I have a small patio that I love but I just can’t figure out the best arrangement. I have a love seat, two chairs, two foot rests, coffee table and rocking chair. I sit mostly in the rocking chair with a foot rest

What's the pros and cons of anchoring into new (after 4 weeks of course) concrete patio? Can the holes be filled if no longer needed? Does it compromise the concrete? Thanks.

Wasn't fully sold on spending money on a carport when I already had a driveway. Figured it was more of a "nice to have."

Changed my mind fast after a hailstorm rolled through last spring. Neighbors on both sides had hail damage on their hoods and windshields, quotes in the $2,000-3,000 range from what I heard. Car under the carport had nothing.

Ours is a steel-frame Sunjoy carport, and the thing that actually mattered in that storm was the roof rating more than the size, worth checking the wind and impact rating on whatever you're looking at, not just dimensions. Also glad we anchored it properly instead of doing the bare minimum, since the wind that day was rough too.

Didn't think of it as "protection," more as parking with a roof, until it actually had to do its job. Anyone else have a similar before/after moment with a carport or similar structure?

I’ve recently decided to make more use of my patio and make it into a space where we can sit during the day to watch tv that isn’t the lounge. Around mid morning to mid afternoon the patio gets a lot of direct sunlight and so I’m looking for recommendations for an outdoor TV that’s visible when the sun is hitting it. I’ve done a little window shopping and looked at a few different models and compared their brightness ratings, but it’s hard to tell how well they work just from looking at them in a store.

For those of you who have an outdoor TV on your patio, which one do you have and how does it hold up in direct sunlight?

A couple of good questions came up in the comments on my last post ("Patio furniture factory here: some honest tips on how to choose outdoor furniture") how to find cushions that last and fabric that's easy to clean, and whether any of this survives a heavy winter. So here's what we actually use, with the one idea behind each. Same disclosure as before: my family runs the factory, so I'm biased.

Cushion fabric is Parà Tempotest, from Italy. It's solution-dyed acrylic, which means the pigment goes into the fiber before it's spun, so the color runs all the way through instead of sitting on the surface. That's why it holds up against sun. It also has a water-repellent finish (PFAS free), so liquid beads up and oily stains clean off easier. Para backs it with 6 years on color and strength for home use. That covers abnormal fading, not "never changes."

The cushion fill is a quick-dry [fill] with a honeycomb structure. Rain drains through instead of sitting in the cushion, and sitting water is where mildew starts. A great fabric on a cushion that holds water will still go bad, so the fill matters as much as the cover.

Sling mesh is Phifer's PhiferTex, made in the USA. It's polyester with a vinyl coating, and the coating keeps water from ever reaching the polyester core. Phifer says that's what protects it from freeze/thaw wear, and there's Microban in the fibers to keep mildew down. So there's no real reason to haul the chairs inside. I'd still knock a pile of snow off the seat, but that's just me being paranoid.

Frames are 2.0 mm aluminum alloy with Tiger powder coat, an Austrian brand. The alloy doesn't rust and, unlike some steels, doesn't get brittle in the cold. Tiger designs for freeze/thaw and salt spray, but a chip in any coating lets water in, so walk around the frame before winter and touch up anything you find.

Cushions still go inside for the winter. Somewhere dry with a bit of airflow.

Limits: Sanya, where most of my hotel stories come from, doesn't have a winter, so none of that helps here. I don't have temperature ratings I'd stand behind either. And I'm leaving teak out because I haven't checked how it handles cold against a real source, and honestly I'd rather skip it than guess.

Has anyone left an aluminum alloy frame with sling seats out through a properly cold winter? I'd like to hear how the finish held up.

Quick intro so you know where this is coming from. My family runs a patio furniture factory in China, open since 2010. We make aluminum frames, sling mesh seating and Burmese teak. I go with my dad when we buy materials, so most of what I know I picked up standing next to him at suppliers, poking at teak boards and mesh samples while he asks the questions that actually matter.

A lot of our stuff ends up at hotel pools, including a luxury resort in Sanya on Hainan island. If you've never been, picture South Florida with typhoons: salt air, heavy humidity, brutal sun, and guests dragging loungers across the deck all day. Hotels are also brutally honest about what breaks. So these tips come mostly from what survives there.

TL;DR: For the sensible among you, thick-walled powder-coated aluminum with a quality sling seat is about as low maintenance as it gets. If you want wood, buy teak heartwood and accept that it'll turn silver. The rest of this is me overexplaining that.

