Decorative Masonry

What is decorative masonry?
Decorative masonry is a special form of hardscape that adds beauty and dimension to a landscape.

Does it cost a lot of money?
Although its purpose is deliberately aesthetic, it can be used to build function into décor as much as it can build décor into the property. Its cost is relative to the size and nature of the form it produces. Material costs vary, and labor rates are defined by the length of time it takes to build a certain feature.

Don’t think about decorative masonry as something that you have to invest a lot of money in per se. Think of it as something that is included as a significant aspect of your landscape master plan.

What are some common materials used in decorative masonry?
You may assume at first that decorative masonry is primarily brickwork. After all, the image of the mason we have in our minds often depicts a workman laying bricks. However, concrete is just as common as brick on many properties, and on some, even more common than brick.

Concrete can be used to build beautiful and memorable hardscapes that add interest and drama to the landscape.

How can concrete possibly be decorative?
It becomes decorative through the addition of color and texture. Coloration can be done by adding pigments to the mix, or it can be added through a sophisticated staining process after the concrete hardens. Textures can be stamped or even brushed into the surface while the concrete is still wet. Brooms, trowels, rock salt, and even sponges can create decorative masonry patterns in what would have otherwise been a simple slab of hardscape staring up at the sky.

Keep in mind, too, that for certain styles of landscaping, such as contemporary and modern, white cement is perfect for creating stark contrasts, points of drama, and glaring sentiments of Mentalism. So in this context, even something non-decorative can be decorative in a setting that by nature defies convention.

Is decorative masonry only limited to hardscape?
You may be using the term hardscape as a synonym for a flat surface such as a driveway, a patio, or a sports court. The actual definition of hardscape is much broader than this. The term actually refers to any inorganic structure that is built in either the front or back yard.

Viewed from this perspective, you can immediately see how many forms you are already familiar with can be created in your yard to add vertical impact to the scenery. This is critical when you consider how flat the Houston landscape is and how important a sense of three dimensions is to generating curb appeal.

What are some of these structures?
Walls of all types constitute a significant percentage of the decorative masonry built in residential landscape design. Courtyard walls create seclusion and backdrops for up lighting. Architectural walls can subdivide a large property into smaller zones of special interest. Planter walls can combine the inorganic with the organic by creating and artificial base out of which springs life. Custom fountains create movement and a sense of the essence of light—especially when illuminated with special underwater lights. Outdoor fireplaces provide warmth in the winter and the illusion of fire in the summer thanks to hidden, special lights that cause the flu to glow even though nothing is actually burning inside.

What materials do you use to build these structures?
Stone is a preferred material for patio design when the homeowner is willing to cover the cost of its purchase, finishing, and installation. It can also be used to build any number of wall structures. Concrete pavers can be used to mimic stone at a much lower cost. Brick is another masonry mainstay that is reliable enough to use as a building material for housing, and certainly reliable enough to use for any outdoor architecture as well.

Houston Masonry Specialist

If you need a masonry specialist to upgrade or build hardscape elements in your yard, let Exterior Worlds find you one and manage the invoice from a design-build perspective. It will serve your long-term interests better if let one of our designers draft a landscape master plan first. Once that is in place, masonry specialists can be brought to handle certain aspects of construction work.

A few examples include:

Patios
These custom hardscapes are built to the size and scale needed for the specific activities they are intended to host. They are also built to be as aesthetic as possible in relation to the home, garden design, and surrounding outdoor architecture.

Entry Gardens
Masonry specialists often help build the architectural and decorative walls around these special garden gateways that transition front yard space to back yard space. They also work on custom patio construction using any number of materials that range from stone to brick to decorative concrete. These architectural walls can be built at virtually any desired height. Taller walls create privacy and enclosure. Shorter walls help frame the view of your front and back yards.

Retaining Walls
These remarkable structures that hold back the grade of the otherwise flat Houston landscape that is so very vulnerable to flooding. Such a structure is always built to look as good as it works. This is why it is so important to have it designed properly by those who understand drainage and irrigation, and then to have it built by masonry specialists who have the expertise needed to build the structure as a prominent and highly decorative point of interest in the yard.

Walkways
Walkways are key to making smaller yards look yard and larger yards look less overwhelming. When created in a small yard, they tend to magnify the perceived acreage of the lot. In larger yards, they divide portions of the lot into special areas of interest.

Think beyond the sidewalk when you think about walkways and paths. Contractors can build them out of all sorts of materials such as brick, pavers, stones, and decorative concrete. The transition they give to you and your guest contributes a superb sense of completion to a residential landscape design.

Masonry expertise is usually needed when constructing these forms due to the complexity of laying out stones, bricks, or pavers in such a way as to make them safe for transit and durable for long-term usage.

If you know of a masonry company they has already worked for you in the past, or if your homebuilder referred you to one, feel free to ask this company to talk with our team about a subcontract relationship. Provided that all parties agree to follow the specifics of the landscape master plan, you can expect the outcome to be better than anything you have experienced before.

Custom Patio

Is professional landscaping important to the design of my custom patio?
Yes. This is why you need to have it built by a landscaper. Plants soften the hardscape and differentiate outdoor living from indoor living.

Is professional hardscape design important?Yes. A hardscape is actually the equivalent of a floor. Just like the floor in the room of your house, it must be carefully planned in order to fulfill its intended use. One of the worst mistakes new homeowners make is to treat the patio like a slab of concrete to mount lawn chairs on.

This can ruin the entire scene of the back yard, and waste a great deal of money on pouring a slab that works against home architecture and garden design.

It is essential to plan your custom patio in order to make it functional, durable, and decorative. By hiring a professional landscaping company to design your custom patio as a foundation for an outdoor lifestyle, you ensure maximum enjoyment of your outdoor living space.

Should I call a masonry contractor in the phone book?
You can, but masonry contractors normally work under the invoice of general contractors. They are not used to working directly with homeowners. Also, many have experts skills in building hardscape structures, but not in landscaping itself. If you hire our company, we can find any number of masonry experts to bring in the special tools, teams, and knowledge necessary to building your custom patio.
What do I need to think of first and foremost?
All you have to do is make a list of all the things you want to do with it. We will do the rest by taking the items on your list and turning them into design specifications our contractors can follow.

When you make this list, think creatively about all the different activities that you can use a patio for. Some of these activities are personal and private, while others involve large numbers of guests and family members.

Getting a clear picture from you about what you plan to do in the future will give us invaluable information on where to begin building your custom patio. It will give us a clear picture of how large it should be, and it will also give us good idea for what building materials to use.

What materials should be used?
There many, many materials that we can use to build you hardscape. Stone is the most popular material because it is natural and lasts the longest. Its only drawback is its cost. Even less expensive stone is still going to represent a very large investment. If you are planning on adding several structures to your backyard landscape, it might be better to use an alternative to stone for some of your hardscape.

Brick is an excellent choice for this. Brick has a historical look and feel to it that works very well with many period styles of architecture. It also lasts for long periods of time, comes in a variety of colors, and can be arranged in all sorts of interesting patterns.

