I've lived with a deck, and prefer a patio for a number of reasons, but to me the one advantage of a deck, being able to step out onto a deck rather than first going down stairs, does make the deck compelling. That said, deck maintenance, and being on a 'stage' - more visible to neighbors - would make a deck a lot less attractive to me. Also, I really like how a patio places one in the yard, rather than overlooking it. Connects one with the yard in a more meaningful way, to me.

I'm generally in favor of patios over decks, but it does depend how hard it is to get down to ground level, IMO. How many steps down would it be?

Wow arcy, that's an amazing solution!

I have a tiny deck but much prefer patios too.

I had a deck over three steps on my last house. When I bought the house, midwinter, I thought, "Great, like an extra room, I'll bet I will spend a lot of time out there, eating and relaxing in the summer." The answer was a resounding "NO!" It was hot, and since I lived in a row house, no privacy, instead I was on display for the whole neighborhood. One of my friends joked about me being the captain of the neighborhood, "on deck" and that all I needed was a big steering wheel out there. When I finally hired a landscape designer to help me fix the situation, she pointed out that when I sat out on the deck all I had views of was the tops of cars and my neighbors heads, and telephone lines. Add to that the railing around the deck made me feel like I was in jail. Plus I tried porch boxes out there and most of the stuff languished in the summer heat and was a pain to always water. The icing in the cake was when my table and chairs tipped over in a windstorm and the glass table top shattered. Can you tell I don't like decks?? They make sense IF you have something wonderful to look out over, like a beach house with a fantastic view.

What I did was advertise the deck for sale, if someone wanted to disassemble it. I had many calls and the first guy came, disassembled it and put it in his pickuup truck and carted it away. I know the PO's of my house put it in and really liked it and they were shocked, people didn't understand why I was tearing out something that was perfectly good. It was a beautiful deck and I debated, but I never regretted it, plus the wood didn't go to waste and I got some money from selling it and the people who bought it got a ready made deck. I put in a brick patio and it was one of my favorite spots to retreat to. I planted trees and shrubs and flowers all around and my views turned into greenery and flowers. It was much more private, cool (as in temperature) and inviting. Later, everyone understood and agreed that the results were great and a big improvement for the usability of that space. I would have preferred a different material for the patio's surface, but that was all I could afford. If I were to do it over again with the needed funds, I would either do concrete, bluestone or a low wood patio that didn't need a railing. The long range plan was to put a pergola or some type of open roof over the patio, but I moved before that got accomplished.

Here's the "before" and after shots of my backyard. It's looking in opposite directions, but these are the best images I have. There was nothing in front of the deck originally but grass and a view of the back of my garage. The thing with the blue cover is our firewood rack, we got a little fire pit and would occasionally have campfires out there too.

Oh I do love a brick patio! There are two steps down from the deck to the ground, so it's not too high up. But a couple years ago I did slip and fell, fracturing two vertebrae in my back, cracking two ribs and my tail bone while trying to go down those steps.

I think the deck is going now-you've given me compelling reasons for my DH. Imagine just hosing down a patio versus having to pressure wash, sand, restain and replace boards every summer.

I am doing a deck on my build, but there are no neighbors close enough by. (The Nature Conservancy seriously does not count.) In your situation--patio. It sounds lovely, and really can be super-lovely!

We have both. We use the deck a lot more frequently as it is right off the kitchen and so convenient. The patio is one flight below and a lot harder to truck stuff to and back so it's used most often in large party situations when we need all the space. While I prefer the solidity of a patio, we do enjoy our deck a lot. We have a view out the back and put in glass railings so the view is unobstructed. It's where you'll find us most of the spring, summer and fall.

I think you should remove the deck. If the deck was in a private area with awesome views, I would keep it. But it sounds from your description that it would be more functional and private as a patio. Also, you could landscape beautifully around it.

Patios are easier to maintain. In your situation, it would give you more privacy. I'd be sure to add sturdy hand railings, and make sure the steps have a large clear landing at house level, and generous sized steps down.

