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Composite Deck or Paver Patio? (1 Viewer)

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mfleeter

Footballguy
I'm getting old, and I'm moving into a new house. I want to have a deck built or maybe a paver patio installed. I'm not doing this one myself. I'll hire some professionals. I've always had a deck on my houses in the past - I know I didn't like staining/sealing my deck all the time. and replacing boards, etc. If I do get a deck this time, it will be composite to ease up on the maintenance. Are these really "maintenance free"? The salesguys sure think so. I'm not so sure.

Also considering a paver patio instead. Seems pretty maintenance free. If I had one of these built, it would be multi leveled, with a dedicated fire pit area. Not a home made one from Home Depot.

What would you build - a Composite (Trex type) Deck, or a nice multi level Paver Patio?

 
Paver patios can make the yard look elegant and sophisticated. Composite decks look like, well decks.

 
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I just finished my backyard project and went with stamped (textured) concrete. Did a kidney bean shape, and it was actually less money than a paver. Very pleased with the outcome.

Yes, I understand I'll get some cracking over time. But they ran rebar through the whole thing so their shouldn't be large gaps if it does crack.

 
Johnny Bing said:
I just finished my backyard project and went with stamped (textured) concrete. Did a kidney bean shape, and it was actually less money than a paver. Very pleased with the outcome.

Yes, I understand I'll get some cracking over time. But they ran rebar through the whole thing so their shouldn't be large gaps if it does crack.
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Stamped concrete is also a much more refined look than decking. I replaced the deck that came with the house with stamped concrete and, imho, it classed up the whole back yard.

 
We are faced with that exact decision right now. Leaning the patio route but issue is that our backyard will be graded so would have to do a multi-level patio. I'll follow along in this thread and also provide anything we learn in the near future as well.

 
I just finished building a composite deck. I love it.

But...If I had the yard for it and wasn't worried about the budget, I'd go stamped concrete. We have a MAJOR weed issue, and the pavers in the front get weeds that drive me nuts. Even with polymeric sand. At some point, I'm tearing up my walk and going stamped concrete.

I'd go stamped concrete if you have a space flexible enough to do any option.

 
James Daulton said:
Paver patios can make the yard look elegant and sophisticated. Composite decks look like, well decks.
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this. i'd never go deck over patio. you can do a lot of cool things with patios. you'll have the option of putting some nice landscaping around the patio. the patio is at the same level as the rest of the yard so it naturally transitions. i can't stand deck railings; get in the way of your line of sight when you're sitting down especially if you have a nice yard. the only knock i can find against a patio is if your house was slightly elevated and you had to have some stairs down to it.

 
We are in this same dilemma. I have pretty much crossed off the composite deck in favor of pavers, but have been also thinking about stamped concrete more and more. I will also be paying close attention to this thread

 
NutterButter said:
James Daulton said:
Paver patios can make the yard look elegant and sophisticated. Composite decks look like, well decks.
Click to expand...
this. i'd never go deck over patio. you can do a lot of cool things with patios. you'll have the option of putting some nice landscaping around the patio. the patio is at the same level as the rest of the yard so it naturally transitions. i can't stand deck railings; get in the way of your line of sight when you're sitting down especially if you have a nice yard. the only knock i can find against a patio is if your house was slightly elevated and you had to have some stairs down to it.
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Same here...I paid extra for the lower-profile round balusters when I rebuilt my deck recently. The only reason I kept it as a deck was that I have a really big flat yard, and I wanted something elevated. I may do some sort of larger patio at the stairs at some point. I've got plenty of room...but without something elevated, I'd have had stairs down from the patio door, and then basically 2.5 acres of yard...all flat.

 
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Fat Nick said:
I just finished building a composite deck. I love it.

But...If I had the yard for it and wasn't worried about the budget, I'd go stamped concrete. We have a MAJOR weed issue, and the pavers in the front get weeds that drive me nuts. Even with polymeric sand. At some point, I'm tearing up my walk and going stamped concrete.

I'd go stamped concrete if you have a space flexible enough to do any option.
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If I end up doing a paver patio, I was going to put landscape fabric underneath the sand to prevent weeds from springing up. Not sure if this is viable, but I see no reason why it wouldn't be

 
How do they do this? Do they color the concrete after its poured and stamped?

The concrete is nice, but I'm not sure I'd like the the inconsistency of textures between the concrete and the firepit/bench.