Concrete is another option you can consider. Plain concrete is the cheapest material you can build a custom patio with, but it looks somewhat drab in most landscapes. A better choice is colored or stamped concrete. The techniques we use to create these designs can actually make concrete look like stone or brick—at far less the cost.

Concrete pavers can also be used and laid out in many different types of patterns that are similar to those used in brick work, although they create a much more different effect.

Landscape Retaining

What are they?
Retaining walls are walls that function to level slope or retain a grade. This creates a more vertical appearance to the landscape and is very important to grade, drainage, and irrigation work. Landscape retaining walls perform the same function, but they also contribute aesthetic value to the Houston landscape by working to magnify key structures and special points of interest.

Where are they built?
Landscape retaining walls are often built in front of arbors, near trees (as part of tree preservation work), or near a patio or driveway that requires extra support to maintain its grade.

What do you use to build landscape retaining walls?
Native stone and timbers are two materials that come directly from Nature and compliment any backyard landscape with a sense of untamed freedom. Many manmade materials can also be made to look natural and do the same job. Decorative concrete brick, for example, comes in many colors and patterns and is a relatively inexpensive building material. A mixture of stones, varying three to six inches in height, can be mortared together to create a mosaic pattern. Traditional mortared brick, of course, is always an option, too. It is more expensive and normally only used when complimenting a very formal hardscape such as a bluestone patio.

How do you build make landscape retaining walls decorative?
There are several things we can do to make these functional elements look attractive. To begin with, we design a landscape retaining wall with a deliberately informal look. Wall materials are placed by hand to mimic either a haphazard pattern or a natural earthwork. Natural stone is the best material to use for this. Dry laid stone can literally be stacked to look like a natural rock formation, with larger stones at the end and smaller stones toward the middle and top. Stones of many different kinds can also be randomly arranged and mortared together, either to each other or to a concrete wall concealed behind the stone façade.

Another technique we use is to build a landscape retaining wall with a secondary function. This could be anything from the base for a fence, a seat wall, the entryway to an arbor or summer kitchen, or the base for a fence or architectural wall.

How do I know if I need a landscape retaining wall?
If you have a slope in your yard, you will probably need at least a small retaining wall to create a level area for hardscape design, outdoor architecture, or garden design. If you have children, you may also want a retaining wall to create a practice field or play area for the kids.

If I have children, what safety features do you build into landscape retaining walls?
We either build a planting bed, or we build the wall against another structure like an outdoor room or outdoor building. Only the decorative side of the wall faces the landscape. The other side of the wall is blocked off by either softscape or architectural elements. This prevents people from falling off the wall and injuring themselves.

Masonry Design

What is masonry design?
It is the design of structures that are built with any number of masonry elements. These structures take on a life of their own. They add vertical impact the Houston landscape. They create unique aesthetic structures which can function as the boundaries of unique gathering places like courtyards and morning gardens. They can be used to create perspective in the form of architectural walls so that small yards look big and big yards look less intimidating because they are subdivided into zones of special interest.

Who does masonry design?
Ideally, it is done by professional landscapers who can integrate the many different types and forms of masonry into a more complex landscape master plan. The reason we recommend doing it this way is because landscape professionals will see to it that masonry forms are drawn to scale in proportion to the home and surrounding landscape elements.

Do professional landscapers also build the masonry forms themselves?
We build some of them. Most often, however, we find masonry contractors who specialize exclusively in construction. We bid out our master plan to these experts, and then subcontract them under our supervision. This way we can ensure that our plans our carried out as we intended, and that the physical aspects of the labor are handled by the appropriate specialists.

What are the forms you create with masonry design?
A hard stone, brick, or concrete product that contributes aesthetic to organic elements like lawns, flower beds, gardens, or copses of small trees is something you can consider a masonry form.

Is vertical impact really that important?
Yes. The Houston landscape is routinely criticized by people from all over the world as being too flat. Most people who were not born here come from places where there is at least some variation in the grade of the terrain. Some come from rolling hills; others from mountainous regions.

Many Houstonians who travel may have lived here all their lives for work, but secretly wish Houston had the mountains of Los Angeles, the hills of Tennessee, or the curved and winnowing grades of the Mississippi Valley States. While we cannot make mountains out of ant hills in Southeast Texas, we can alter your properties grade and add vertical impact with masonry design that lifts the terrain upward into multiple degrees of ascent and descent.

The end result of this is more variety for you and your guests, and more curb appeal for your home.

What should I think of first when I think of masonry design?
Think about the possibilities of stone. There is no structure on a landscape that cannot be built with stone. Keep in mind some types of stone cost more than others though, so be realistic about how much you can afford to invest in each particular landscape element you want.

Prioritize and choose other elements like concrete and brick for structures that are less prominent than others.

What are some popular masonry forms?
We can build you retaining walls, patios, walkways, courtyards, planters, and outdoor fireplaces, just to name a few. Because there are so many different materials we can work with, we can customize any of these basic design elements into structures that support the specifics of your home and landscape design.

Masonry Fireplace

What is a masonry fireplace?
It is an outdoor fireplace that is built out of brick, natural stones, or blocks of some sort. Many older homes do not have indoor fireplaces, and it is much easier to accommodate the owners of these residences with an outdoor masonry fireplace that offers all the amenities of indoor equivalents. You can even have one build that runs off natural gas or propane so you do not have to deal with smoke, sparks, ashes, or the cost of firewood.

Why would I want to build a masonry fireplace?
Several reasons could motivate you to have us build you one of these structures. You may want a warm spot on the patio on one of Houston’s colder nights. Even though are winter’s are technically mild, the humidity in the air can kill you at night here when it’s only a little chilly outside. A warm fire creates heat and dispels humidity.

You may also want to consider the sheer aesthetics that a masonry fireplace can contribute to your yard. The Houston landscape is very flat, and adding vertical impact to your particular portion of it can make your entire property stand out on your block and add significant curb appeal to your home.

It will also add a definitively classic touch to any garden or swimming pool, and it becomes the immediate focal point of any patio or outdoor courtyard.


What does a masonry fireplace look like?
That’s where the fun starts. It can look like almost anything you want it to look like. Because we do not have to deal with the presence of interior home walls, all we really need to build is the flu and the chimney. The geometry can be expanded from their in many directions, provided the integrity of the structure is sound and its form is appropriately complimentary to the home and surrounding landscape design.

What are some of the materials used?
All kinds of materials are used to build masonry fireplaces. Sometimes they are built out of decorative bricks. The multitude of brick colors and types makes this a very common material suitable to a variety of home architectural and landscaping design styles. Other fireplaces are built of stone or cement blocks made to look like a stone façade. Bluestone is another popular material. Stones are always hand-fitted and secured with substances that make the flue and chimney strong and sturdy. Stones can be uniform in appearance, or they can be deliberately asymmetrical to compliment avant garde or contemporary landscape designs.

