Outdoor living
A back garden that gets used most of the year
Outdoor living is a plain way of saying the yard is a room. There is somewhere to put a table, somewhere to sit that is not a folding chair, something warm for the evening, and a surface that stays flat and dry under all of it. Around the bay that room is usable for most of the year, which is why it is worth building properly rather than adding a slab and some furniture.
The part that decides whether it works is the layout, and the layout gets decided before anything is dug. Where the sun lands in the late afternoon, how far the food has to travel from the kitchen door, where people will actually walk, and how the ground falls away from the house. Get those right and the space fills up on its own. Get them wrong and it becomes the bit of the garden nobody uses.
So we set the whole thing out at once: the patio surface, the seat walls, the fire and the kitchen run, on one base and one set of levels. Estimates are free and we will walk the garden with you before anyone talks about materials.
How big does an outdoor room need to be?
Bigger than most people draw and smaller than most people fear. A table for six with chairs that can be pushed back needs about twelve feet by twelve feet before anyone can walk around the outside of it. Lounge seating around a fire wants a similar footprint. Squeeze either one and the space technically fits, but nobody can get past the back of a chair, so it stops being used. The base under all of it is built to ICPI specification either way.
The honest way to find the number is to stand in the garden and mark it out. We bring paint and string to the estimate and lay the shape on the ground so you can walk it before it is priced. It is a lot cheaper to move a line on the grass than to move a finished patio, and we set it out at the same time as the rest of the landscaping work.
What actually makes the space usable at night?
Heat and light, in that order. A fire pit or a fire table is what keeps people outside once the sun drops, and around here that is most evenings of the year. We build the pit into the patio base rather than standing it on the finished surface, so nothing settles around it and the seating lines up with it properly. The fire pit build is part of the same job, not a visit afterwards.
Light does the rest. A few uplights on a wall or a tree and something low at the steps will do more than a floodlight on the house ever will. The cable for it goes in a sleeve under the paving while the base is open, which is the only cheap time to do it. That is covered on the outdoor lighting page.
Free estimate on your outdoor living space
Patios, seat walls, fire pits and built in kitchens, planned as one room. Across San Mateo County, Santa Clara County and parts of the East Bay.
Call (650) 705-0628Is a built in kitchen worth it outdoors?
It is if you already cook outside. A built in run gives you counter space either side of the grill, somewhere to put a tray down, and storage that does not blow over. Built in block and veneer stone, it also matches the paving and the walls instead of sitting in the garden as a separate object. That is the outdoor kitchen work we do.
What it needs is planning while the ground is open. Gas, power and a water line all have to cross under the paving, and each of them is a sleeve laid in minutes at the base stage or a day of lifting stone later, exactly like the cable for the outdoor lighting. We ask about it at the estimate even when nobody has decided yet, because the sleeves cost almost nothing and leave the option open.
Why have one company build all of it?
Because the levels have to agree. The patio height sets the step height, the step height sets the wall cap, and the wall cap sets where the fire and the kitchen sit. Built in pieces by different trades a year apart, every one of those is a guess, and the joints between them are where the water ends up. Built together, it is one plan and one set of numbers.
We are a family run paver company in San Carlos, working only in interlocking pavers and natural stone, with our own demolition crew and three install crews. Todd Chandler is an ICPI Certified Paver Installer, a Belgard Master Craftsman and an Allan Block Certified Installer, every installation is built to ICPI specification and carries a 20 year warranty, and the estimate is free. Have us come and look at the garden.
Ask a paver installer
Straight answers about paver installation on the Peninsula
What counts as outdoor living?
The built part of a back garden: the patio underfoot, seat walls, steps, a fire pit or fire table, a built in grill run and the lighting over all of it. We build those. Planting and lawn care we leave to a gardener.
Can we build it in stages?
Yes, and plenty of people do. The important part is planning the whole space on day one so the levels, the drainage and the sleeves for gas, power and water are right, even if only the patio gets built this year.
How long does a space like this take?
Most back gardens run one to three weeks on site, depending on how much has to come out first and how much of it is walls and steps. We give you the schedule with the estimate and we tell you if weather is likely to move it.
Do you build outdoor living spaces outside San Carlos?
Yes. San Mateo County, Santa Clara County and parts of the East Bay. Atherton, Hillsborough, Menlo Park, Burlingame, San Mateo, Redwood City and Belmont are regular ground, and the estimate is free wherever the job is.
Will a paver patio stain from a fire pit or a grill?
Pavers are far more forgiving than a slab, because one unit can be lifted and swapped for a spare. Sealing helps too, and we can seal the surface once it has weathered. That is covered on our clean and seal page.
Do you do concrete for this kind of work?
No. We only work in interlocking pavers and natural stone, no poured concrete, no stamped concrete and no asphalt. Block goes in as structure behind a wall or a kitchen run, with stone or veneer on the face.