 
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To give you an idea, the company that bid my back yard bid it as follows: (appx 600 sq foot project)

$4/sq ft basic concrete (sidewalk)

$7/sq ft textured stamp concrete

$9/sq ft colored textured stamp concrete

$12/sq ft pattern stamped concrete

$15/sq ft paver

I asked him why the paver is so much money, he said because of the time and labor it takes laying each individual piece. For a project this size it would be faster to pour the concrete. I'll post some pics later if you wanted an idea of what I did.

 
NutterButter said:
James Daulton said:
Paver patios can make the yard look elegant and sophisticated. Composite decks look like, well decks.
Click to expand...
this. i'd never go deck over patio. you can do a lot of cool things with patios. you'll have the option of putting some nice landscaping around the patio. the patio is at the same level as the rest of the yard so it naturally transitions. i can't stand deck railings; get in the way of your line of sight when you're sitting down especially if you have a nice yard. the only knock i can find against a patio is if your house was slightly elevated and you had to have some stairs down to it.
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This is our issue. And it'll end up being about 6 steps which is why I'm looking at multilevel to break it up.

 
We put a composite deck off the back of our house last year and love it. It is about 10 feet above grade. If I was doing something ground level, I would go with the concrete or pavers, with a fire pit. The composite deck will get very hot in the sun.

 
NutterButter said:
How do they do this? Do they color the concrete after its poured and stamped?

The concrete is nice, but I'm not sure I'd like the the inconsistency of textures between the concrete and the firepit/bench.
Click to expand...
they can add color in the concrete as it is mixed but that looks like they added a dry shake coloring powder after stamping as the concrete was curing brohan and i agree on the mixed textures but that is because they used that material there are a lot of block formations and that is just one that does not look good its a selection issue there brohan take that to the bank

 
ps the composite decks are nice if you need to be up from grade but if you can get to grade do a poured patio or pavers i would bet a real estate guru would tell you that adds value but that aint me bromigos so i can not take that to the bank

 
SWC said:
NutterButter said:
How do they do this? Do they color the concrete after its poured and stamped?

The concrete is nice, but I'm not sure I'd like the the inconsistency of textures between the concrete and the firepit/bench.
Click to expand...
they can add color in the concrete as it is mixed but that looks like they added a dry shake coloring powder after stamping as the concrete was curing brohan and i agree on the mixed textures but that is because they used that material there are a lot of block formations and that is just one that does not look good its a selection issue there brohan take that to the bank
Click to expand...
This is much better than pavers.

 
Da Guru said:
SWC said:
NutterButter said:
How do they do this? Do they color the concrete after its poured and stamped?

The concrete is nice, but I'm not sure I'd like the the inconsistency of textures between the concrete and the firepit/bench.
Click to expand...
they can add color in the concrete as it is mixed but that looks like they added a dry shake coloring powder after stamping as the concrete was curing brohan and i agree on the mixed textures but that is because they used that material there are a lot of block formations and that is just one that does not look good its a selection issue there brohan take that to the bank
Click to expand...
This is much better than pavers.
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it depends what you want brohan the pavers look really nice if you get a good stone and have a pro properly bed and put them in i mean heck it looks classy and historic and all that but it means maintenance and you have to put in polymeric spray weed killer etc heck if you get moss going between them it is downright the prettiest thing going but like i said it costs and it means upcare costs so that is the trade off take that to the bank

 
I agree - if it's close to grade don't do a raised deck.

I disagree about the pavers - most of the time they look too traditional and I'm not a big fan of suburbanites thinking their back yard is an Italian grotto or English walled garden. But my taste is a bit more modern/clean so I'm not a fan of lots of detailed patterns. I'd personally go stained concrete without stamped.

 
So I'm curious what some of you think might be a good idea to do with this area. Granted, this is not the best pic (and I can get more tomorrow), but if anyone has some thoughts based on this, let me know:

The area I'm talking about is the dirt area contained by the larger retaining wall. It's about 30' wide from that door all the way to the left out to the edge of the wall where the guy is and goes out about 20'. As you can see the grade is currently below that door. It still has to be filled in a little more but it won't go much higher. It's also currently supposed to slope gradually down from the house to the retaining wall. We were initially going to just do a deck, but now that I'm seeing the area after the retaining wall is in, I'm much more interested in doing a patio. Of course, the problem is, I'd rather not have to go down 6 steps to get to it, thus the thought of doing at least a couple levels.