How much does a masonry fireplace cost?
If it is a small fireplace in a courtyard or an entry garden, it will cost the price of materials plus the labor required to build it. Provided it is relatively small and simple in design, it should not represent an exorbitant expanse per se.

If, on the other hand, you ask us to build an outdoor fireplace and patio to serve as a major focal point in your yard, and the structure is by nature large and complex in design, it could end up being the most sizeable investment in your property.

The good thing about working with Exterior Worlds is that you have a choice in determining the scale and scope of your investment within the parameters of your landscape master plan.

Driveway Landscape Designs

What is driveway landscape design?
Driveway landscaping can consist of both hardscape and softscape. Hardscape options include walls and fences, while your softscape driveway landscaping can consist of flower beds, ground covers, trees or shrubs.

What is the best style of driveway landscape design?
That depends on your home and your yard. The direction and shape of the driveway will always draw the eye toward other landscape elements of interest. If the home is characterized by a very orderly and symmetrical architecture, a straight driveway that runs to a side motorcourt and entry garden can lend itself well to a sense of majesty. If the home appears lower to the ground, and more spread out on the sides, then a circle driveway is an excellent way to keynote the entire property around a central focal point, such as a water feature or contemporary garden.

If the home is set far back from the street, then the driveway can be built to accommodate parking in the front, and a walkway can be built to link the parking area to the front of the home. This is a nice touch that adds a sense of grand entrance to homes in private neighborhoods.

What types of softscape can be combined with driveway landscape design?
Any type of hedge or shrub can be planted along a drive to decorate it with greenery. In most cases, it is best to use more than one shade of green in order to create fullness and dimension.

Flower beds are very popular addendums to driveway landscape design. You can choose to have flowers of a single color to compliment the color of your hardscape and home, or you can you have a layering of different colors designed by our gardening specialists.

An alley of trees is also a good way to ornament your driveway. Many different types of ornamental trees, including Red Maple, Pear, and Myrtle, work well with Houston landscape designs. Larger shade trees are very popular for longer driveways.

What kinds of hardscapes can be used with driveway landscape design?
Masonry walls and ornamental fences are two common hardscape elements used to augment the appearance of a driveway. Small walls add vertical impact to the sides of the driveway. They also help keep vehicles on the pavement and away from delicate plants. An ornamental fence or stone arch can be built at the entrance to the driveway to generate presence and formality.

What type of materials should be considered?
Popular materials range from concrete to asphalt, concrete pavers, brick and natural stone. Concrete is surprisingly more popular in Houston landscaping than you might assume. Thanks to today’s technology, what was once a rudimentary, practical building material can now be rendered highly decorative. Concrete can be stained with a wide variety of colors, and it can be treated in a number of ways to create very interesting textures and patterns in its surface.

Concrete pavers are a great way to create the look and feel of real stone and save a considerable amount of money on your driveway. Brick always lends itself to traditional, Colonial, and Old World themes, and asphalt is a great driveway landscape design to use in conjunction with modern and contemporary landscaping.

Should I light my driveway?
Yes. It is much safer to pull into a lighted driveway at night. Also, outdoor landscape lights are a great way to show off any flowers, shrubs, or trees that you have planted along your drive. These lights will also help increase visibility in your yard and improve the security of your property.

Driveway Designs

A driveway serves many purposes. It is a utility feature that allows easy access and parking onto your property. It is your daily welcome mat as you drive into the garage. It is also a component of curb appeal. For all these reasons, Exterior Worlds believes your driveway design plays an important role in your residential landscape design.

A subset of custom hardscapes—the non-plant features of landscaping that are tailor-made for your site—driveway designs are essential to the way we live today. But while all design considerations need to be practical, it doesn’t mean driveways have to be mere slabs of concrete. Form can flow from function.

Examples of our driveway designs include:

• The common straightaway drive, valued for the ease it provides for driving in and backing out. Often a driveway apron is added for extra parking, for turning around, or for entry into a side garage.
• Another popular design has the driveway traversing the front of the property to end on the far side where the garage is situated.
• Circular driveways are also prevalent and practical, especially for properties situated on busy streets.
• Courtyard designs recall Old World living or contemporary life. The enclosed area can be four-sided or circular—but spacious enough to maneuver vehicles—and can be outfitted with a water feature, such as a classic fountain or an exterior wall fountain.

For anyone contemplating ranch landscaping or estates landscaping, you will have special driveway needs, which include parking for family and guests, safe access to public roads, sight distances, all-weather access, load-bearing requirements and turning radius. We would be happy to walk you through this decision-making process.

Yard drainage is one practical consideration that must be addressed since driveways increase your impermeable surface area. Rainwater run-off must be routed somewhere. Because of our expertise in this area, Exterior Worlds is an excellent choice as your residential landscape designer. We will ensure that your driveway doesn’t create problems—for you or your neighbors.

Once the practical design needs are met, you get to make some aesthetic decisions, such as the material choice. Your options include concrete, decorative concrete (stained, stamped, polished), concrete pavers, asphalt, brick and natural stone. As with all elements in your landscape, your choice should be influenced by the materials already present in your overall design and the architecture of your home.

You can also add extra features. For instance, driveway edging, either flat or raised, ratchets up the design impact. Complementary or contrasting bricks, stone or pavers can be laid on either side of your driveway in interesting patterns. The edging further defines the driveway and creates a transition area into the yard. Also an ornamental iron gate across the driveway provides extra security while it presents an impressive entrance.

While driveways are usually built to withstand the rigors of daily wear and tear, they will require some maintenance. Exterior Worlds can power-wash your driveway as part of your maintenance contract with us.

Clearly, driveways get noticed. They are your landscape’s first and impression, so make your driveway design a good one.

Call Exterior Worlds at 713-827-2255 to discuss upgrading your driveway.

Outdoor Fireplace Patio and Courtyard

An outdoor fireplace, such as the one we built for Rick and Susan Ashcroft, are a great way to create an outdoor living experience that makes is possible to enjoy a view of the Houston landscape regardless of the time of year. Outdoor fireplaces are ideal for temperate, humid climates like ours, where it never gets all that cold per se, but rather where the high moisture content of the air creates a chill factor that can penetrate all the way to the bones.

A patio fireplace dispels humidity and warms the air. It also works as an ideal architectural compliment to home architecture. Many are courtyards that look more like outdoor living rooms than patios as we typically conceive of them to be. To create such a centerpiece in the Ashcroft project, Houston landscaping, professionals placed symmetrically square, interlocking pavers in a pattern that imitated indoor tile. This accentuated the feeling of a living room outdoors, and it worked to blend the stonework and vegetation into the surrounding Houston landscaping theme.

The outdoor fireplace itself was constructed completely with natural stone. Each stone was fitted together like pieces in a puzzle. The chimney was 2 ½ times higher than the fireplace interior, giving the entire structure a majestic presence rising up out of the Houston landscape. An Old World sensibility was also added in the form of two flanking columns.

