Install A Gorgeous Waterfront Patio
The best outdoor spaces are a seamless blend between the man-made and the existing landscape. That’s why This Old House landscape contractor Roger Cook chose native Goshen stone for this patio, nestled along the craggy Massachusetts coast in Manchester-by-the-Sea. For this project, , plus a flight of stone steps leading up to an existing brick landing. Close enough to dip a toe in at high tide, the seaside perch offers panoramic views of the inlet and boulder-strewn cliffs.
Do You Need A Pro To Design A Patio
If you know the shape and size because you have limited space, says Pedersen, you could probably lay it out yourself using string and stakes. But he feels its better to bring in a professionalfrom day one! he quips.
Hiring a pro will help you get the most out of your space. After all, youll be spending some money, and you want to be certain youve chosen the right spot for its intended use, youre dealing with the drainage properly, youre using the right materials, and youre considering life span issues. Most important: a designer will be able to estimate the cost.
Whoever you get to design your patio, it should be someone who just does design. There are lots of contractors wholl design the project and also build it, says Pedersen. But to my mind, thats like the fox watching the henhouse, in terms of your budget. He also notes that design/build contractors tend to design for the things they doif they have a good carpenter, for example, youre sure to get a trellis and a fence in the design. You want a designer who has no need to keep people busy.
Joints Between Your Patio Slabs
When this row is laid you can now start moving down the garden. No pro uses a string line due to the fact that patio laying, unlike brickwork, is not an exact science.
The patio slabs are never exactly the same thickness, they are never 100% square, and they are never exactly the same size either.
Keep your patio slab joints to a decent width . This gives you a little room for manoeuvre when the slabs differ slightly.
Keep patio slab joints to a width allowing room for manoeuvre
Some Steps On How To Attach A Patio Roof To An Existing House
Attaching a patio roof to an existing house is not a doddle, but it does not mean that you cannot do it. You just need some assistances of experts if you are not really good at carpentry.
Before attaching a patio roof to your home, you need to prepare some materials such as:
- Nail gun
- Ledger
Steps:
- Measure the sightline clearance height from the roof to the house, not the other way around.
- Measure the size of the beam that you are going to use.
- You can either remove the eave or just keep it.
- Using lag bolts and a screwdriver, fasten the base of the posts to the ground. You have to make sure that they sit plumb.
- Make a cutting on one of the sides of the horizontal roof beam on an angle. You have to do it thoroughly so that the rafters sit flush on it.
- Attach the horizontal beam by using a nail gun. After that, to make it flush with the roof of the existing house, cut the two outer rafters.
- Now you can begin assembling the outer rafters and attaching the rafter beam to the edge of the roof of the house.
- Cut each of the house ends while continuing installing the rafters so that they fit the top of the rafter beam perfectly.
- When all the rafters are installed correctly, form your patio roof by attaching the planks horizontally across the rafters.
- If you are going to use shingles to cover the patio roof, do not forget to install black roofing felt along with a single layer of oriented strand board. When they are installed, you can begin attaching roofing shingles.
Most Common Ways To Attach A Patio Roof To An Existing House
Attaching a patio roof entails intermediate carpentry skills and creativity because there are many ways that you can choose from.
All of them have their own advantages and drawbacks. When installed correctly, the patio roof will complement the house and provide an extra entertainment for you and your family for all year round.
Here are 7 different ways of attaching a patio roof to an existing house that you can apply.
Step Five: Measure And Plan The Space
Use graph paper to draw a scale plan before you begin. If you are able, you could plan the patio so that it fits the dimensions of the paving slabs so you dont have to cut them. Allow 10mm between them for the mortar joints.
The scale plan will help you consider any steps or retaining walls. Think ahead, too, to when youre mowing. If the patio is above the lawn, there will be edges to trim.
Bear in mind that if the patio is going to be next to the house, the finished surface must be at least 150mm below the damp-proof course. You can usually see its thick line of mortar two or three brick courses up the wall. A patio should not block any airbricks in the walls of your house.
The patio will need a slope away from the house so the water drains away from it.
What Are The Best Guardrail Materials
Architect Visit: Claesson Koivisto Rune
As for the guardrail material, Petersen says this choice should also be driven by the architecture. Well do glass for a house thats sleek and contemporary, or maybe a cable rail with stainless steel posts, he says. For a more traditional house we might do wood pickets and have some fun with patterns.