We can't make the retaining wall any higher because of code (6' max).

Picture

Any thoughts or ideas?

 
ok because i obviously have a lot comprehension issues i just typed and deleted a big response about the low area under the wall and on that i will just say light colored concrete with no pattern or stamping because it will be to busy if you do anything else and you just want to make that kick butt retaining wall pop which a light flat concrete patio will do down there now on to the area up above first let me say you have a sweet shack brohan honest that is an awesome house but that is an odd space up there i sort of feel like you are forced in to some type of deck because the door is so high above grade and they left the foundation panels high versus grade so you would have that light foundation wall exterior next to a patio on grade where i guess you could maybe paint or stain it and then plant right there to conceal it but i sort of feel like a deck makes more sense also that is a pretty severe drop at the foundation wall so you would want a rail hell it might be required in your area and a deck probably makes more sense on that too and finally you probably want that area to remain pitched to not hold water or create issues with the retaining wall so again deck is the answer but hey that is just ten minutes now of thinking on it take that to the bank also what does the door up above serve brohan

 
also on a deck you could do a nice dark composite so no maintenance maybe with wrought iron spindles or something to be dark like the color of your door and window casing and it would set off nicely against the color of the house siding and your brick bromigo and last but not least maybe have an architect or designer come up with some plans on a home like that you want it to look great and just getting a square deck might not be the call spend the extra couple bucks and get a pro plan for the deck and landscaping back there take that to the bank in terms of property value brohan

 
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SWC said:
ok because i obviously have a lot comprehension issues i just typed and deleted a big response about the low area under the wall and on that i will just say light colored concrete with no pattern or stamping because it will be to busy if you do anything else and you just want to make that kick butt retaining wall pop which a light flat concrete patio will do down there now on to the area up above first let me say you have a sweet shack brohan honest that is an awesome house but that is an odd space up there i sort of feel like you are forced in to some type of deck because the door is so high above grade and they left the foundation panels high versus grade so you would have that light foundation wall exterior next to a patio on grade where i guess you could maybe paint or stain it and then plant right there to conceal it but i sort of feel like a deck makes more sense also that is a pretty severe drop at the foundation wall so you would want a rail hell it might be required in your area and a deck probably makes more sense on that too and finally you probably want that area to remain pitched to not hold water or create issues with the retaining wall so again deck is the answer but hey that is just ten minutes now of thinking on it take that to the bank also what does the door up above serve brohan
Click to expand...
That door is from the kitchen.

Yeah, would have to do something about the foundation, but even some landscaping can help cover that up so I'm not too worried about that part. I agree a deck makes the most sense, but I like the way patios look much more.

 
Dickies said:
Fat Nick said:
I just finished building a composite deck. I love it.

But...If I had the yard for it and wasn't worried about the budget, I'd go stamped concrete. We have a MAJOR weed issue, and the pavers in the front get weeds that drive me nuts. Even with polymeric sand. At some point, I'm tearing up my walk and going stamped concrete.

I'd go stamped concrete if you have a space flexible enough to do any option.
Click to expand...
If I end up doing a paver patio, I was going to put landscape fabric underneath the sand to prevent weeds from springing up. Not sure if this is viable, but I see no reason why it wouldn't be
Click to expand...
The issue isn't so much what is under the pavers when you lay them down, it's what settles on them over time. Weeds are crazy resilient. My pavers out front had landscape fabric under them. What happens is, you mow your grass or a bird craps on your patio and seeds end up on your pavers. The seeds work their way into any crack in the polymeric sand and take root. The weed grows, and makes the crack bigger, more weeds show up, etc.

There's really no way to keep weeds from being a problem with pavers, even if you laid down a solid plastic barrier under the pavers (NOT recommending this). It will happen. You can minimize the impact, but it will happen.

 
My side business includes installing paver patios and composite decking. Most of our work is at high end homes and most of those homeowners go with pavers. It is simply classier. I like the look of stamped/colored concrete but in NE Ohio, the concrete has a tendency to move and crack. You can repair paver patios if they sink or move.

If you choose to go with the paver patio, make sure it is slightly raised with a versalock block retaining wall forming the outside bowl. Do not use wooden rails or the plastic paver edging. They will fail or move. And, the outside of the versalock block looks fantastic once you seal it with the patio.