At one end of the patio, just opposite the fireplace, was a drop-off of about 4 feet. Here, Houston landscaping designers built a stone staircase that descended to a walkway. This walkway wound around the corner of the house to a natural swimming pool. Near to the steps of this walkway, masonry contractors we subcontracted built a stone wall connecting both ends to the patio. This created plenty of room to construct a planter which housed a number of indigenous plant species. We planted an oak tree in this enclosure so that the patio would have shade in the years to come and eventually provide support for a future outdoor chandelier the Ashcrofts intended to hang.

Houston landscape professionals added one more special touch to the patio outdoor fireplace. In order to make the structure functional year round, they contracted a local lighting design firm to install special lights inside the fireplace interior. This way, on warm spring and summer nights, these hidden lights could generate an artificial firelight that contributed charm and ambience to occasions without adding to the heat of the Houston summer.

If you are interested in any high-quality Houston landscaping services, Exterior Worlds has been providing the high-end residential landscape services and garden design services discussed above for the Houston and the surrounding areas including memorial villages (Piney Point Village, Bunker Hill Village, Hunter Creek Village), Tanglewood, River Oaks, West University and the greater Houston (Hou), area since 1987. Contact us at 713-827-2255

Houston Driveway

What is a driveway?
In residential landscaping, it is a small thoroughfare that provides street access to the front yard. Most Houston driveways are plain concrete slabs and nothing more. People park their cars over them and never give them a second thought as they march to the front door.

The thing is, it doesn’t have to be this way in your front yard. Exterior Worlds can build you a driveway that is as decorative as it is functional. The key to doing this is the understanding of your home’s architecture and the construction of a surface that mirrors its aesthetic elements and compliments surrounding hardscape and softscape elements.

What are driveways used for?
Houston driveways support the commuter nature of our city by providing parking areas in front of homes. Not everyone parks their vehicles in the driveway all the time, though. Some use garages and carports to house their cars, trucks, and SUVs and leave the motor court open to guests. In these scenarios drives can be built that almost act like pathways leading from the street to a separate motor court parking slab or covered parking area.

What are different types of Houston driveways are there?
The residential parking areas that we design tend to be highly individualized to the home. Much of the customization lies in the choice of materials. A brick driveway goes very well with a traditional or colonial home. A concrete driveway, on the other hand, works very well with contemporary styles. Black asphalt can contribute a majestic sense to custom homes that are large in size and feature a unique blend of architectural motifs. Still other materials include decorative forms of concrete, such as brushed concrete, decomposed granite, and cobblestone.


What would you suggest for driveway landscaping?
Houston driveways can be constructed using a blend of hardscape and softscape designs. Varying both the surface and the structure of the hardscape is the best way to make your drive truly stand out. Walls are one way of enhancing the form without altering its function. In fact, walls can even provide additional safety for parking at night. They can be built to run parallel to the surface, or they can cross perpendicular to the entrance. A gate can be installed that then allows you to control access to your own parking area and secure your car behind a barricade after dark. If you do not want to look so elusive to your neighbors, we can build an arched-entryway that provides a decorative, open access to and from the world at large.

Can you really integrate softscape into a Houston driveway?
Yes and far more than you may think. Plantings like small gardens, tree islands, shrubs, and various ground cover species can bring attention and vitality to your parking area. Flowers can either support or enhance the geometric boundaries of the motor court. For example, if your drive is simply a straight, linear form with no variation, we can plant a variety of garden forms that sweep out in curved radiuses to either side. This can soften your entire front yard and add a sense of dimension and vitality impossible to achieve with strict linear movements.

Pool Deck Remodel

Is your swimming pool area looking dated or rundown—or has it even become unsafe? If so, call Exterior Worlds for a pool deck remodeling project.

Let’s begin with a quick primer on swimming pool construction terminology and the finishes involved. The interior shell of a pool is covered with plaster that hardens like concrete and seals the interior of your pool. Popular upgrades used today include quartz finishes in a wide variety of colors and textures.

Next comes the pool coping, which is the area that immediately surrounds the pool. The coping locks in the pool plaster on one side and seals the deck on the other. Because you want to ensure a non-slippery surface in the immediate wet area, preferable choices are tile, stone or brick.

Then—the pool decking that encircles your luxury swimming pool. It is usually made of some kind of masonry and connects the pool to the rest of the spaces. It becomes a special dimension within your landscape design, creating usable, safe spaces that are visually pleasing.

Before you make a decision about your decking material, consider your total landscape design. You can integrate your swimming pool design into its surroundings by creating smooth transitions between the pool, yard and general background. A swimming pool adds texture to an otherwise blank and flat yard, so be creative. If you have small yard, a pool turns it into an oasis. For wood decks or flagstone patios attached to the house, you can use your pool decking choices to coordinate or contrast with them. In general, you don’t want a very dark color for your pool deck because it will absorb heat. Likewise, you don’t want it too light because of the higher maintenance.

You have a marvelous range of materials to choose from with a pool deck remodeling project. A pool deck remodel project gives you the opportunity to coordinate material choices in your landscape, something that can get out of balance in older homes that have undergone many home projects. Keep in mind that you want the tones used in the house and landscape to be complementary. Our clients’ choices include tinted and stamped concrete, brick and stone. One example of a design conscious choice would be to use a darker stone with a light grout or rich dark grout with a lighter stone color.

In discussing a pool remodeling project, all decisions should factor in safety. Now may be a good time to think about installing a fence around your swimming pool. Exterior Worlds will be happy to discuss different options. For example, you may want to highlight the fence by using custom ornamental iron fencing or, conversely, you may prefer to make it unobtrusive by having us weave bushes around its perimeter.

Some of our clients find that once they start a pool renovation project, such as pool deck remodeling, they uncover additional problems beneath the deck that need to be updated, such as the plumbing, the pool lighting and the general electrical system. Once the decking is ripped out, you have an opportunity to address those issues, too, a decision that usually saves money in the long run.

Limestone Patios, Architecture, and Décor

What architectural theme does this best support?
All architectural themes and Houston landscape designs can benefit from limestone forms. Limestone is a soft stone that can be easily crafted into almost any style shape or form. This makes it easy to match the resulting form to the specific architecture of houses and outdoor buildings.

Limestone can also be polished, which makes it very good for creating ornamental or decorative elements. There is very little that we cannot do with limestone.

Are there any negatives to limestone?
Limestone’s only negative attribute is that it is highly porous, so any surface that requires resistance to water should be built from something else. Aside from this very narrow and singular limitation, it can be used to build virtually any type of hardscape.

Where is it mostly used?
While it works with any type of architecture, its most powerful expression is found as a compliment to very strong architecture. There is a cultural and historical association that all of us share in that links limestone to antiquity.

Classical buildings and porticos were commonly built of this stone, so any work we do on today’s Houston landscape can convey that same feeling of grand drama and regal authority that we associate with our own heroic, historical origins.

