A patio adds outdoor living space to your home allowing you to enjoy the great outdoors and adding value to your home as well. A patio can be made of concrete, man-made pavers, or concrete. The choice is entirely up to you. If you are adding a patio to an existing home, a concrete patio may be the most difficult task as you must prepare the area for concrete and if you don't have access for a cement truck, you might have to either mix concrete onsite and move tons and tons of heavy concrete with a wheelbarrow.
The first step is to determine the final size of your new patio. It may be helpful to stake out your patio area with wooden stakes so you can get some idea for the size and scale of your new patio. You can lay a string or garden hose between the stakes so you can truly see the size of the new patio. Leave these in place when you measure so you know how much concrete or the number of pavers you will need.
If you decide to use concrete, you can pour a smooth slab. Or you can opt for a more decorative stamped concrete pattern. You can also tint your concrete a wide variety of colors. This will make you patio look like expensive stone or brick pavers at a fraction of the cost.
If you decide to use pavers, your patio will need lots of prep work before you can begin laying the pavers. You will need to dig down about 6"-8" and start with a layer of stone and packed sand. It must be perfectly level. Then, after you have a perfectly level surface, you can start laying the pavers. The amount of time doing the fun part, laying the pavers, is usually only about one-quarter of the time of the project. The majority of the time is spent doing ground prep work and moving pavers. On a small deck you may have to dig tons and tons of earth, fill with tons and tons of stone and sand, and then move tons and tons of pavers! Keep this in mind when you decide on using pavers for your patio.
Using stone for a patio is also a choice. But natural stone is very expensive and requires the same amount of prep work as for laying pavers. Natural stone also varies in texture and color. This can make your patio a beautiful work of nature in your back yard.
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