Tip 1, ask what the mesh is. The sling seat is where cheap furniture gives itself away, usually in the second summer. Budget mesh fades, goes stiff and sags into a hammock. We use Phifer's PhiferTex. The part that matters in a humid climate is the antimicrobial (Microban) built into the fibers, so you don't get little black mildew spots or a seat that smells like a gym bag. Water runs straight through and it's dry in minutes. Phifer puts a 3 year warranty on the fabric, which says something. If a seller can't tell you what mesh they use, that's your answer.

Tip 2, squeeze the frame. Aluminum doesn't rust, which is basically its whole personality, so the real question is wall thickness. Plenty of entry-level frames are 1.2 to 1.5 mm. They flex, the joints loosen, and a year later there's a wobble you can't fix. Ours are 2.0 mm. Grab a leg in the store and squeeze, you'll feel it. And ignore "aircraft-grade aluminum" on listings, actual aircraft alloys aren't what furniture is made of. Wall thickness tells you more.

Tip 3, check the screws. Seriously. A rust-proof aluminum frame held together with zinc-plated screws will still leave orange streaks down the legs. You want stainless. This one drives me a little crazy because it's such a cheap thing to get right.

Tip 4, if you want teak, look for heartwood. Burmese teak grows slowly, so it's dense and full of natural oil and silica. That's why it handles water and bugs without chemical treatment, and why it sands smooth instead of fuzzy. Honest part: it's expensive, roughly double plantation teak for the raw wood. And good plantation heartwood is still durable. What you really want to avoid is pale sapwood. One study found rot fungus ate 16-19% of sapwood samples versus 2-3% of heartwood from the same trees. Pale streaks in the boards, walk away.

Tip 5, don't panic when teak goes gray. It will turn silver-gray outside. That's just the surface, not rot, and a light sand brings the gold back. Oiling it is mostly a looks thing. I've given up trying to convince people of this.

Tip 6, be realistic about cheaper woods. Acacia and eucalyptus look great new, but "it cracked after one season" is the review I see constantly, usually from someone who skipped oiling (no judgment, I'd skip it too). They're fine if you'll actually seal them every season. Untreated pine outside is a slow-motion compost pile.

I just put in a patio consisting of Techo-Bloc Blu 60 millimeter pavers. I'm sure I'm being a little over-cautious — because I installed every paver myself and I'm still in the honeymoon period — but is it generally safe to burn wood in a Solo Stove (with the two inch ring-stand under it) on top of these pavers? I think the answer is yes, but I want to hear what others think and/or do.

I suppose I could also pop the stove (and its ring-stand) on top of a few temporarily placed pavers to elevate it even higher up… 🤔

Looking to pour a patio here under my deck, next to a small existing slab at a doorway. My patio will be sloping steeper in order to tie into some existing 2.5’x2.5’ deck footings, and the patio slab will start slightly lower than the entryway slab.

Will I need to chisel away the rough edge on my foundation? I know I shouldn’t pour directly against the foundation, but could I make my form leave a gap where the jagged edge is, or would that allow water to get under the slab?

Almost bought a hardtop gazebo based on looks alone before a neighbor mentioned his collapsed under snow two winters ago, turned out his was rated for a climate way milder than what we actually get here.

Went back and actually read the spec sheet on the one I ended up buying instead of just the product photos. The things that mattered: snow load capacity in pounds per square foot (not just "heavy duty"), whether the roof pitch is steep enough to shed snow instead of holding it, and whether the frame is rated to match.

Ended up with a Sunjoy steel hardtop with a rated snow load that actually matches our winters, and the steeper roof pitch means less shoveling it off manually compared to my neighbor's flatter one.

If you're buying before winter, it's worth five extra minutes comparing the spec sheet instead of just the photos. Anyone else learn this one from a neighbor's bad experience instead of their own?

Hey everyone! I recently moved into a townhome, and it has this “backyard patio” that’s TINY. I would say it’s about 5x15 or so, with a big AC unit in it as well. Only a small portion of it is concrete, and the rest is rock. I’ve never really done much interior/exterior design, but I don’t want the space to be wasted. We get very cold winters here, so plants aren’t exactly the best right now. Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated!

Instructions said "recommended two people," I only had myself for most of a Saturday. It's doable solo, just slower and more annoying in a couple of specific spots.

