A fire pit added to a finished patio is a fire pit sitting on a patio. A fire pit designed into the patio has the seat wall wrapped around it, the gas line already run, and the paving cut to it rather than around it. The difference costs nothing at the design stage and cannot be recovered later.
The reason these projects go wrong is almost never the stone. It is the sequencing: a gas line that arrives after the base is compacted, an electrician who needs a trench through finished paving, a pergola footing cored into a patio that was poured six weeks earlier. Everything here runs under one plan with one lead foreman, which is the same reason the hardscape and the drainage do.
Excavation, compacted aggregate base, geotextile, polymeric sand and sealed joints, with drainage routed away from the house. The part nobody photographs is the part that decides how it looks at year fifteen.
Where the sun is at six, where the wind comes from, and how far the gas and the power actually are.
Paving, fire, seating, shade and services on the same sheet, so nothing gets discovered halfway through.
Excavation, base, sleeves, gas and electrical. The order is the whole job.
Paving, walls, caps and veneer, then joints sealed and the site left clean.
Yes, and we will be straight with you about how it will read. A feature designed into the paving has the seat wall wrapped around it and the gas already run. One added afterwards sits on top. Both work. They do not look the same.
Both get built here. Wood is cheaper to install and better to sit around. Gas is instant, cleaner, and it is the one that gets used on a Tuesday. If the line is a long run from the house, that changes the arithmetic.
Yes, coordinated with the hardscape, the electrical and the gas in one scope. The sequencing is what makes or breaks these, so they are planned with the paving rather than after it.
It runs with the hardscape schedule. Design is typically three to six weeks and install four to ten, depending on size, services and weather. The estimate names the window.
Small additions to an existing patio get quoted on their own. Full outdoor living builds run through our design-build process. The walkthrough and the written estimate are free either way.
Gas after the base is compacted. An electrician who needs a trench through finished paving. Almost every problem on these builds is an order-of-operations problem.
A fire pit added to a finished patio sits on it. One designed into the plan has the seat wall wrapped around it and the line already run.
A pergola planned with the paving gets proper footings. One added afterwards gets cored into a slab that was never designed to carry it.
A patio that needs a furniture order to be usable was sized wrong. Seat walls are cheaper than furniture and they never blow over.
Excavation, compacted aggregate, geotextile, polymeric sand, sealed joints. Nobody photographs it and it decides how the whole thing looks at year fifteen.
Every square foot of new hardscape is water that used to soak in and now has to go somewhere. Usually toward the house, unless somebody planned it.
Tell us what you are trying to do. We will walk the property and put a written number on it.