English and French landscape designs both convey a strong sense of presence due in part to the their deliberate incorporation of classical materials and their insistence on symmetry and geometry that trace their way back to Rome, Greece, Egypt, and Mesopotamia—cultures that all used limestone to build their monuments, temples, and great works of art.

What if I could care less about ancient culture?
Then you can enjoy limestone’s modern application. Because of its malleability, limestone is a timeless material to work with. It is easily molded to human intent, and it works just as well in contemporary and modern Houston landscapes as it did on Appian vineyards and Greek hillsides 2,500 years ago.

You can go forward with limestone just as easily as you can go backward. The choice is yours.
What are some decorative objects that you can build out of limestone?
Many decorative Houston landscape design elements can be made from limestone. These elements include custom fountains, walls, arbor columns, urns, and planters.

What garden design does this work well with?
It works best with Mediterranean, French, and Italian themes. Limestone makes ideal material for building architectural walls, retaining walls, garden stepping stones, and linear planters to set the boundaries of garden space.

Will just about any outdoor building benefit from a limestone patio?
Yes, because we can shape the stone to match the architecture.

The Importance of Custom Masonry in Houston Landscape Design

What is custom masonry?
Custom masonry is a very pronounced form of hardscape that rises up from the ground, adding a third dimension to the landscape beyond that offered by a simple foundation or patio.

Masonry includes a multiplicity of forms most of us have seen all of our lives. Most of these forms date back to ancient times and have become iconic of the mythic and archetypal in our collective consciousness. Brick walls, stone patios, columns, seat walls, stone steps, and stone retaining walls, have dominated everything from the Sumerian landscape to the Houston landscape, and many places and times in between.

Where does masonry offer the greatest aesthetic impact on the Houston landscape?
Its strongest virtue, as the Ancients would say, is that it marries the architecture to the landscape. Such unity is prerequisite to creating a truly livable outdoor space that defines activity with aesthetic itself. When we introduce the masonry elements of the home by building them out into the open spaces of the yard, we create a feeling of unity between hardscape and softscape that implies a return to a state of Nature, and a blissful life of harmony with the elemental forces of life.

What are some examples of custom masonry?
Some of them are surprisingly unobtrusive until you get close enough to see them. Custom drain grates, mosaics, and custom stone patterns constitute the “little things” that transform functionality into sophisticated ornamentation.

How does custom masonry support swimming pool construction?
Custom masonry is literally the backbone of swimming pool construction. It is the predominant material for cladding the substructure of the pool. This superstructure includes the beams that stabilize the entire structure, the pool shell itself, and the concrete that forms the actual bottom of the pool.

How does custom masonry support garden design?
Since gardens are almost completely organic, the selective addition of custom masonry elements ties the vegetation directly into the architecture of the home. For a typical garden, a small architectural wall, or a planter running parallel to a wall, is often all that is needed to link apparently divergent realities into a interrelated, interdependent unity. Larger gardens can also be linked to key elements of the Houston landscape with more elaborate masonry work.

How does custom masonry support outdoor room construction?
As we have previously noted, masonry has been the main element of architecture for millennium. Outdoor room construction follows this principle. Since most outdoor rooms are open to the air on at least one side so that people can have a view of the Houston landscape, the importance of custom masonry is even more pronounced, because it is in the nuances and subtleties of design that unique outdoor living spaces find true expression in the form of new and innovative boundaries and spaces.

The Many Uses of Cut Stone in Houston Landscape Design

What is a cut stone patio?
It is a patio constructed out of stones cut into geometric shape. They are generally cut into squares, rectangles, or some other clearly recognizable pattern.

Are these stones all the same size?
The individual stones in a cut stone patio may or may not be the same, depending on the style of Houston landscape design they are intended to support.

Where is it mostly used?
Cut stone patios are used to build hardscapes in areas where people gather and move from point to point. We commonly build them around swimming pools located at the rear of homes. Here, the patio becomes the focus of outdoor living space, and a gathering spot that links architecture to water’s illuminated fluidity and ambience.

Front walks are also made of cut stone to create a sense of grand entrance to a house. This sense of stateliness can be further enhanced by building the front porch out of the same materials. A house differentiated by these elements stands out on the Houston landscape as being unique in its ability to add human refinement to natural elements without overpowering the organic vitality of life.

How does it compliment garden design?
Because stone is a natural element, it ties very well into the richness and natural order of a garden. Cut stone makes an excellent border for almost any garden style. It can also compliment nearby gardens with patterns that are recognizably geometric and reflective of the layout of garden design. Many times a pathway, fountain, or retaining wall that is built near a garden will draw attention to the greenery and magnify its importance on the Houston landscape.

Is this a good style to use near a pool or outdoor building?
Yes. One of the biggest benefits of cut stone is its ability to communicate a sense of control that is governed by the order of nature and not the hand of man. This creates symmetry, design, and containment without overpowering the scenery.

What architectural theme does this best support?
All architectural themes can be enhanced with cut stone patios. Different styles can be reflected by simply varying the type of stones we use, the geometric shapes into which they are cut, and the sizes of the individual stones themselves.

Color also plays a very important role in supporting certain architectural styles such as traditional, contemporary, and modern. Stone colors should be selected that appropriately reflect the intent of the home itself as it rises up from the Houston landscape.

What landscaping theme does this work best with?
Any landscaping theme can be enhanced with this type of patio design. It works especially well with natural landscape design and tropical landscape design.

Hardscape Design

A recent project that we did for the Friedman family demonstrates just how important hardscape design and variation of grade changes are to creating zones of interest and comfort in a vast Houston landscape. The size of the home and the property at large demanded that outdoor elements be very large as well. For example, the pool patio alone had to be 2,000 square foot to compliment the size of the house and to provide sufficient space to entertain an average of 40-50 people.

We decided we could break up the sense of an overwhelming structure by creating three changes in elevation. These grade changes were the pool patio itself, an upper terrace between the pool fountain and the spa adjoined to the outdoor kitchen, and an arbor overlooking the Houston landscape from a vantage point above.

We built the pool patio out of Pennsylvania blue stone and provided a nice dark surface area that set the gathering area apart from the surrounding vegetation. It featured custom drains and special water jets that sent water into the lighted depths of the pool at night. The stairs leading up to the terrace are broad and wide, and they create a feeling of a very gradual, gentle ascent to a higher realm where one can view the surrounding Houston landscape from the comfort of a rocking chair, or the sheik luxury of a heated spa sunk into the terrace.

The upper terrace was also constructed using Pennsylvania sandstone. It is also the first entry point for guests when they enter open space. It gives them a choice between the spa and the arbor above. Rocking chairs position the viewer for panoramic visual intake of the Houston landscape, swimming pool, and parterre garden. A retaining wall that rises behind the terrace aesthetically frames it and adds emphasis to its border. It also functions on a practical level to hold back the soil and the grade.