Just a note, if the deck was not constructed properly, if you get someone good you could tear it out and rebuild something better or smaller using the same wood. A good carpenter can be found (I'm in love with one) but they don't work cheap, because they really can't, at least the good ones. Time and expertise costs money for both the client and the builder. Small jobs are tough to find someone good to work on.

We have a large deck which overlooks wilderness and the road is far below us, and several trees hide us. We still don't sit there because it's too hot (so. CA), too windy, too cold etc. We do stand out there at night to watch the stars and the moon. Also have a brick patio and don't really use that either. I'm a passionate gardener and when I'm outside I'm working or ogling my roses and so have to walk around. Some people are weird....

In my experience, decks seem to age more quickly and have less character. We have had both. Currently we have a large deck. Because of flood concerns our garage is our first story and our main living area is the second story. Our deck is across the back of the second story. We use the deck three or four times a week for grilling, messy projects and our dog bath set up. We have a nice view behind our house and because of the way the houses are angled we have lots of privacy.

Our deck is pressure treated wood and looks really worn out no matter how much we pressure wash, repair and stain. I think stone is easier to maintain and if you choose wisely it has much more character. I also regret that we can't have a fire pit.

Our previous home had a deck. There were some days in the summer where the deck was too hot to enjoy. I definitely do not miss the upkeep. If we had stayed in that house, we would have definitely ripped out the deck and put in a patio.

I have a deck now. I really hate it. Too much maintenance and no privacy. I sure miss my patio from my former house. So much easier to care for and I had beautiful shrubbery planted around it.

We have had four houses with new decks and I really don't care for the maintenance. I our current house we have a really large paver patio with a raised stone perrenial area that runs the length of the patio. We really like it. We could have had a deck as well in another area of the house but in the end we decided it was just too much work.

decks creep me out. I'm always thinking about critters (spiders, snakes, skunks) living under it.

We love our new deck. It is on the side of the house, outside the kitchen door. We have our Weber grill there, some flower pots and our old outdoor furniture. It looks great and we are enjoying it immensely. It was built in 2015 and is a composite material which needs NO maintenance. We are old. It is private because we have a tall, tall hedge in front of it and a small concrete patio in front of it, down 3-5 stairs. (Cant count the stairs as we're in Az).

We rarely used our concrete patio in the back in recent years. The sliders to the patio are from the family room which is a level lower than the kitchen and far from the main parts of the house. When our last dd25 (now) was younger, we had parties there and she entertained in the back but it is too much trouble to shlep kitchen stuff back there. Our back yard is private. So deck v. patio depends on location, maintenance requirements, ages of user, ease of use, privacy and other factors.

I had stone patios and a large deck (pool) at my previous home. I didn't like the deck. The patios felt so wonderful and much more character.

Well, this 1939 house that I bought has a deck. It's too high to have steps down to a patio, but I'm trying to embrace it as I have no choice.

As someone else mentioned, if your deck isn't properly constructed, it may cost less to tear it down. Around here stone patios installed run about $19-25/sf installed, depending upon the amount of work to prepare the location and the type of stone used.

This was my waterfall patio at the old house. It had two steps down. The stream flowing from the waterfall is to the lower left. There's so much more one can do with a patio!

This was the dining patio at my previous home. My late husband, two sons (when they were freshmen in college), and I built this one ourselves. There's no concrete beneath this one. We used gravel screenings to level after digging out the grass. The joints were polymeric sand, though you could use moss (in shade) or pea gravel. We installed a drain underneath to handle a gutter not showing here.

That is so lovely DYH, and to imagine you did all the work yourself!!

All these gorgeous patios have me swooning! My DH is a concrete guy and he made me a bunch of 18" pavers that I used in our front yard landscaping. I created a 'courtyard' patio which encompasses my fountain and leads to steps to our front door. We get so many compliments on it. I laid some in the back yard a few years ago to create a pad where we could have the BBQ-I didn't want it on the deck, especially with dogs-imagine the risk if they knocked over the hot coals! I'd like to continue that to a large patio area, but I'm afraid I'd never get him to pour me enough pavers, and neither of us is the spring chickens we were when I put that one in the back!

But I could see a nice poured concrete patio that is stamped and stained to look like flagstone or something. Yes-surrounded with planter beds and another fountain... There are large, mature shrubs on the fence lines, so if we were below the current deck, we'd have relative privacy.