The Cost Of Laying A Patio In The Garden
Building or laying a patio or even laying decking will probably be the most money you spend in the garden.
Indian Sandstone slabs come in a range of sizes and types as do other slabs, so buy the best you can afford
With regard to laying paving slabs and the actual slabs you will be using, you will, as with all products in the building trade, only get what you pay for. It is possible to buy cheap concrete slabs for little money in deals on the internet etc., but beofre you do, just consider the following.
With cast concrete slabs, the concrete is poured into a mold and vibrated to settle them flat. This process makes a wet cement layer to the top of the slab and this forms a cement skin on top.
The skin is very thin and a couple of power washes later, the stone in the slab becomes visible and unsightly.
Cheap concrete slabs are usually pretty poor, and additionally, poor quality slabs usually have lots of air bubbles in.
If water gets into these air pockets and freezes when its cold, this ice expands and forms tiny little cracks in the concrete, which in turn fill with water and this process continues until the paving stone literally falls to pieces but on the journey the face of the slab blows off making the whole patio very unsightly.
This process is called Freeze-Thaw action and more about it can be seen here.
Stepping Stones And Patio Flooring
Consider using flagstones that are at least 1-1/2 inches thick as stepping stones or patio flooring. With the latter, flagstones can be laid directly in soil or a bed of sand. Thinner slabs should be laid in wet mortar or concrete to prevent cracking when stepped on. The spaces between Irregularly shaped flagstone can be filled with pea gravel or ground cover plants like Dymondia margaretae, creeping thyme, and dwarf mondo grass.
When flagstone is positioned in a tight-fitted design or pattern, mortar is used to fill in the seams and gaps. Butting pieces close together and using mortar creates a smoother, more even surface, which is ideal for patios.
Install Some Riser Brackets For More Height
If you wish to reach a specific height, you can lift the roof of the patio with some riser brackets. The patio roof which is raised with some brackets requires a custom barge cap.
It will not only allow you to raise the ceiling up to 2 feet, but also give various splendid options for the finishing look and relaxed ambiance.
You can go with opaque twin wall sheeting if you want to get some natural light for your patio.
Opaque twin wall sheeting that is installed between the roof of the patio and the barge cap allows natural light to pass through.
If you are not really into natural light and want to block it, you can infill the gap between the patio roof and barge cap, and seal the rear opening.
To get a cleaner and nicer look, you can add some extra flashing wall covering. After that, you can seal the brackets from the front.
Step Eight: Set The Fall In The Paving
To ensure the slope of the patio is maintained by the paving slabs, you will need to mark out the edges of the patio using two pegs at each corner and builders lines. On each peg mark a line from the top to the depth of the paving slab plus 50mm of mortar.
The pegs should be around 30cm outside the sub-base area and aligned with the borders of the area to be paved. The lines should intersect at each corner. Check the corners are true with a builders square. Hammer the pegs in until they reach the marks you made to indicate the finished height of the patio.
Check the fall by laying a straightedge between the pegs at the high and low ends of the patio area. Use a shim on the lower peg with a depth of the drop per metre multiplied by the length of the paving to check the slope. Check the pegs are level in the other direction, too.
Fix the lines between the top of the pegs using large-headed nails.
Top Tips For Caring For Your Patio
One of the biggest benefits of a patio is how little maintenance it needs and how hard-wearing it is. If you want to keep yours looking brand new for longer though, these top tips will help you to maintain its condition.
- Apply a sealant to prevent the colour from fading and to stop water seeping in.
- Regular brushing and washing can prevent staining from leaves, dirt and debris.
- Regularly check the condition of the pointing surrounding your patio slabs and refresh it when necessary to keep your slabs secure and to ward off the weeds.
- If youre going to be using a pressure washer to spring clean your slabs, its best to use it on a low pressure setting to prevent damage.
Step One: Decide What Size Patio You Need
The position and what you want to use it for will guide you when youre deciding on the size of a patio. If its to be located adjacent to the rear wall of your home, you might want a patio across the houses entire width. Equally, you could prefer it to link to a particular room, such as a kitchen-diner, for example, in which case you can match to the width of this room.
