Help needed on pation design

We are just aboutto think about what we are going to do with the patio and are stuck!! At the moment the patio slabs that are there will have to come up and new ones laid but we cant seem to get further than this! We cant afford to get marshalls or anyone to design it as I would rather spend the �£250 on the patio rather than on someone coming out. Does anyone know of any decent software or anything which will help us design one. I have tried drawing it out on graph paper but I can never visualise how its going to look. The pation is going all across the width of the house plus a bit extra for the side passage so its a biggish area.

 

Deliberate mistake- that should read PATIO design!

 

We have just about recovered from a 16 month building project on our house which included a large patio. We at first employed the skills of a very reputable local architect, but after our third visit and a bill of just under �£1,000 we decided that he was clearly not listening to what we were asking for.

I bought a programme for my PC which really was not too helpful and was going to take a long time to master the skills of using it properly, so in the end we sat down with good old pencil and paper. this was not an easy option I hasten to add, but we have ended up with what we wanted.

A good proportion of the downstairs rooms (about 200 sq meters) is floored with Indian stone (couldn't afford York stone on such a large area) and we carried this idea through onto the patio which has proved very successful.

a lot of the planning was done on site marked out with an old hose pipe and then transferred to paper, I too am hopeless at visualising on paper but this really helped.

Have a go and just think how proud you will be of yourself when you have created your unique new area.

 

i think one of the most important things is for the patio brickwork, flags etc to be sympathetic to the house construction/ design, send off for Jewson s catalogue and other to see ideas in action, also visit library and have a look at the ideas there,
dont construct a dominating, massive structure, let it blend in with the rest of the garden, function wise do you want a table, a seating area, a swing seat [ which is good to give height], rem portable barbeques can be stored inside and are easy to operate, perhaps the passage way at the side could have a pergola,
personally i have seen a lot of patios made of ordinary grey slabs, surrounded by a metre high brick wall, with a BBQ area built in, and the garden lies outside this wall, i don t like the idea at all, it looks too much like a an afterthought, which it is of course,

 

Agree with all said by Waco and LG - the shape and colour of the patio does need to fit with both the garden and the house - and indeed the entrance to it - otherwise it just stands out like a sore thumb. especially in the winter.

Take Waco's suggestion of using a hose to lay out the lines you want - or even sand - a hired angle grinder can take care of curves. Take a look at it from downstairs, upstairs, and from the garden - your going to be living with this a long time. Then go find the colour and style of surface that will fit in with both house and garden. Then comes the hard work - remember that a successful patio - is all about the preperation of the underlay :D

 

I have been using CAD drawing programmes for years, and they take some getting used to. I would suggest that you don't waste valuable gardening time on these programmes, and anyway, in the end (as suggested above) use hosepipes and marker sticks/flags to position it the garden in full scale. Go around the garden and view it from every angle, go back and adjust it until it looks right.

Even when you draw it all out on the computer to scale, you still end up adjusting it in the garden anyway, so save your self time and trouble!

Unfortunately, the design idea still has to come from your head, even if you do draw it up.

If you want inspiration, may I suggest the local library.

 

Sorry if I sounded a bit blunt lazy-gardener, but I feel your going in the wrong direction by looking for inspiration from computers! Once you know what you want, you can simulate it, but by then you have done it anyway.

If I may say so, I think you want to consider the whole garden and not just the patio. It sounds as if your making a very bold statement with a lot of concrete. You have already made up your mind about the width, so presumably your still wondering about how far out to take it. With that width, it will form a very hard edge if its dead straight, or has walls as suggested by previous posts. So maybe you could leave planting pockets in it to help and cut down expense? Think about suitable planting to blend the paved area into the rest of the garden.

Hope this helps, have fun!

 

Oh what great words of wisdom from everyone - sounds like we have all been there and done it!

I left a few pockets for BBQ and hot plants, but actually now 9 months on I have filled them in, and aim to soften hard edges with soft planting.

we took our time, and after marking out, we lived in the area - house designe included, I have pictures of me BBQing in what is my new kitchen.

DAG you are so right, CAD is fantastic, but can you be bothered to spend time learning programme, its a waste of time, but I will send you my CD if you think it will help as I no longer have any use for it. AND LG sympathetic materials, I really wanted a slate floor, but hubby said he would not introduce any new materials to building and as it turned out, how right he was.

Enjoy this special time planning, its great fun!

 

As I see it you have three major problems. 1) Size and shape, 2) paving slab design and 3) cost. In the first two cases I would look for inspiration from pictures. In my case I went to more than one builders merchant and got all the catalogues they had. I looked through them and decided which paving designs I liked. As I knew the rough size, some were ruled out on cost anyway.

I also looked at pictures in gardening books of paving, analysing which pictures I liked and why. And did I like it because of the paving slabs themselves or the shape of the patio or the dimensions of the patio relative to the house etc. or the planting round the patio (and how did they do that). I also spent time analysing pictures that I did not like - what aspect did I not like.

I finally did use a computer as I chose three different sizes of slab, in three slightly different colours, and I wanted a random looking effect. But what I used was a spreadsheet, with very narrow columns, so each cell was square and it looked like graph paper. You can then play, filling in cells in a different colours if you wish, and when you print the guide lines will not be shown.

 

Thank you to everyone who has replied!! It seems I am not alone which is good as I am not the most decisive person in the world!I have already tried some of your methods- I have enough brochures to keep the recyling place going all year but the thing is - my love is easily sidetracked. I got one brochure and thought oooh thas nice i like that then when i get another i do exactly the same! Your right with the hosepipe thing though as I did this when i was changing the shape of the lawn-going upstairs and hanging out the window. I think i will now have to go to loads of builders merchants and have a proper look at them and then get the old paper out once more!I hadnt thought about it being an extension of the house though. The house is only 16 yrs old so still quite new looking and the downstairs has all got laminate flooring down. We were thinking at one point of having decking but i think i would prefer slabs of some kind. Decking would have been great for the very slight slope and the manhole cover but really do think i prefer a hard surface of some kid. Maybe in the end we can somehow combine the two! Who knows cos at this minute I don't!

 

I went for a wander round places like Jewson, saw what sizes they did of the stuff I liked, and went home, measured up, and costed it out from there. Don't forget you'll spend a lot on sharp sand for laying it!! We got Marshallspaving slabs, Saxon - partly because of the yellowness which matched our house, and partly because it ahs a rough surface - so not slippy, and finally because it had a range of sizes. I prefer to use sand to mark out, rather than hose-pipe, as that's too unwieldy, and if it's on grass, you're certainly doing no harm by improving the drainage while you're at it!!! MAin thing is, to make sure you get the ground really level for laying the slabs, and with the slope, use strings to keep things straight, and as a reference for keeping in line with the slope. We had to do that to make a gentle slope for my aunt's wheelchair. Good luck!