Perched above both the terrace and the pool, we built a traditional style arbor built with ornate columns and a solid roof, built in the style of a luxurious outdoor living room, and overlooking the entirety of the pool, the garden, and the Houston landscape beyond. In many respects, this was the grand finale to the Friedman project. It is built on an axis with the pool and provides us with as an entry point to the upper terrace through a series of steps very similar to those built along either side of the pool waterfall. Each two-inch step is built upon a concrete base hidden in the grass, with veneered sandstone risers and treads. Each top stone is flat and thermal finished.

The treads are also constructed with a very rich tread to prevent slippage. They are gauged at 18 inches in width to give you a generous step and uniform descent to the terrace. This reinforces the feeling of controlled drama that you feel when you walk out into the open space of the Friedman back yard, and it helps pause the visitor just long enough to make choices as to where to go next.

Climbing the steps creates an even greater sense of grand finale, because the arbor itself is decorated as an outdoor living room overlooking the Houston landscape, complete and living room furniture overlooking. The rear of the arbor is covered by a group of Japanese yew trees that create an organic wall and frame the Houston outdoor living experience with a sense of controlled vitality.

Custom Hardscapes

In the vernacular of landscaping, hardscapes are the permanent elements built in your yards that serve both a decorative and functional purpose. As the name implies, custom hardscapes are ones that are tailor-made for you and your location. A few examples of custom hardscapes include luxury patios, garden pergolas, swimming pool construction, and other water features such as a disappearing fountain or koi pond.

At Exterior Worlds, we have used a long list of materials to build these outdoor elements—stone, brick, metals and concrete, just to name a few. We use these materials based on their texture, form and color, adding interest and variety to the overall design. We also are very cognizant of what complements the architecture of your home and the existing flora.

The process of planning and building hardscapes follows a fairly standard timeline:

• First, we believe hardscape plans begin with you, your family and what you want. For instance, do you intend to use it for formal entertaining or will it be a quiet sanctuary in which you can retreat from the pressures of the outside world? Perhaps you have a theme in mind, such as a Tuscan or English garden, or own an outdoor sculpture you want to feature.
• The next step requires hiring professionals, such as Exterior Worlds, to help with the planning, designing and building. We work hard to ensure that your plans fit the style of your home. For instance, a landscape design filled with organic features works beautifully with Frank Lloyd Wright-inspired architecture.
• Once our plans have been presented to you and we have your approval, the permitting stage begins. This step represents a compelling reason to hire us as we understand the local rules and regulations, an expertise that will, in the long run, save you money.
• Last—the implementation and project management phase. We promise to make sure you understand what to expect when. We not only want to manage your expectations, but we also realize that anticipation is part of the fun!

If your needs are more along the lines of backyard remodeling, Exterior Worlds has a special proficiency in this area, especially with swimming pool restoration. And if these plans sound too grand for your current budget, you might consider landscape phasing. It is a service we offer your clients that involves implementing your landscape design in incremental steps over time. You still get the improvements to your property, but the draw-down on your finances is spread out.
One example of a three-year phased-in plan, including custom hardscapes:

• Phase 1: Re-design and remodel your outdated swimming pool. Plant trees.
• Phase 2: Install custom-designed wrought iron fence and driveway gate. Design and build gazebo.
• Phase 3: Create pathways to connect the swimming pool to the gazebo. Update landscape lighting design. Complete landscape plantings.

Your exterior design should be all about you just as your interior design is. It should reflect your aesthetics, needs and desires, and be planned around your intended usage. Custom hardscapes help turn your exterior world into one that is uniquely your own.

Visit www.exteriorworlds.com for a full run-down of the landscaping services offered by Exterior Worlds. In Houston, 713-827-2255.

Rock Landscape Design

The purpose of all landscaping is to mold the natural world into a comfort zone for outdoor living. To do this, you have to unify the manmade with the natural. Because stone is abundant throughout the world in every natural environment, rock landscape design offers the most effective unifying element between human architectural and organic presence.

The most powerful characteristic of stone is its sense of absolutes. Its stark, unspoken reality makes it ideal for constructing any type of boundary that subdivides a property into areas of special interest. Architectural walls, columns, dry set stones, veneered walls, and rock borders can all be used to set aside special areas for conversation, recreation, and relaxation.

Rock landscape design also greatly compliments to any landscape element that features water. This is especially the case for natural swimming pools and ponds that are intended to emulate remote mountain lakes. Stone can also be used to cover the gunite bottoms of these ponds to make them look natural and to conceal the silent pumps, aerators, and drains beneath the water that maintain the pristine appearance of the pond.

Swimming pools can also be greatly enhanced by rock landscape design. Stones that are used to construct decorative copings make the pool appear more natural in origin. Stones are also ideal building materials for swimming pool patios because they provide a safe surface area to walk on with wet feet, and because they blend so very well with surrounding garden design. Stone copings around custom fountains always add an Old World or Classical touch to the water’s edge.

Driveways and walkways can literally be transformed by rock landscape design. Many people prefer to have a stone motor court rather than a plain concrete drive simply because it adds beauty to their front yard. You see such driveways a lot in front of homes built with very formal architecture styles. Around less formal houses, where an all stone driveway may look ostentatious, rocks places on either side of a concrete slab are normally all you need to dress up an otherwise plain hardscape.

Any purely decorative elements can be magnified with rock landscape design. Areas typically adorned with vegetation can be further accentuated with a less-is-more approach to stone placement. A tree with a flower bed around it, for example, will appear even more distinguished if stones encircle the flowers. Wooden arbors look more natural with decorative boulders standing on either side of their entrances. Entry gardens look sublime with large decorative boulders that highlight garden elements with a special sense of presence under outdoor lights.

Hardscape Plans

The term hardscape refers to any permanent structure on your landscape. Hardscape plans involve construction of both functional and decorative outdoor features. Color and texture are interwoven into many of these forms to compliment architecture and natural flora.

Any material, including stone, metal, bricks, and concrete can be used to build these outdoor elements. If not done properly, they can cost you an enormous amount of money to rebuild. However, if designed and constructed by professional landscape architects, they can increase your home value with a minimal amount of maintenance.

Hardscape plans frequently constitute up to 60-70 percent of a master landscaping plan. Due to the complexity and variety of forms this includes, it is important that you plan assiduously and work with an established landscape design firm such as Exterior Worlds. Our professionals are experts in architecture, irrigation, drainage, garden design, swimming pool remodeling, and outdoor building construction. Thorough knowledge of these many disciplines is necessary to create a truly superior and memorable Houston outdoor living experience for your friends, family, and neighbors.

Hardscape plans should establish the overall theme of the landscape and should be developed first before adding vegetation. It is important to work with an expert organization like Exterior Worlds to ensure that everything is drawn to scale and affords appropriate amounts of space to which to add gardens, flower beds, hedges, and even trees later in the project.

Ideally, hardscape plans should focus on making functional elements that also convey a high-level of aesthetics to the eye of the viewer. This requires a very thorough knowledge of materials in order to achieve the delicate balance between building something durable that works and something that simply looks good.

