Three Questions to Ask Before Pouring a Patio
Before you have a patio formed and poured in your backyard, consider these three questions that can help guide you to making the right decisions instead of costly mistakes.
- 1. Think about how your patio will be used.
There are a variety of layout ideas and options. Many people simply resort to pouring a rectangular patio attached to the backside of their home. While this is still functional, it is better to create various areas in the patio by incorporating different shapes and location of the concrete. Consider adding curves to your patio edges. Or consider leaving room for planters and borders and actually pouring the patio away from the base of the home.
- 2. Take into account the slope of your backyard.
If your patio is poured directly up against your home, will you be incorporating any slope to it to drain water? If so, where will the end of the sloped patio meet up with the rest of your backyard? Will it be lower than your yard? If so, you may need to consider additional options for drainage so that in the first big rainstorm, your patio is not suddenly underwater.
- 3. Optimize design by incorporating control joints.
Nearly all patios will require some kind of control joint to minimize cracking. Be creative with these joints. There are a variety of ways to incorporate them into a design. Consider scoring on a diagonal, or creating a tile pattern. Rather than having just blocks of squares created by control joints, you can economically add a pattern to your patio just by altering where they are added.
As you plan for your patio, refer to this handy list of questions: “Plans to Prepare Before Building