A patio will need to have the dimensions to fit the furniture you want to locate there, so its worth setting out the furniture to see how large the patio needs to be to accommodate it. As a guide, a patio 3 x 3m can create a comfortable dining space for four; to fit a rectangular table for six might require a patio 3 x 3.8 metres. You can also work from the size of your table, adding 2m to the width and length of the table to calculate the space needed.
Add around 1m of clearance around living room-style seating or loungers, too, so everyone can move around freely on the patio.
Lay Bricks Along Layout Lines
Lay a row of bricks along the baseline, aligning the end of the first brick with the perpendicular layout line. Butt them tightly together. Lay another row, aligning the end of the first brick with the second line. Continue laying bricks until one section is complete. Then work out from this section to complete the patio.
Sweep Sand Into The Joints
Spread dry sand over the stones and bricks and work it down into the cracks with a broom. Tamp with the plate compactor. Keep spreading sand and tamping until the joints are full.
Note: If your sand is damp, spread it out to dry before sweeping it into the cracks. If you run short, buy 50-lb. bags of mason’s sand at a home center or lumberyard.
E Surface Water Or Storm Water Drain
Normaly found in the back garden of most properties, This is the drain, or one of them, which takes the water from your gutters to the main drainage system.
When a patio is built in a garden consisting mostly of clay, where the surface water does not easily drain away, it is sometimes necessary to direct water from where it has run through a drain and into a surface water pipe.
This may seem like a great deal of work but it solves all of the drainage problems in a great many cases.
Drainage channel for draining a patio
K Existing Ground Level
The existing ground level which has been dug out to accommodate the slope or fall of the patio and its base or bed. Obviously if left, this ground would fall away onto the patio.
The easiest way to tidy it up is to build a small retaining wall. The retaining wall however acts as a stop for all the water flowing towards the end of the patio so this is why the drainage gully or channel is required.
Use coping stones to throw water from masonry face
How To Cut Paving Stones
The quickest way to cut a paver stone is using a circular saw or angle grinder. Brick splitter is easier to use. If you dont have such equipment, you can just use a hammer and chisel.
Dorota is an economist by profession, but her biggest hobby is photography and interior design. In Treehouse since the beginning of 2019.
How To Build A Linear Drainage Channel For A Patio
TOP TIP: Unsure how fall works? 1 in 80 fall dictates that 1 unit of fall should be added for every 80 units of run .
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Choose your slabs carefully
You might not think blocks of concrete could be all that varied. But they are.
Different colours, finishes and materials all need to be considered when planning out your patio. Patios arent something you can easily alter, and chances are youll be looking at the results of your efforts for years to come, so choose wisely.
Do you want one, uniform colour? Or do you want to mix it up a little bit?
Mix it up even if its all the same colour
If you do opt for the former, as youre laying the patio, mix and match slabs from different pallets if youre using more than one.
There may be some imperceptibly small colour differences between any two batches, and while you might not notice it as youre laying it out, two separate sections of slightly differently shaded patio are going to stand out.
Plan plan plan
Youll need to take into account a whole host of factors when planning out you patio.
More than just thinking about how the whole thing might look when its finished, youll need to factor in giving your patio a fall that runs away from the house or outbuildings, so rainwater cant accumulate.
A fall of 1:60 is the generally accepted standard.
Youll also need to think about the depth at which youll lay your patio: 150mm below the damp proof course if directly next to your house, and 10mm below ground level if its going to adjoin your lawn .
Take a dry run
Youll need to be meticulous in your planning when thinking about your patio.
Prepare The Ground For Pavers
If the area is currently lawn or long grass, its worth cutting the turf into strips using a spade and then rolling it up. This way, you can save it to fill any gaps between the new patio and the lawn when youre done.
Dig out an area 150mm deep that’s 10cm for your sub base, and 5cm for your mortar and paving slabs. If your slabs are very thick, allow a little extra depth. If you are laying directly next to the house, the finished patio should be at least 150mm below the damp proof course.
Making Sure The Water Runs Off Your Patio
The image above shows the trench along the house wall. In the centre of this trench we bang in a small wooden peg or steel pin and leave it 25mm proud of the bottom.