Even the most common concrete structure like porches and motor courts can be rendered visually appealing with techniques like brushing. Common bricks can take on an entirely new aesthetic when arranged in complex designs such as the running bond pattern that is popular around homes with a rustic look or historical period theme.

Other important functional elements of the hardscape plan include patios and walkways. Both forms are crucial to the success of home entertainment events. Patios provide gathering and seating areas, and walkways provide safe transit at night between outdoor buildings, swimming pools, garden areas, entry gardens, and courtyards.

• Fencing
• Decks
• Outdoor buildings
• Walkways
• Driveways
• Outdoor kitchens
• Retaining walls
• Built-in grill
• Patios
• Walls
• Sports Courts
• Driveways

Again, working with a professional landscaping company with an advanced knowledge of design will ensure that some of the more taken-for-granted elements can be built in a manner that immediately catches the eye and contributes its own unique sense of beauty and proportion to front yard and back yard design features.

Taking the time to communicate with an advanced team of professionals who will hold themselves strictly accountable to the highest standards of materials, design, and construction will ensure that your property value increases and remains an asset to both your lifestyle and your original home investment for many, many years that follow.

Houston Outdoor Patio

One of the most powerful effects that a Houston outdoor patio creates in a landscape is to draw people toward intended points of interest, comfort, and entertainment. Such a structure can be constructed anywhere in your front or back yard that you wish to use as a gathering area. Swimming pools, custom fountains, gardens, arbors, and even open spaces under lighted trees will be transformed into special outdoor living environments where comfort and aesthetics create a sense of special space within space that intensifies the impact of natural elements and outdoor architecture.

To achieve this effect you will need to work with a landscape designer who is able to create relationships between highly divergent landscaping elements and present a unified aesthetic at the end of the day. A Houston outdoor patio is a key component to this process because it is able to physically connect to any element in a yard and create a focal point that is both functional and aesthetic. The few examples that follow illustrate this point.

• Houston is hot, so adding an outdoor patio will always help improve the experience around the pool. It does more than give your guests a place to sit and recline beside the water. It extends into the landscape and touches any number of surrounding elements. Aesthetic elements such as gardens and fountains will be made to appear closer to the swimming pool and part of its ultimate design. Functional elements near the pool such as outdoor kitchens can be more conveniently accessed from a connecting hardscape. Guests who come to your home can access all points of relevance from the comfort of a special seating area that has been constructed with unity and mobility built into its design.

• The pool is only one area around which a Houston family can add an outdoor patio. Another location that always charms visitors is an entry garden. People tend to feel very at ease when surrounded by greenery and flowers. With the right kind of outdoor lighting, seating area within a garden takes on the persona of a natural room that encourages conversation and socialization in relaxed environment. This can go a long way toward detoxifying the emotions of the multiple stress factors that challenge the Houston professional on a daily basis.

• If you value privacy, but want to enjoy it in an outdoor setting in special area set aside only for yourself and your spouse, you can create a reading or meditation area around a fountain or Zen garden just for the two of you. In Houston, such outdoor patios can be built just large enough for two people, and segregated from the entirety of the yard by steps, a wrought iron fence, or a hedge.

Such environments as the ones described above serve to illustrate that there really is no limit as to where we can construct these versatile and highly practical structures. Location is not the defining factor here, but rather, complimentary design. Any hardscape that you have added to the natural greenery of your yard has to be built of materials that harmonize with organic elements. Special materials such as stone and cast stone make a seating area look like part of the natural world. Pavers are less organic but can be laid down with amazingly intricate patterns that reflect the growth patterns of vegetation.

The only exception to this is in modern and contemporary landscapes where manmade elements deliberately dominate the natural. However, these environments as well must be carefully constructed to express abstract themes and work together with architecture in the same manner that custom Houston outdoor patios work with organic designs in more traditional landscaping themes. Concrete works best in these environments and offers a world of design opportunity when stained, colored, or textured for deliberate effect.

Retaining walls

We have some places in our yard with a fairly decent slope. We’ve tried plants there to keep the soil in place, but it hasn’t worked. Does Exterior Worlds have a solution for us?
Retaining walls can be built to hold soil in place and away from your house, driveway, luxury swimming pool or other landscaped areas. Constructed of varying height and length, these barriers can be built to appear as if an integral part of your landscape design.

A hardscape exhibiting both form and function, a retaining wall in your landscape garden design solves problems, adds interest and helps define the space. These barriers address drainage issues, can help you reclaim previously unusable or underutilized zones, and, with some of today’s attractive products, can look beautiful while doing so. They can also visually divide your yard into manageable areas, thus giving the eye a focal point. You can even put them to further work by constructing them with built-in bench seating.

What are the design elements we should consider?
You will want to address three broad areas:

• Design. The wall’s purpose, as well as the topography of the land, will determine placement, height and length. Be cognizant of integrating your wall into other features of your landscape, such as the patio design, pathways, pool design, garden beds and ponds.
• Style. You will want to coordinate it with your home and landscape architecture. Some styles ideas: the sharp and spare lines of concrete work well in a modern landscape design, or the enduring presence of stone works beautifully in a Mediterranean landscape design.
• Material choice. Usually brick, pavers, stone, concrete, steel or wood. As with all material selections, be sure to coordinate it with your home’s exterior. Also you will want to factor in any homeowners’ association guidelines.

Who can help us with such a project?
A retaining wall attempts to master erosion and gravity, two of the most powerful forces on the planet. In the Gulf Coast area, the most common problems with these walls have to do with stability, with water drainage being the biggest factor. We encourage our clients to hire expert engineers, contractors and builders when they need such a partition built. Most regulating bodies require that a certified engineer either build or inspect these structures when they go over a certain height or when they are built close to a structure or driveway. Landscape designers and landscape architects can help you with these issues and the permitting process.

At Exterior Worlds, our full service solution with retaining walls is most important when integrating them into your yard drainage system. Since the biggest enemy is water, you’ve got to have good drainage behind the wall. Another concern we address is tree preservation, as it is with any of our building projects. You want to be sure that tree roots aren’t damaged in any way. What Exterior Worlds brings to the table in this area is our ability to take into account all aspects of your landscape, including such things as grade changes and different surfaces.

Wooden Decking Construction in Houston

We want to work a wood deck into our landscape. What does Exterior Worlds think about this idea?
By its nature, wood has a warm texture to it and brings natural beauty to your landscape design. Wood decks invite friends and family out-of-doors, thus expanding your living space.

Wood decks enhance any landscapes, but work particularly well with these garden themes:

• English garden design. The English garden design is the essence of an informal garden and a wooden deck complements that informality. In an English garden, colors and textures in wild profusion draw you in to create a feast for the mind’s eye. Because plants are chosen for a strong mix of color, wood decks make a pleasing backdrop.
• Urban landscaping. An urban yard or garden usually presents difficult challenges, like unsightly utility easements or pint-size spaces that are all straight lines and right angles. The goal with urban landscaping, as with all landscape architecture, is to create spaces in which the home and architectural elements harmoniously integrate with their natural setting. Wooden decks fit neatly into this relationship.

