Patio Surfaces

We're putting a patio in after we get home from vacation, either sometime this summer or early fall and I've been trying to get some ideas. We already have the general shape/idea planned out, and are leaving room to eventually add a pool if we decide to.

I'd like to have a cement slab laid down, and then put a surface on top of that. I was thinking either tiled or some sort of pebble surface. Has anyone here ever done something like this?

In Florida we can't put in a wooden patio because of rot... and I don't really want to put in fake wood.

Don't go with a pebble surface. You're going to be spending a lot of time barefoot. You want something pleasant to walk on, non-slippery, and easy to maintain, as I'm sure you already know. I'd go with tile or with some kind of concrete finish.

I like the idea of large, flagstone pavers with a low-growing ground cover in between, laid out in an irregular shape.

You don't like that Trex material to make a deck? I LOVE that stuff. No staining, no rot, no maintenance at all. It comes in different shades and even has inlays. I think it looks great, but very expensive. In my next house, that's what's going in on the covered front porch and a flagstone patio and walk-way like I described near it and in the back yard too. Along side and in between the flag stones where you walk will be some herbs so when they're stepped on, lovely scents will waft up.

I have the pebble surface like this:



It's a bit rough on the feet but not terribly bad. They do have the pebble in tiny tiny little rocks instead fit really close and smooth but i find that type gets slick more than the other type.

You could do a textured concrete?

Thanks for all of the ideas

Textured concrete was another thought as well. We had thought about pavers, but I'd rather not have to deal with them. I'd like to keep things semi maintenance free, and the thought of a certain red and white border collie who loves to play with bricks makes me think he'll make a game out of digging up the patio =/

I like the look of concrete/tile/stone better than wood, at least for my house. I just don't think the look of wood would fit in so well. That Trex fake wood is so expensive. For the cost of putting in one of those at the size we want (300 sq feet) it's just not worth it to us.

I would do the textured concrete, you can stain the concrete a color you like also.

Those are pretty Mandy. Yeah, that first one does look rough on the feet. We use to have an agragate concrete patio and it was indeed pinchy. I like that other one too.

There's something about infusing the garden into the patio that I like a lot...kind of the English "cottage garden" style. Natural stone is very expensive but sooo pretty.


Here's one with squares and regatangles and no ground cover in between:

I love the look with the green between the tiles, but it's a pain to maintain. Slack even a bit and you've got overgrowth and loose tiles.

Maybe one day when i have my own sexy gardener/landscaping man to take care of my yard I'll have that type of patio.

We are actually currently putting in a patio ourselves. Well, my husband is. I can post pics of the whole process if you would like (I don't have the most recent pics with the pavers down off my camera yet).

I'll also let him know that you are interested. He has some online resources that he used to help the build that he would be able to share.

ETA: I forgot to mention, we chose to go with brick pavers, but they are the decorative kind that look like multiple bricks on one paver.

It's this style, although we used the "Autumn Blend" (reddish) color.
Shop Infinity 16"L x 12"W Tan/Black Durango Stone at Lowes.com

There are six different patterns of brick for each slab, so all together it has this nice, random-yet-elegant look.

We also have brick pavers... I am not a huge fan of the style that we have... and it's a huge pain to maintain.

If we ever re-do it (hopefully!), I'd love to have something with the natural stone that Dober posted... I love that cottage feel... even though it's still a pain to maintain. At least it won't look like I'm stuck in the 90's. LOL

ETA: You could do Flagstone poured in concrete (or whatever it is it gets poured in)? That would take care of certain dogs digging them up and you wouldn't have to fuss with stuff growing in between the pavers.

Annnd here are a handful of pics from our progress...

We had to deal with a drainage issue off our house, so the trench through the center is the new drain that will lead the rainwater from the house, under the patio, and into the yard. Also had to dig up all the sod, and started putting in the retaining wall.


Got the retaining wall assembled and leveled, and started filling everything in with paver base. He had to rent a plate compactor to compress it all into place.


Lots and lots of paver base. Lol!


All the paver base in place and compacted. Plus Morgan getting in the way, because this is a dog forum after all.


The next step is laying out the leveling sand and paver stones, and then renting a wet saw to fit the odd spaces along the fence/house and the front corner of the wall caps... I have pics of that process but they're not online yet. I'll try to get a few of those up tonight. Really, I have a TON of pics, if I need to make a new thread of the whole progression (which I was thinking of doing once it was done anyways), I will.

Hope this helps!


ETA: I forgot, there is a layer of gardening fabric down below the paver base. It probably isn't necessary for us, with how thick a layer the base had to be, but it's there nonetheless.

We have a small cement slab at the moment with some pavers... it's really, really ugly.

I'd love to see your pictures, Maxfox. I don't think we're going to do it ourselves, but I'd still like to see how you guys did it.

Ooooh, thanks! I can't wait to see how it turns out!

Yeah, we just had the small cement slab outside the back, sliding-glass door. It is still there, we just added the patio next to it.

Your slab looks similar to ours, except ours is a little bigger (it's right outside our back french doors). I can't wait to put in a patio... it's going to make our backyard look sooo much better.

I'd go with textured concrete. The options are endless in look, styling, and beauty.

Putting in my vote for textured concrete. It's literally just a concrete slab with patterns and lines set into it, but it's really just one big slab. You can stain it to look like whatever you want and it's virtually maintenence free. This is what we're doing for our patio in the new house.

When I get the chance to do the patio here, I'm getting stamped concrete. Really beautiful, and low maintenance.

We were thinking of textured concrete as well but decided to go with pavers for two reasons. One, they really don't have that much maintenance associated with them anymore with the polymer finishing sand that you can use now a days. Two, at the university where I went (Butler) we had textured concrete everywhere and anyplace bigger then a small sidewalk it was cracked. It was not like it was old either, I remember when they put it in. I guess the freeze thaw cycles around here just eat poured concrete. Now that probably will not be an issue for you in FL, but it was a deal breaker for us.

Best of luck with whatever you decide! We are really just waiting on a few days without rain so we can do the finishing touches on ours. It has taken a lot longer to do ourselves then I originally planned, but the final product is going to look really nice. Hoping to have it finished in time for a big grill out for my birthday at the beginning of next month!

I was going to say stamped concrete! I've seen some very well done ones. I'm interested in the whole process - I'd love love love to put a front porch on our house. And if we can do it ourselves it'd be so much cheaper (and more fun!).

ETA: Wait, are textured and stamped concrete the same? I google imaged it and I'm getting a lot of stamped concrete that I would classify as textured.

Also, check this out. Pretty!