Round your corners. Add a sitting wall on a rounded part of the bowl. That always looks great and eliminates the need for many chairs. The sitting wall is a big area of sealed stone that will catch everyones eye.

Use the wet-look sealer to seal the pavers, sitting walls, and outside of the versalock block.

Weeds will not grow up through the bottom of the patio. There is no need to put down a weed barrier. However, you will fight with moss and grass growing in the sand joints. Dirt, leaves, grass clippings, etc. get in those joints and plants will grow. You have to keep the patio clean and sealed. Use a leaf blower or broom to clean the patio every week. I use a leaf blower which takes about 2 minutes for my 900 sf patio.

Every 2 years, pressure wash the patio being careful not to blast out too much of the sand. Broom in more sand. Reseal after the patio dries. That entire proces will involve two hours.

As mentioned in the first paragraph, paver patios can be repaired if they move (sink typically). You pick up the pavers in the problem area, add sand, screed, and put the pavers back down. Seal the whole thing.

 
gianmarco said:
So I'm curious what some of you think might be a good idea to do with this area. Granted, this is not the best pic (and I can get more tomorrow), but if anyone has some thoughts based on this, let me know:

The area I'm talking about is the dirt area contained by the larger retaining wall. It's about 30' wide from that door all the way to the left out to the edge of the wall where the guy is and goes out about 20'. As you can see the grade is currently below that door. It still has to be filled in a little more but it won't go much higher. It's also currently supposed to slope gradually down from the house to the retaining wall. We were initially going to just do a deck, but now that I'm seeing the area after the retaining wall is in, I'm much more interested in doing a patio. Of course, the problem is, I'd rather not have to go down 6 steps to get to it, thus the thought of doing at least a couple levels.

We can't make the retaining wall any higher because of code (6' max).

Picture

Any thoughts or ideas?
Click to expand...
That's a challenging space, but a cool one too. If I had that space, I'd put a nice composite deck up by the kitchen door. Not a big one. Just enough room for a grill, and some seating. Then I'd do a cool staircase down to the lower level at the base of the wall, and have a patio down there with more "chill" seating.

I'd have the deck follow the curved contour of the retaining wall. It'd be a neat design feature. It could overhang the wall some, or just come to it...either way. A small overhang would be cool b/c it could provide sheltered seating underneath. I know this isn't your space exactly, but something like THIS would be cool.

The biggest challenge I see would be code for the footings on a deck like that. Most code (at least in NJ) requires footings to be X inches below the frost line - unless it's in "disturbed" soil, in which case you have to go X inches below where the soil is disturbed. In the case of that wall, that could mean that a footing could be 6' (the depth from the top of the dirt on the wall to the bottom) + whatever your code is (3' in most of NJ) - so upwards of 9' deep. That'd be a pain.

 
I have a paver patio that I put in last Spring. Was pretty simple to do myself. It's 13x24. Have a slight issue with some weeds popping through, but other than that, it's pretty simple to maintain. It's nice because when my 3 y/o daughter gets older and I don't need as much back yard space, it'll be easy to expand.

 
I'm in the middle of putting in decomposed granite right now in a section of my yard. Very natural look and good for the kids to run around on.

 
MattFancy said:
I have a paver patio that I put in last Spring. Was pretty simple to do myself. It's 13x24. Have a slight issue with some weeds popping through, but other than that, it's pretty simple to maintain. It's nice because when my 3 y/o daughter gets older and I don't need as much back yard space, it'll be easy to expand.
Click to expand...
Have you sprayed it with Round Up and then sealed it? That should help for awhile.

 
DocHolliday said:
MattFancy said:
I have a paver patio that I put in last Spring. Was pretty simple to do myself. It's 13x24. Have a slight issue with some weeds popping through, but other than that, it's pretty simple to maintain. It's nice because when my 3 y/o daughter gets older and I don't need as much back yard space, it'll be easy to expand.
Click to expand...
Have you sprayed it with Round Up and then sealed it? That should help for awhile.
Click to expand...
Did round up. Haven't sealed it. What do I need for that?

 
the sealer makes your polymetric sand turn hard like mortar which makes it hard for weeds to get through and also makes the sand stay put longer bromigo

 
on the pavers it also fills up pores and keeps junk out of them and also can somewhat prevent water from getting in to cracks freezing and thawing etc but to me that has never been a big issue bromigo mostly on the pavers i always feel like it is about looks like if you want them to look wet or shiny or whatever take that to the bank

 
SWC said:
on the pavers it also fills up pores and keeps junk out of them and also can somewhat prevent water from getting in to cracks freezing and thawing etc but to me that has never been a big issue bromigo mostly on the pavers i always feel like it is about looks like if you want them to look wet or shiny or whatever take that to the bank
Click to expand...
I sealed mine after I re-did the sand with polymeric. It dried really cloudy. I think I'd have been better off spraying it on vs. rolling it on. It didn't really last very long either.

