About Building a Concrete Patio in Your Backyard

If you want to enjoy the outdoor spaces of your house, then building a concrete patio would serve the purpose very well. If care is taken to construct the patio without any flaws, then such a place can be used to great advantage and help the family in having a great time.

In today's world where there is a very high demand for the casual style of living, a backyard patio is an extremely valuable feature of the house. You can build your patio in such a manner that it blends with the ambience of your house and stands out as a place to relax, unwind and de-stress yourselves. If you are the partying kind, then this will be the perfect place for you to entertain your friends and family. Having intimate barbecues is also possible in the backyard patio and if you adorn it with comfortable chairs and tables, it will be the place where the majority of the family is heading towards most of the time.

The material for a modern patio that will give you least trouble along with presenting an aesthetic appearance is decorative concrete. This looks very similar to actual stone and the designs that are available in this material can even better the look provided by natural stone, flagstone, bricks, slate etc. There used to be a time when people preferred stone patios but today the scenario has changed due to factors like cost and minimal usage of stone which makes the use of decorative concrete much more feasible and beautiful. The greatest advantage with decorative concrete is that it will give a very natural look to the patio and you will feel entirely at home because of this material.

Another reason for the popularity of concrete patio is that installation is relatively simple as concrete can be easily molded into the shape that you desire. In addition, the gigantic proportions of concrete works as well as single stone blocks that are laid for constructing the patio. With concrete, you also have the option of a huge variety of shades and the flexibility of having stunning textures and surface designs that make the whole patio very artistic.

All you need to remember is that the thickness of your concrete slab should not be less than 4 inches. Before you plan to build the patio, the backyard has to be readied so that pouring the concrete onto the ground will not present any problems. Since concrete needs a base, the ground should be dug up to 6 inches and filled with crushed stone or gravel. After this, further strength has to be imparted to the base with the help of iron that is placed in the form of rocks below the gravel. Once the concrete is poured, it will take four or five days for it to be completely set and fulfill its function as a patio.