Deck or paver patio for this spot?
Our home is a 100+ year old Victorian with all the quirks one might expect to go along with it. One of
these quirks is the back patio - we have a poured concrete patio that runs almost the entire width of the lot, but for some reason whoever installed it stopped at the edge of the house on the south side, leaving one 8x12 rectangular area on the southeast corner of the house unpaved. The previous owners put astroturf over it, and now it looks like this:
We would like to "finish" this area somehow, and have discussed either installing a low raised deck (maybe just one or two steps up from the existing cement patio) or paving the area with paving stones or bricks. We would remove the section of fence that currently runs from the corner of the house to the side fence and extend the area down the side lawn a few feet, to also improve this area:
That cement trough you see below the spirea in the upper left corner is part of an underground drainage system - there is a downspout behind that spirea that empties into the trough and then the water goes out the drain on the other side. We are planning to remove this trough and connect the downspout to the drainage system properly (underground) before we put in either a deck or pavers, then extend the new patio to the edge of the window well at the bottom left of the photo.
DH favors the idea of a raised deck; personally, I would prefer pavers, but the area is not level and I'm not sure it can be leveled easily. There is a fairly significant downward slope from the back of the house to the front, and filling in the area to make a level paver patio would mean piling dirt against the house, possibly above the level of the cement window well. Not sure if this is a good idea or even possible! Anyway, I would appreciate any advice you can offer, both aesthetically and from a functional standpoint. Thanks in advance!
Comments (13)
mad_gallica (z5 Eastern NY)
6 years agobiondanonima (Zone 7a Hudson Valley) thanked mad_gallica (z5 Eastern NY)Related Discussions
Need opinion: Stone or Deck (for steps) out to a Paver Patio?
Comments (13)I would also consider a 2-level approach or something similar that lets you make the transition to ground seem more gradual. There is also the idea that you may find you want to do a good deal of grilling the food outside, then eat inside, because well, it is just so convenient and you can grill under less ideal circumstances than required for outdoor dining. The utilitarian steps down to patio just to get to the grill will be a barrier to that. The problem with same level is that you have to use decking, then it does tend to force you to a large deck, then a large area underneath it plus lattice or whatever, plus maintenance--though new deck materials as you suggest make that less of an issue. So I do not want to discourage you from thinking about having a "stone" patio that is part of the yard. I think over time that area could be very nice and will feel more permanent--properly landscaped. So the deck idea gives a more immediate sense of its being just an extension of your kitchen and feeling like a "room", but the patio has the ability to feel "in the yard", as noted above. The problem with bi-level structures is you have to design carefully so that neither part is too small to be useful or it breaks up your party in the wrong way. So, for example, if you envision 6 guys or gals yakking around the grill, you want room for that in your design. I think the deck landing as shown in your picture has that dreaded ubiquitous tacked-on landing look that just gets you up and down, and if you do actually make just steps, I would try to put more into their design to make a more graceful descent to the yard--whether that is broader, curved, or something. Of course that might be too expensive, so part of the fun of the forum is that we can brainstorm about how you might spend your $$! Really, just giving you things to think about. Broad steps or more gradual transition type structures can also often be used as seating/dining (for kids) as long as is wide enough. You don't show anything about the exposure of the back of the house, sun patterns, etc, so any design needs to think ahead to whether you will plant trees for shade, use umbrellas, arbor, or what--meaning, leave space in yard, or plan layout of space....See MorePatio Pavers below a deck are a disaster
Comments (23)@germainetoo I hear your frustration. Obviously this is based on some internet pics and some guessing/inferring, but here are my thoughts as this discussion has progressed: I'm coming back to "it's wet quite a bit" under the deck, and also "it constantly is wet". Is the sole source of your water woes what's coming through the deck, or is this a low area? are the gaps between your deck boards crazy wide or something? What was under the deck previously? If it was bare soil, were there visible erosion lines that matched up w/ the decking? Is the patio pitched appropriately to shed water? how much time elapsed between poly sand installation and first rainfall? If rain is coming within the first 24-72 hours the patio will need covered to another poster's point, if an under-deck ceiling were a requirement for a below deck patio, we'd see about a quarter as many as we do. We generally do them as a way to 1) keep the area totally dry and 2) make it not feel like you're... under a deck. It's hard to say if a ceiling could work in your situation without seeing the whole area, as we generally pitch away from the house and towards the deck beam. That gets collected in a gutter mounted to the beam, and that water exits via a downspout run down a post and ideally piped as far away as possible. Bottom line, there may be an oversight or there may be other factors at play here that weren't discussed or brought into the scope of work....See MorePaver Patio Question- Border or Pavers first?
Comments (4)if you do the border first you'd potentially need to do wonky cuts of the center pieces to get them to fit if you dont have the spacing correct to the micron.......See MoreNeed help.. Redo patio as-is, raise patio, or extend deck?
Comments (2)If you extend the deck and it's built correctly you shouldn't have settling. That's because the deck post footers should be dug down to undisturbed soil. On a new home, that may likely mean digging down to the house footer, which if you have a full basement is a big honkin' hole. Anything less is asking for trouble. You'll have a similar issue with a raised patio, since it's a new home. Because of the way they build foundations, you have a zone of disturbed soil all around your house, 5-10 feet out. This WILL continue to settle for up to a decade (depending on your local soil). In 20+ years doing this I have come across exactly one (1) builder who compacts his backfill properly. Everyone else chucks it in the hole, runs the machine back and forth a couple times, and calls it good. So to build a raised patio we would do one of two things: 1) excavate for the full patio all the way down to disturbed soil and build back up again with gravel, and then the patio. Or 2) if you're doing a concrete patio (or stone laid over concrete) we can dig for piers or wing walls to support the patio, which is way less excavation, labor, and spoils. Anything else will settle. It's why we don't build patios next to new homes. If you do your third option, I'd be prepared to re-lay the patio at least once more after that. If you're already having settling issues the base isn't appropriate for the conditions. As for gas line location, assume it's the shortest distance between two points....See Morebiondanonima (Zone 7a Hudson Valley)
6 years ago
gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
6 years agobiondanonima (Zone 7a Hudson Valley)
6 years agobiondanonima (Zone 7a Hudson Valley)
6 years agobiondanonima (Zone 7a Hudson Valley)
6 years agomad_gallica (z5 Eastern NY)
6 years agobiondanonima (Zone 7a Hudson Valley) thanked mad_gallica (z5 Eastern NY)gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
6 years agobiondanonima (Zone 7a Hudson Valley) thanked gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)biondanonima (Zone 7a Hudson Valley)
6 years ago
gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)