I guess sealing pavers isn't a strength of mine.

 
I always spray the sealer on. If it dried cloudy, you probably put it on too thick or put it on when it was very humid.

Spray the sealer on lightly. Go too light rather than too heavy. You are going to put on a second coat in about 4 to 6 hours anyway.

 
DocHolliday said:
I always spray the sealer on. If it dried cloudy, you probably put it on too thick or put it on when it was very humid.

Spray the sealer on lightly. Go too light rather than too heavy. You are going to put on a second coat in about 4 to 6 hours anyway.
Click to expand...
Probably both...Any way you know of to make the cloudiness go away?

 
Fat Nick said:
SWC said:
on the pavers it also fills up pores and keeps junk out of them and also can somewhat prevent water from getting in to cracks freezing and thawing etc but to me that has never been a big issue bromigo mostly on the pavers i always feel like it is about looks like if you want them to look wet or shiny or whatever take that to the bank
Click to expand...
I sealed mine after I re-did the sand with polymeric. It dried really cloudy. I think I'd have been better off spraying it on vs. rolling it on. It didn't really last very long either.

I guess sealing pavers isn't a strength of mine.
Click to expand...
brohan what you lack in sealing pavers you more than make up for in office pranks take that to the bank

 
I did this two summers ago and I went with the pavers. I also considered stamped concrete but since I was replacing an original concrete patio that had cracked due to soil expansion, I sent the paver route. I am glad I did.

First off, the bids I received for stamped concrete were more expensive for pavers. Second, the finish on the stamped concrete got quite slippery when wet and would have to be reapplied every few years. Finally, we have had no soil expansion problems. No weed problems either. We did go with the polymeric sand too. We are very happy with our paver patio. We had them add in a fire pit and seating area too. Very nice. Year round use.

 
James Bond said:
I did this two summers ago and I went with the pavers. I also considered stamped concrete but since I was replacing an original concrete patio that had cracked due to soil expansion, I sent the paver route. I am glad I did.

First off, the bids I received for stamped concrete were more expensive for pavers. Second, the finish on the stamped concrete got quite slippery when wet and would have to be reapplied every few years. Finally, we have had no soil expansion problems. No weed problems either. We did go with the polymeric sand too. We are very happy with our paver patio. We had them add in a fire pit and seating area too. Very nice. Year round use.
Click to expand...
May I ask what you spent on this? Also, how did you go about finding an outfit to do this for you? Is this something you could do yourself or are you glad you hired a pro? Need to do this at my house...

We were thinking of just pouring concrete like we did at our old house, but I'm not sure that's what I want to do anymore.

 
old doc is the man his advice up top is top shelf read that through and think hard about what he is saying bromigos

 
General Malaise said:
James Bond said:
I did this two summers ago and I went with the pavers. I also considered stamped concrete but since I was replacing an original concrete patio that had cracked due to soil expansion, I sent the paver route. I am glad I did.

First off, the bids I received for stamped concrete were more expensive for pavers. Second, the finish on the stamped concrete got quite slippery when wet and would have to be reapplied every few years. Finally, we have had no soil expansion problems. No weed problems either. We did go with the polymeric sand too. We are very happy with our paver patio. We had them add in a fire pit and seating area too. Very nice. Year round use.
Click to expand...
May I ask what you spent on this? Also, how did you go about finding an outfit to do this for you? Is this something you could do yourself or are you glad you hired a pro? Need to do this at my house...

We were thinking of just pouring concrete like we did at our old house, but I'm not sure that's what I want to do anymore.
Click to expand...
There is a garden and home show here every year. We went and collected a few cards. Then we had them come to look it over and give us an estimate. Most did both concrete and pavers. We asked for references in our area and then went out to see their work and talk to the homeowners. I would not have done it my self. There was concrete removal, ground preparation, gas line work etc. I am glad we hired a pro. I think we spent about $6K.

 
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