new patio ideas


 
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Joe McManus

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Thought this might be a good place to ask if anyone knows of some good links or books that have ideas for grill/wsm friendly patio layouts. I'm thinking of adding a patio to my backyard this summer and am looking for ideas. I need a little sanctuary for my kettle an my wsm. The area is ~20'X15'. Probably looking to put paving brick down or something. Please let me know of any favorite websites that may have a library of pix and/or ideas. Thanks.
 
Welcome aboard Joe! Don't know if I'm much help, but about 10 years ago I went to a family owned hardware store in the area. I was wanting to get ideas for putting a deck off the back door. They had a computer program that spit out ideas based on your suggested bill of materials. This thing was great! I got to choose the wood, screws, blocks, you name it. It covered all the details and the material was delivered free to my home.
Don't forget to add a growing area for herbs. They look good, smell better, and taste out of this world compared to store bought dried. /infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif
 
Joe-- I believe I saw some plan books at Lowe's and/or Home Depot that were dedicated to patios. You might try there. Good question, though, I would consider doing the same at some point, maybe with a sink, etc.

Tom

"Season to your taste--and may it be a public one!"
 
Also have the idea of having a "monster house" type of afternoon to get the patio in. I've got commitment from about 7 guys to come over an help with the grunt work. I'll fire up the WSM, make 'em all a good helping of butt and ribs, with some beverage of choice, I'm hoping to have the patio in in one day. I'll keep y'all posted.
 
Joe, I'm considering the same thing. I'm considering a 14x22 paver patio. I can do it myself, but with grad school and work I have so little time. I like your idea of having a bunch of people over at once to knock that project out quickly. Now that you mention it, I'm going to consider that very same approach. It's usually not too hard to get guys over when you promise them BBQ and homebrew. Let us know how it works out.
 
Joe,

"IF" possible, it may be helpful if your patio included a section which could act as a wind-break. Maybe some lattice, with a crawling vine could offer some wind-break.

This would be a nice area to place your WSM for cooking when its windy.

It all depends on the layout of your house, fences etc., as you may not need it.

Just a thought.

-Albert
 
Joe,

The "Man Party" is a great idea. Just remember to do all your measuring and thinking before everyone gets there. I had a shindig last fall to put in a small patio, and it ran an extra day because we were all standing around trying to do math with beers and brats in hand.
 
Joe,
There is a book by Sunset called Building Barbecues & Outdoor Kitchens. It has some great ideas although they can be complex and cost some $$$. Amazon has it and if you link to them from the TVWB then you are also supporting this site.
 
Albert - Good idea about the windbreak. I'm thinking some brick stack that with maybe a flower (or herb) garden that makes a semi-cirle. Might get too complicated and too $$$. We'll see.

Art - Good advice about the measurement too. My best case scenerio is to ration the beer until noon...by then there'd be no hope to ration anyway.

Thanks all so far for the advice. I did find some links to "free" patio design software on the web. I'll try to get those posted soon.
 
I live in a town home and have an aprox 15' X 20' back yard. My brother is an all around expert handyman and pours concrete for a living. I bought some trex and rebar and ties and spacers and he created some rectangular forms from the trex and put tied the rebar and spaced it so it would end up in the middle of the concrete after pouring. He also made some footings for a redwood patio cover that you can buy prefab ready to build from a local wood dealer (J&W Redwood). We used a 1 1/2 yard mixer and poured eack rectangle at a rate of 1 a weekend. Took a total of about 95 bags to complete. We left the trex in and it looks real good. I am very happy with both cover and deck. I think if I had to do all over again I would get the concrete pumped in and finish sooner (and save my back as well). There was an existing say 4 X 9 slab that was poured when these town homes were built (1974) he used some kind of expansion material between that and the new slabs we made. It was nice having a pro do the work. He made sure the pitch was correct and matched the heights of the slabs perfectly.
 
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