• Japanese garden design. In this tradition, the garden is a microcosm of nature, therefore a deck design using wood fits in perfectly. You can create a conversation between it, the fences and gates, other elements important to a Japanese garden with its underlying philosophy of enclosure. The fence protects us from the outside world, the gate provides the threshold, and the wood decking connects us to our natural selves.

• Modern landscape design. This style, known for it fluid point of view, uses geometric shapes such as those found in the wood planks of a deck. Horizontal and vertical planes create a modern sensibility while colors and plantings evoke a warm, welcoming feel. To enhance the visual feast, water and light are often used, as in artfully-lit outdoor water fountains. It is the juxtaposition of linear and non-linear, soft and hard, free-flowing and restrained that defines modern landscape design.

What are the different woods we should consider?
Pressure-treated pine is the most popular choice for wooden decking in this region. It stands up well to our weather and damp soil.

However, cedar and redwood have natural resins that protect them from weathering and rotting, too. Cedar works well for decks because it possesses dimensional stability and a natural resistance to decay. These woods provide a firm base for many types of stains and paints.

Can Exterior Worlds help us with maintenance and ongoing care?
Moisture and the ultraviolet rays of the sun, something we have in abundance here in the Houston area, are the two biggest enemies of wooden decks. We help our clients address these issues with services included in our landscape maintenance contracts.

For regular cleaning, wood can be cleaned with a special cleaner and, for especially stubborn mildew stains, a small amount of household bleach diluted with water will work.

We suggest that wooden decks be protected every two years or so with a penetrating, clear wood finish or stain. We also check for protruding nail heads and any rotten areas, especially on stairs and railings.

Patio Design

How does my patio, a ubiquitous feature of the Houston home, fit into my landscape design?
Patios belong to the group of landscape elements called hardscapes—the non-plant material of your landscape design. In general, when hardscapes are combined with greenery, they create an outdoor living environment that everyone and anyone can enjoy. In this way, a patio is an extension of your home that is both functional and visually appealing.

Our clients have used patio designs that run the gamut from an understated, airy greenhouse to an inviting outdoor room. Thus, an outdoor patio expands the living space of the house and can create a memorable view out the window. A patio makes for a transition—an interval—between the house and the yard and adds a personal touch to the overall look of your property. It affects the physical space and emotional content of the landscape with the way it shows your personal aesthetic.

What are my first considerations when thinking about my patio design?
Exterior Worlds encourages our clients to begin with an overview:
• What is the existing view from your patio?
• Where does the sun hit it at different times of the year?
• Do you want or need a focal point? A focal point, such as an outdoor water fountain, will draw the eye to it. It literally gives the eye something to focus on. Or perhaps you have an unsightly feature or an odd spot in your layout. If so, a focal point will draw attention away from it.

Popular garden structures on patio deck designs include garden arbors, outdoor gazebos and pergolas. They can provide shelter from the elements, frame a focal point or form a decorative entrance. These architectural elements are attractive ways to add interest to your landscape and make a strong statement.

How do I connect the patio to the rest of my landscape?
We encourage our clients to make design choices for their landscape architecture that complement their home’s architecture. At the same time, you also want the selections to reflect your personality.

By their nature, garden pathways connect the patio to the rest of the landscape and finish off the patio design. Paths direct the eye and create interest across the expanse of green grass.

Landscape lighting also can tie your patio design to the rest of the yard. It turns your landscape into a 24-hour delight and serves as a security measure.
What are my flooring options?
The most common patio in Houston is a concrete pad attached to the house, a feature that creates a blank canvas on which to build. Your flooring options include:
• Concrete. This durable choice can be colored, stained or textured to create long-lasting beauty.
• Stone. Cut limestone, sandstone, quartzite and slate are popular choices among Exterior Worlds’ clientele.
• Cast stone. This masonry product gives the appearance of natural stones such as granite, slate, limestone, travertine or marble.
• Pavers. A man-made brick that recalls old world charm, patio pavers can be installed in intricate patterns, such as cobblestone.

Custom Patios

Many Houston residents have come to want more than just a typical patio where friends can sit around the swimming pool. They want a custom patio that has been designed to accommodate the functions of entertainment, recreation, and relaxation. Custom patios are typically built either behind a home or alongside of a home on larger estates, although a few very large estates with walled properties may also have them in the front yard. Regardless of the exact location of the hardscape, the ruling principle is to build a custom patio that will reflect the function and nature of specific events, and whose material build and physical form compliment home architecture and surrounding landscape features.

Traditionally, patios have either been stone, concrete, or wooden seating areas adjacent to a pool or some other center of activity. In custom design, however, the patio itself can become the center of activity. Space requirements and anticipated activities must then be factored into custom patio design as variables. When we work with a new client, we take a great deal of time during the consultation and planning phase to get a feel for what types of outdoor events they may be planning to host at their home. Such factors as the number of guests, the nature of the gathering, and what adjoining structure the patio itself is meant to be a part of all play critical roles in determining both the materials used to build it and the actual physical shape it will ultimately take.
Such a systematic approach to custom design allows us to build a patio in or around virtually any area of significant interest in your yard. Many times our clients want us to build special seating or gathering areas near their favorite fountains or gardens so guests can enjoy the aesthetic of these elements at close range and have the ambience they create actually define the experience of the event. Other clients may ask us to build a custom patio in a remote portion of the yard which serves as their own personal, exclusive, and private retreat during early morning and late evening hours. Still others seek to create an atmosphere of outdoor revelry and extravaganza where the most complex and ostentatious of outdoor structures are magnified by a surrounding hardscape design that both attracts and maintains the interest of the crowd.

We do a great deal of this type of construction around a number of special outdoor structures that represent an indoor living turned inside out. Outdoor fire places and fire pits are two great examples of this. Based upon the ancient principles of hearth and home, these symbolic invoke both connotations of historical living space and images of a warm, refined modern living room. By constructing these structures outside, in the yard, then building a custom patio around them, we can unify the experiential, the symbolic, and the Natural all into a new synthesis.

Custom patios can also be built in front of outdoor kitchens and arbors to provide an extended space connected to the interiors of these structures. Once again, letting function define the form allows not only for such an extension of space, but a combining of spaces with other areas of interest. A custom patio can link the space between a garden and an arbor, or a pool or an outdoor kitchen, giving people a path to walk on, a floor to mingle on, and a seating area to comfortably gather around for conversation—all rolled into one. Other locations where we commonly build custom patios include entrance gardens that line the side walls of multi-story homes on larger estates, and ornate lighted fountain areas that can act as centerpieces and focal points for late night gatherings.

Landscape architects use only the best materials in building custom patios and take the time to make certain that the plans they develop for the hardscape ultimately mesh with the organic and architectural elements of the property. They also make certain that home architecture and surrounding structural designs are respected and complimented by the design, materials, and size of the patio itself.