Dan's Papers - June 29, 2007

It can be an escape from the heat. It can be the perfect setting for cocktails or a place to catch an early evening breeze, to chat with friends, to host an open-air dinner. A deck or patio can be your favorite room that's not in your house. So versatile, so many options. However you design it, your deck or patio is the place to be during the summer.

With all the options available for patios and decks remember to pick the option that best suits your needs. How you live and what you use your deck for can determine everything, right down to brick choice or wood selection.

Start at the bottom and work your way up. Look at options for the floor of your patio. Bricks are a good way to incorporate both color and pattern in a subtle way. There are plenty of colors and finishes to choose from. You can play with arranging different color bricks into designs, stripes, circle, shapes and borders. Brick blends well with most surrounding building materials and nearby settings. Stone, with its natural, rustic appeal, also fits in well with surrounding landscapes and foliage. Beware if you are looking for uniformity, as pieces of stone, even those cut from the same boulder, can vary greatly in color and pattern. Some stones come as pavers, which form an interlocking patio surface. Others, made of concrete, are designed to simulate real stone. Pavers are available in various shapes and have the added benefit of being stronger than brick. The benefit of outdoor titles, on the other hand, is their smoothness and their ability to be clean easily. Porcelain titles and asphalt-stabilized adobe are your best bets for weather durability. Terra cotta, while attractive and colorful, does not stand up well to winter weather.

Awnings are also important to look at when considering the weather. Retractable ones are best if you plan to have your morning coffee in the sun but want shade during lunch. Choose an awning that works well with the size, color and style of your home. Certain fabrics look best with certain architectural styles. Neutrals, forest green and navy do not impose on traditional-style homes. Stripes look well against colonial and cottage-style houses. Sunnier colors like salmon go well with southwestern-styles and stucco walls. No matter the style, fabric with wide stripes can overwhelm a small house. Small stripes can look busy on wide stretches of fabric. If you have a traditional home, straight-lined awning will look clean and attractive. If your home is modern it will afford you more freedom to play with scalloped or notched-edged valances. If your home has many angled rooflines or other structures, keep the awning design simple and the fabric solid. In addition, consider not just your house's style, but also its surroundings. For wooded areas, neutral and earthy colored fabrics look best. Bright colors play well against beach or poolside patios.

Sometimes you'd rather not coordinate with your surroundings. Planters and fountains create atmosphere while supplying privacy. Consider lining your patio with tall two-tired planters, or with ones that have trellises attached. Climbing flowers like morning glory and climbing roses can provide color and charm while also blocking unwanted views. Fountains can help mask the noisy surrounding with their pleasant gurgling. Patio fountains can be small or even tabletop affairs.

When dealing with decks, one way to achieve privacy is by building high-backed seating along the perimeter of the deck. The tall, solid bench backs double as a railing that provides plenty of privacy. Add a table to section of this seating area to create a dining corner of the deck.

Some may prefer to keep the eating area even more segregated by positioning it on a whole separate level. This is one way multi-tired deck can come in handy. Or maybe you'd like to install a spa on the lower level and a bar/cabana area on the upper one.

Regardless of number of levels, all decks need a good base. What you want to walk on depends largely on your taste and how much maintenance you are willing to do. Composite and vinyl decking requires less maintenance than wood, but can be more costly. They also swell, shrink, warp, or splinter less than wood does. Pressure-treated pine and fir are rot resistant and inexpensive. Red cedar, redwood, and other tropical hardwoods are more costly but require less maintenance and no chemical treatments.