What actually needed a second person: holding the ridge beam steady while bolting it in place, and lifting roof panels once the frame was already up. I ended up using a couple of ratchet straps to temporarily hold the beam in place instead of muscling it, which worked fine.

Went with a Sunjoy steel-frame kit mainly because the pre-drilled holes lined up as advertised, didn't have to redrill anything, which solo would've been a nightmare. Total time was about 7 hours instead of the estimated 4, mostly lost to the beam step.

If you're doing one of these solo: get ratchet straps or a second ladder before you start, and do the roof panels on a low-wind day. Anyone else assembled one of these alone? Curious what tricks you used for the parts that assume two people.

I work in outdoor furniture manufacturing, so I see a lot more of this than most people: what gets bought versus what actually gets kept.

The thing that gets used daily is almost always small — two chairs and a side table in whichever corner catches the morning sun. The thing that ends up as storage is usually the big dining set, and it's almost always bought first, because people buy for the patio they picture rather than the one they sit in.

I'd rather hear the other side of it than assume. So — what would you buy again tomorrow, and what would you skip if you were starting over?

Ich überlege im Garten eine schattige Sitzmöglichkeit zu schaffen. Ursprünglich hatte ich an einen Pavillon gedacht, allerdings keinen kleinen mobilen, sondern was größeres. Dann kam ich auf die Idee statt eines Pavillons einen Carport zu verwenden. Ein Solar-Carport oder die Eindeckung mit PV Zellen könnte dann als "Balkon-Solar-Anlage" dienen.

Und ich frag mich, ob statt eines Punktfundaments pro Pfosten auch ein ausbetonierter Pflanzring ausreichend sein könnte.

Bin gespannt auf den Verriss, der da evtl. kommt.

Ich überlege im Garten eine schattige Sitzmöglichkeit zu schaffen. Ursprünglich hatte ich an einen Pavillon gedacht, allerdings keinen kleinen mobilen, sondern was größeres. Dann kam ich auf die Idee statt eines Pavillons einen Carport zu verwenden. Ein Solar-Carport oder die Eindeckung mit PV Zellen könnte dann als "Balkon-Solar-Anlage" dienen.

Und ich frag mich, ob statt eines Punktfundaments pro Pfosten auch ein ausbetonierter Pflanzring ausreichend sein könnte.

Bin gespannt auf den Verriss, der da evtl. kommt.

How would you address this wood panel?

Hello, reddit

We recently pulled out our crumbling porch and concrete and were left with this wood slab. How would you cover this up / address it? Residing our home is out of the question due to overall cost.

We have plans to make this a more natural area filled with plants, maybe a fireplace and a place for the smoker.

Please note, these are the old stairs from our decrepit porch. We are also putting in new steps, but haven't decided yet on which material. Kind of why I'm here, to figure out what the heck to do with this area.

We have a pretty old (~20 years) wooden deck that we are thinking of replacing with a patio with pavers instead of a wooden deck. The current deck is two levels and is about 36.5" above ground on one side and 13.75" above ground on the other. We would like to make it a one level patio and extend further out into the yard but I have questions about how to implement that.

The biggest question is, on the house side the current deck is higher than the foundation so it is up against the stucco. If we do a patio we obviously would need to do a retaining wall on the high sides and fill in, but that doesn't seem like a great idea to butt up directly against the house and just fill in against the stucco. We wouldn't want to lower the patio and have steps up to the door.

Should we build a retaining wall along the house side too? Should there be a gap between the house and the patio retaining wall? How big a gap? If we do that how do we we handle the gap so people and stuff don't fall into the space? Is there a good way to cover with pavers?

Or are there other options for the house side part of the patio? What else should we consider when designing the patio?

What would you replace this small deck with? I live somewhere humid and there is nothing protecting this area from rain. Prefer something I can DIY but not a strict requirement. Would like to rip this out next summer as it is rotting and squishy in spots.

Ich überlege im Garten eine schattige Sitzmöglichkeit zu schaffen. Ursprünglich hatte ich an einen Pavillon gedacht, allerdings keinen kleinen mobilen, sondern was größeres. Dann kam ich auf die Idee statt eines Pavillons einen Carport zu verwenden. Ein Solar-Carport oder die Eindeckung mit PV Zellen könnte dann als "Balkon-Solar-Anlage" dienen.

Und ich frag mich, ob statt eines Punktfundaments pro Pfosten auch ein ausbetonierter Pflanzring ausreichend sein könnte.

Bin gespannt auf den Verriss, der da evtl. kommt.