Concrete Patios in Irondequoit, NY

What goes into building a concrete patio?

We start by laying the shape out on the ground with paint or string and having you stand in it. People almost always picture a patio smaller than the one they want, and moving a line before we dig is free. Once the size is settled we strip the topsoil out, all of it, because organic soil keeps compressing for years under load, and cut down to subgrade. Stone goes in and gets compacted, forms get set, and the surface is pitched a quarter inch per foot away from the house.

That pitch is not optional on these lots. Flat patios hold water, drained-wrong patios send it at the foundation, and either way you get a sheet of ice at the back door from December on. After the pour we finish the surface, cut the joints, and cure it. A patio takes the same base work we do under a driveway even though it never carries a vehicle, because the frost under it doesn't know the difference.

Finishes are a choice you make at the estimate: a broom finish for grip, a smoother trowel finish under a covered area, exposed aggregate for texture, integral color in the mix, or a pattern pressed into it while it is wet.

When is it time for a new patio?

Most of the calls we take are about an old patio doing one of four things. It has settled toward the house and now water runs back to the siding and sills. It has heaved at one corner and rocks under a chair leg. It is cracked into pieces that sit at different heights. Or the surface has scaled off into rough grit that catches on bare feet and holds dirt no matter how often it is swept.

The other common reason is simpler: the patio is too small. Four by six feet of concrete outside a slider was normal when these houses were built and it does not hold a table and chairs. Extending is usually a matter of tearing the old pad out rather than butting new concrete against it, because a cold joint between old and new becomes the first crack.

Why do patios crack, tip or sink?

Backyards are where the builder's fill ended up. On a lot of properties in this town the ground behind the house was never compacted the way the driveway side was, and a patio sitting on loose fill settles unevenly the first time it gets a wet spring. Downspouts make it worse. If a leader dumps at the corner of the slab, it is washing fines out from under the concrete a little at a time, and after a decade there is a void under that corner with nothing holding it up.

Then there is frost. The lake-plain silt and clay here holds water, and wet soil that freezes expands and lifts whatever sits on it. That is why a patio can rise at one end over a winter and not come all the way back down in spring. And because a patio usually touches the house, any movement shows up as a gap at the foundation or a door that suddenly scrapes.

Missing or badly spaced control joints finish the job. Concrete shrinks as it cures. It will crack. Joints cut at the right spacing decide where.

What affects the price of a patio?

Size and shape both count: curves and angles take more forming time than a rectangle. Access is usually the biggest single factor on a backyard job, because if there is no gate a truck can reach, the concrete goes around the house one barrow at a time, and that is hours of labor. Removing an existing slab adds breaking, loading and disposal. Soft or wet ground means more excavation and more stone. Thickness, reinforcement, a thickened edge where a roof post will land, steps down to the lawn, a drain, color, and any stamped or exposed finish all change the number. We price it all out in writing before anything starts.

Repair or replace an existing patio?

If the slab is sound and one section has settled, lifting it is often worth doing and costs far less than replacement. A single crack with both sides still level can be sealed and left alone. What does not pay is resurfacing a patio that is broken into several pieces sitting at different heights, or one that pitches toward the house. You would be putting a new face on a slab that is going to keep moving and keep sending water where it shouldn't go. When the base under it is the problem, the base has to come up, and at that point you are pouring a new patio anyway.

Patio questions we get

How big should the patio be?

A table with four chairs needs about twelve by twelve feet to let people push back and stand up without stepping off the edge. Add a grill and you want a few more feet on one side. It is far cheaper to pour the size you want now than to extend it in three years, because extending means tearing out and matching, and new concrete never quite matches old.

Concrete or pavers?

Pavers flex with frost and individual units can be lifted and reset, but there are joints everywhere for weeds and ants, and on our freeze-thaw cycle they need resetting sooner than people expect. Poured concrete is one surface with nothing to weed, it costs less per square foot installed, and it takes a snow shovel without lifting pieces. If the look of stone is what you are after, a stamped slab gets you most of the way there for less.

When can we use it?

Walk on it after a day or so and put furniture on it after a week. Keep anything heavy, like a hot tub, off for a month. If we are sealing or staining, that happens a few weeks after the pour once the slab has dried out enough to take it.

Will it hold up if I get a hot tub later?

Only if we know now. A filled hot tub with people in it is a concentrated load most patio slabs are not poured for. Tell us at the estimate and we thicken that area and add reinforcement, which costs very little at pour time and is impossible to add afterward.