Talk to me about your patios

[darkling_glory]

My husband and I bought a house a few months ago. It currently has a poorly done paver patio.

They never graded it, they never sanded it, it needs to come out!

We'd like to do this first thing next summer and are socking away money. However, we're unsure if we should go with pavers or maybe a concrete slab that we'd stamp and stain.

What do you have? Do you like it? What is the maintenance like? How much did it cost? I want to make we save enough money.

Thanks!

[jhawks482]

We have a stamped concrete patio. I cannot say enough great things about it, it's SO beautiful and we get so many compliments on it. Maintenance wise, we've had it 2 years, and just put a a fresh coat of sealer on it about a month ago. It gets a lot of sun, so we will probably do that every 2-3 years to keep it nice. Price wise, I think it was about 3 grand for about 400 sq ft, though I don't remember the exact cost.
Here is a blog post about the process since I have no idea how to PIP here. www.jhawks482.blogspot.com/2011/09/around-fort.html

[darkling_glory]

Aug 6, 2013 8:43:29 GMT -5 jhawks482 said:

We have a stamped concrete patio. I cannot say enough great things about it, it's SO beautiful and we get so many compliments on it. Maintenance wise, we've had it 2 years, and just put a a fresh coat of sealer on it about a month ago. It gets a lot of sun, so we will probably do that every 2-3 years to keep it nice. Price wise, I think it was about 3 grand for about 400 sq ft, though I don't remember the exact cost.
Here is a blog post about the process since I have no idea how to PIP here. www.jhawks482.blogspot.com/2011/09/around-fort.html

Thank you! This is exactly what my husband wants, and I'm definitely coming around. Gorgeous!

[aweilba]

 We have a concrete slab patio and I love it.  It requires very little upkeep.  I'm not sure on the cost because it was here when we bought the place.

[wineenthusiast]

As long as you are willing to do the sealer every couple years, I love concrete. We have a TON of concrete around our house! We had existing concrete and didn't want to do a topping so we just cut in a diamond design, stained & sealed it. Then when we added to it, we just kept it consistent but I would have loved to have stamped concrete. The stain and sealer wear off pretty quickly in the sun. We may still eventually do a topping/stamp but it seems like an unnecessary cost (and we don't even pay labor cuz H does it for a living, lol).

We also have flagstone around our fire pit but it is kind of a PITA with furniture b/c the chairs aren't real sturdy where sand meets rock. Its fine for a few chairs around a fire. I do love the look of it and don't want to change it there but wouldn't want it where we have a dining set.

[stephm0188]

We have a brick paver patio. I like it, but it requires upkeep to keep the weeds at bay.

[Deleted]

I vote concrete as well. That's what ours will be when we get to it. (hopefully next summer).

Where do you live? Brick pavers aren't even an option where I live because frost will break them up and make them all uneven in about one winter.

[darkling_glory]

Dairy, we're in Illinois.

Wine, could you post pictures? Also, does your husband do quotes to see how much it'd cost? Lol!

[lavender444]

We have a concrete slab as well. We had a really small pad when we moved in. We enlarged it so it's 20 X40 ish. I love it. Since part of our pad was existing, we could not stamp and stain it all so we opted to just cut in and stain a boarder. We hired the work out, and it was about $6 a sq foot (that included labor costs). It was actually more affordable than if. We mixed and laid our own concrete.

[darkling_glory]

Aug 6, 2013 17:50:22 GMT -5 lavender444 said:

We have a concrete slab as well. We had a really small pad when we moved in. We enlarged it so it's 20 X40 ish. I love it. Since part of our pad was existing, we could not stamp and stain it all so we opted to just cut in and stain a boarder. We hired the work out, and it was about $6 a sq foot (that included labor costs). It was actually more affordable than if. We mixed and laid our own concrete.

Man, if I could find $6 square foot, that'd be amazing!

[wineenthusiast]

This is my first attempt at uploading from the iPhone app so bear with me if it doesn't work... The first pic is our firepit with flagstone. We think we are going to add a little more.

The second pic is our main patio. Dont mind the mess, we threw everything under "shelter" for the rain. The color is 3 years old and the blue isn't holding as we'll as the topaz. We might change it a little. The last pic is a sidewalk/garden we added because we kept flooding there. We haven't colored it yet. It will probably be all topaz. My H does patios for friends/fam but since he doesn't own a business he doesn't get material cheap but he has a few hook ups thru friends. He'd def quote it but he'd tell you to get another quote in case someone could else could save you more $. I will look for a picture of one of his side jobs with stamps.

[darkling_glory]

Pretty! Thanks for the pictures!

I'm going to have to call around and find some companies to get quotes from.