Using a spirit level we bang in more pegs, about a metre apart, all along the trench so we know our trench is level as each peg should be showing about 25mm above the ground.
Now we start excavating away from the house banging in pegs every 1 metre and using the spirit level to identify a slope of 15mm every 1.5metres as described above, which is the correct fall on a patio.
Use your level to get a fall on the patio slabs
A little trick of the trade for getting this slope or fall easily is to set up two pegs 1m apart.
The required fall over 1 metre is 10mm so set the pegs level and then bang one down 10mm.
Put the spirit level across them now and note where the back of the bubble comes to on the level.
You can see from the image above that our bubble is up against the black increment line on the level.
This would be easy to use as every peg we banged in we know that if the bubble is on the back line we have the same fall or slope.
If yours does not work out quite so simplistically, just stick a piece of electrical tape or masking tape in the place where the bubble shows a fall of 10mm per metre.
Once the area is dug out we can start laying slabs. The first row to lay is along the wall of the house, but as said before, 100mm away from the actual wall. This line of slabs needs to be level.
Advice On Paver Patio Up To House
HO has a paver patio going in and the landscape designer has the pavers meeting the back of the house right at the same level as the patio door threshold.. up near the subfloor height. Wayyy above grade.
She wants me to build some PT boxes out from the wall/foundation so the patio doesnt meet the house/siding but at the patio door she wants the pavers right up against the house.
I told her the pavers shouldnt really butt into the house anywherePAC NW rains a LOT herebut well below the mudsill IMHO, but if she had to do it this way, to at least butt them in BELOW the door threshold to allow some type of flashing.
? is, am I being too conservative?
Shell have me replace the bottom two courses of siding, which are damaged anyway. The Pressure Treated 4×6 or 8 boxes Ill build, about 8 out from the foundation wall will isolate the paver patio and keep things away from the siding. But where she wants the patio to meet the house, right at or under the threshold of the patio door, Im not sure of the best way to waterproof this area. The house has no Eaves so water WILL get in there between the house and the patio.
Can someone point me in the right direction? Waterproof membrane, as in tile showers? Grace Ice and Water barrier?
Am I out of line to suggest the patio should be much lower? Theyre trying to get it to slope from the house adequately and cant really dig it down lower due to bedrock.
Help! The landscapers are waiting on me
Tempered Glass Patio Roof
If you are looking for patio roof that allows you to get natural light as well as protecting you from the rain and snow, tempered glass will be your greatest bet.
The transparency of the tempered glass allows you to stay in the patio while enjoying the view of the surrounding including what is over the roof. It is a bit pricey, though.
Also read: Floor to Ceiling Windows Cost and Ideas
***
Now you know how to attach a patio roof to an existing house and some patio roof ideas. Attaching a patio roof is not that hard, isnt it?
But, you had better not install it by yourself. Having some assistance will be a terrific idea.
Full Protection From The Sun Snow And Rain
If you are looking for something that can give you the ultimate protection from the heat of the sun, rain, and snow, you need to take metal roofing to your consideration.
This metal roofing suits the style of the house very much. Besides accentuating the house, it gives you the protection that you need as it is attached directly to the wall.
How Can I Cut The Costs Of A New Patio
Landscape Architect Visit: A Majestic Sycamore in Santa Monica
Pedersen advises keeping the materials and design simple. Rectangles will help control the budget, he says. Doing soft radiuses and turns requires a lot of cutting, and that increases the labor. Keep the geometry simple and dont fight your modulethe reason houses are rectilinear is because wood is rectilinear.
His second tip: Dont dig too deep. When you begin to move a lot of soil, costs go up. Site work and excavation are one of the most expensive parts of any project.
N.B.: Planning a patio project? For design tips, layouts, and the best materials, see . For more projects, see our Hardscape 101 design guides to Fences & Gates 101 and Pavers 101. And browse our posts on materials:
Answers From Mybuilder Bricklayers
Best Answer
Would always advise a gravel band between house and paving about 4 inches wide and slope paving away from building
Your patio can be laid directly against your outside walls providing it is 150mm below existing Damp proof course.I do advise that the slabs slope away from the house which may help minimise the need for drainage.If you cannot slope the slabs away you may wish to consider acho type drainage channels against the property which may be connected to existing drainage supply or soakaway