasted effort. The trees can be maintained at the current size only with significant time and specialized ladders and pruners. I would suggest you just let the trees grow and build your patio. If branches start to cause problems, you should just start to limb up the trees. In a forest setting that would happen naturally, so it should look fine. Over time you would have some branches overhanging the patio area for additional shade. The downside to having pine branches over a patio area would be they are messy trees what with droping needles. You would also have to control pine pest, or you could end up with a patio of honeydew.

I don't see where there would be any threat to life or property by letting them grow so go for it. Pine needles when they do fall are no more a mess than a whole yard full of orange and yellow compound white ash leaves so I don't understand some of the flack.

One of my neighbors have a couple flanking their driveway. Barely maintained trees. Pruning the lower branches is EASY. The higher ones do seem to require a pro, or at least someone more coordinated than me, then again they all do.

You'd get the resulting modified habit from the point where you started pinching out - the growth made before then would still have the same open structure. So, for awhile at least you would have a similar appearance to a recently transplanted specimen, that has long branches with balls on the end where cutting of the roots stunted the top growth made afterward.

In time, it might be possible to develop a more dense outer shell that filled in, to hide the previously developed, sparser interior.

Note that pinching it taking out the central candle in each whorl, and leaving the ring of shorter candles around it. You can also shear pine family conifers, as is done on Christmas tree farms - all of the new shoots are shortened, instead of cutting (pinching) out any entirely.

In my experience with conifers pinching the top two thirds of the candles especially the leader (making sure that at least one or two growth points remain for next year) will slow down the natural growth of the trees. I have done this and have also found that the trees become more bushy looking over time (good for screening) as there will be angled growth and not growth directly out from the trunk.

Thanks for all the advice. I think I'll forget about pinching and just let them grow naturally and see what happens. I know there are more beautiful trees out there but I have grown quite fond of my Scot's pines. They are very pretty when under planted with hostas and other perennials.