I am a concrete contractor in Houston, TX. (www.conspecinc.com) After reading these treads I am amazed at how little people really know about concrete placement. First, the smaller the job = the more it costs because we are charged a "short load fee" for orders under 6 yards. This fee can be up to $175 "plus" the cost of the concrete. Also - for slab on grade applications wire mesh is much better than rebar (contrary to popular opinion). It has to do with the fact that reinforcement on "slab on grade" applications is based upon the strength of the GRADE not necessarily the reinforcement. The reinforcement just prevents the crack from developing and wire mesh does a better job. I address this on my website. Finally, concrete costs have gone up as the economy (gas prices), drive costs. I charge $6 to $7 PSF for stamped colored concrete and $3.50 to $4 for standard. In Houston, contractors have a habit of putting wood for control joints which ultimately rots out. Not a good idea. I don't use wood for control joints unless requested. Also concrete can be ordered in MANY WAYS! A contractor can order substandard concrete (but the owner does not know the difference), cheap.... but GOOD concrete costs about $80 per yard. In short a concrete patio "should" cost $3.50 to $4 PSF in Houston that is - if you seek quality. Concrete can have "fillers" which after 28 days "will" give you 3000 PSI but "after" this period it will slowly diminish. Good concrete however, increases its strength with age. Good concrete takes 50 years to totally cure. My website gives you the truth about concrete placement.

Put a few retaining walls, nice steps to the back yard and few short columns of flower boxes with some sitting area between them and you will have a beautiful raised patio. There are many ways of doing this best way to get a local landscaping company specializing in hardscape designs and based on your budget they will put something together for you. Here is a few examples just to give you an idea what you can do Good luck

Hi @Lynn Morford, I hate to jinx things, but now three months in, I LOVE the floors. I fact, I admire them many times a day (good distraction from current CV craziness). There are about a dozen spots where there were dings or tiny cracks, which freaked me out at first, but I'm pretty sure it was just from the movers. I do take care of them like a newborn child, though--sweep, vacuum, wipe, repeat. Overall, I'm very happy with them! @everdebz, we ended up gluing down. Definitely harder on my body that floating but I've learned to wear slippers or socks and I have yoga mats in most rooms to give my feet a little vacation as I walk through the house, lol. In the end, I trusted @joseph_corlett's comment about letting the contractor make the call on what is best for the situation. Granted, I still pine for the perfect floating feel of my old Junckers flooring, but apparently theirs were unique and most other flooring can't float the same way, so... Anyway, the sad fact is, you can't remove glue-downs without destroying the boards. So fingers crossed you never have to! (I put fake wood in my laundry room and we've already had three floods, so thank god for that decision.)

I have no idea how you intend on using "landscape timber" to raise the height of a brick/paver patio. Not only is that mysterious but it sounds bound to fail. What I normally think of as "landscape timbers -- they are rounded on two opposing sides and are fairly inexpensive -- are not durable at all when in contact with the ground. I can't think of any reason or any way to use wood to fix a paver patio that couldn't be done much better by using standard paver installation techniques.