Keep your amazing photos coming-you're inspiring me!

This is a portion of what I'm dealing with right now. We had the deck restained the summer before last-obviously it didn't take too well. I hung those curtains to provide a modicum of privacy-behind them are tall shrubs, but not tall enough to mask us when we're out dining on the deck.

The room to the right is part of DH's workshop-you have to go up two steps to come out of it. You can see just how poorly this deck was designed. Actually, a month or so after this photo was taken, a board broke under my foot and I nearly fell thru to the ground below (less than 3 feet, but enough to scare the pants off me!). It's also very bouncy-not enough support beams underneath. I think we may try to salvage some of the longer boards to cut

We love our new deck. This will be our fourth summer with it, and we love it. We entertain on it, eat dinner in the summer on it, relax on it, and I read books on it. It is built from pressure treated lumber, and we have stained it a few yrs ago. The man we chose to build it did a wonderful job, and overbuilt it for the code. I think that how a deck is built, and the person who builds the deck has a lot to do with how most of us feel about them, as with anything that we have. The last deck was built when the house was built, and just met the code, and the previous owners did not take very good care of it. We had it for 25 yrs, and it was structurally sound, but undersized for the house, which was very frustrating for me. If a deck is built well with pressure treated lumber and maintained, it can last 20 - 25 yrs, and bring a lot of enjoyment to families, and add value to a home.

In our previous home we

My opinion: I dislike decks immensely. They prevent living in the yard! I love a patio. I want to live IN my yard, not over it.

Laurie, your deck at grade level seems more like a patio; a patiek? or a deckio?

Yes, that's what I was wondering for Neetsiepie, if they could maybe reuse the wood from the current deck to build a "grade level" deck. I would love something like that, bearing in mind that it would be more upkeep with restaining/waterproofing than a cement, brick or stone patio. I'd be concerned about falling over the edge, but I would solve that by putting planters or some kind of edging around it.

I can't think of any advantages a deck might have over a patio.

We live on our deck in summer. DH meticulously repaints it every few years, but we're both getting a little old for this kind of maintenance anymore. I'm looking into aluminum decking. Has anybody else? It's supposedly no hotter than a wood deck in the sun, and deck noise may or may not be an issue. The fire proof aspect is appealing.

Composite or PVC decking is something to consider. It offers advantages over wood decking -- it won't rot, splinter or crack, it never needs restaining or painting; and it's eco-friendly (takes plastic and wood debris out of landfills). Here's a photo of a composite deck featuring a hot tub, similar to what you describe, neetsiepie.

Radius deck · More Info

Composite decks are a lot more expensive to build than treated lumber, and the base of the deck, as far as I remember still is wood. Depending on the neighborhood, if everyone has treated lumber, the ROI on a composite deck may not be there.

We love our deck. 20 feet of it is covered and 18 feet is uncovered.

Both ends have 'walls' to make it feel cozy and provide a serene

outdoor retreat. Truthfully, I wouldn't feel so cozy if I was on display,

but we're not. We enjoy total privacy.

Gramarows, The old deck was 2 feet of the grassed area.

We have Gossen. We have it power washed every few years, but have skipped when we didn't get around to it.

The back of our house is one flight up, so a patio would not make sense. Actually there was a brick one that we removed when we moved in.

My husband is of the mindset, "Do it once, do it right, be done with it." We always go for the lower maintenance option as long as it is good quality. We would never do shingles or siding that needed to be painted continuously.

From what I hear maintenance or lack there of is a priority with most homeowners these days. True, composite decks are wood underneath..but that is not what needs re-staining/re-sealing every year or so. To each his own but ROI has nothing to do with our choice to rip off the deck and raise a patio..forget the entire "deck" idea. Usability and lack of maintenance were the only considerations. When we literally only have a few weeks of "patio" weather--I am not going to spend ANY of it on maintenance.

We don't reseal our deck every yr. It's every 3 or 4 yrs maybe. To most of us ROI is a big deal. If you make your house into the nicest, most expensive on the block, you'll never get that money back. That's not something that I want to experience when I sell my house.