Application · Charlotte NC

Patios

The largest decorative surface most houses will ever have

In detail

Planning patios

Sizing a patio to the furniture, not the house

The most common regret we hear about a patio is not the colour or the pattern, it is the size. A dining set with chairs that pull out needs about twelve feet in one direction before it stops feeling cramped, and a seating group around a fire feature needs closer to sixteen. People tend to draw a patio to match the back wall of the house because that is the line they can see, then discover the shape works for looking at and not for sitting on. We lay it out with tape and actual chairs before anything is formed, which costs an hour and settles the argument.

Pattern scale is a function of area

A large-format ashlar slate pattern on a ten by twelve patio reads as three stones and looks like a sample board. A small running-bond brick pattern across six hundred square feet reads as noise from the back door. Pattern choice is really a scale decision, and it should be made after the size is fixed rather than from a brochure beforehand. As a rough guide, the repeating unit should appear at least five or six times across the shorter dimension.

Where the water goes

A patio needs fall, and on a decorative slab the fall has to be built in without becoming visible. A quarter inch per foot away from the house is the working minimum. Where a patio sits in a low spot or against a slope, the answer is usually a channel drain at the high side or a discreet swale beyond the edge rather than steepening the whole slab, because a patio you can feel tilting is unpleasant to sit on. We would rather add a drain than pitch a surface to the point where a table wobbles.

Furniture, shade and how the finish ages

Patio surfaces get point loads from chair legs, dropped charcoal, spilled wine and planters that sit in the same place for years. A textured stamp hides all of that far better than a smooth trowel finish. Planters are the one genuine problem: a pot left in one spot on a coloured slab will leave a ring, because the concrete underneath stays damp and does not weather at the same rate. Pot feet solve it entirely and cost almost nothing.

Joints on a surface you look at

Control joints still have to be cut on a patio, and on decorative work their placement becomes a design decision rather than an engineering afterthought. The usual approach is to run joints along a stamp pattern's grout line so they disappear, or to make them deliberate — a saw-cut grid that reads as intentional. What does not work is cutting a standard grid across a stamped pattern at an angle to it, which is what happens when the jointing is decided by whoever turns up with the saw.

Finishes to consider

Stamped Concrete Stained Concrete Exposed Aggregate Polished Concrete Decorative Overlays Saw-Cut Designs Colored Concrete

Other applications

Five other surfaces

Pool Decks

Wet, barefoot, and in full sun — the hardest surface to specify

Outdoor Living Areas

Kitchens, fire features and covered rooms built on a slab

Walkways & Entries

The first fifteen feet anyone sees of a house

Decorative Driveways

Where structural requirements and appearance have to be met at once

Courtyards & Surrounds

Small enclosed areas where every square foot is seen