Liven Up Your Backyard With a CT Deck & Patio Installation
If you’re a homeowner with nothing special outside your back door, you’ve probably felt the pang of patio or deck envy. You go to a friend’s house, and he or she has an incredible layout in their backyard. Someone is grilling, and friends and family are lounging in comfortable chairs on the patio. Everyone is laughing and enjoying himself or herself, and you look back to your place and think to yourself: this is what my home needs. So how much does a patio or deck cost and what do you need to know before you choose to install one? Here are some basic principles and guidelines to go over before you get too deep into daydreaming and planning your deck & patio installation.
Is Installation Cost Efficient?
Everyone’s definition of cheap is different depending on their income, but decks can be had for as low as $1,000. Local retail, hardware, and home installation stores will work with you to determine if you can afford a deck or patio, and find the perfect installation for your budget, but, unfortunately, the average deck falls around $8,300. The real question is then how much is a cheap patio? The cost to install a 200-square-foot concrete patio is about $740 to $840 on average.
If you’re drooling over someone’s patio, you likely don’t want a concrete slab; you’ll probably want something more attractive, like patio pavers or rocks to trend upon. Home improvement chain stores sell the patio pavers for around a buck and upward. If you need, say, 800 inexpensive pavers for a 200-square-foot patio, that will generally equate to the price of a concrete patio. Not too bad, until you factor in the price of hiring someone to put them in the ground and any other extras your patio might need.
Clean Up and Maintenance
CT decks have several maintenance variables. For a wood panel patio or deck, use a cleaner like Deckscapes Deck Wash, $10 from Sherwin-Williams retail outlet or online. On concrete, you can use a multipurpose solution, such as Benjamin Moore Clean 318. Dilute according to the directions, and then use a stiff push broom that’s small enough to dip into a bucket. Get your surface wet and sudsy and put some muscle into it and hose the surface down. For stone, fill a large bucket with warm water and add two or three squirts of dish soap. Apply with a nylon push broom, don’t use wire bristles on stone because it’ll scratch. Scrub until sudsy, then rinse well. When you’re all done, a generous spritz of white vinegar in the space between the stones, or in cracks when discussing concrete, will temporarily discourage the growth of weeds. Take notice that if you want to experiment with a concrete of stone specific detergent, read the labels carefully. Acid-based cleaners, especially muriatic or hydrochloric acid, may burn concrete or damage its top layer, and they can discolor stone.
Deck & Patio Decoration
Dressing up an empty deck is easy. You just need some great plants to bring life and vibrancy to the decks surface. Bright and loud colors will make your deck more attractive and draw the attention of visitors. An easy way to bring life to your deck is through container gardening. Container gardening brings life to an industrial deck, but just one container can feel lonely. Plant multiples of the same container or group varying sizes to perk up your patio with color. Pack containers with showy, easy-care annuals such as petunias, bacopa, and sweet potato vine- these and other annuals offer lush foliage and flowers all summer & fall long. Other colorful container favorites include the lantana, the hibiscus, and the scaevola. Group these container plants together to make a stunning deck focal point.
CT Home Improvement: Fiderio & Sons
The advice provided is only meant to serve as a general guideline. If interested, you should discuss specific needs with your CT home remodeling contractor because the best solution will vary from home to home.
Before every job we fully inspect all of the surfaces to ensure structural integrity. If any wood needs repair or replacing, our team of skilled carpenters will handle the work before painting, and you can expect nothing but the highest quality work.
For home modeling information, check out our Home Remodeling and Addition Checklist!
