Concrete Patios in Colorado Springs, CO

Concrete patios are popular in Colorado Springs for practical reasons: concrete stands up to hard sun, sheds snow, and asks for little more than a sweep and a periodic coat of sealer. Wikipedia's article on the city counts about 243 sunny days a year, and that sun shapes how a patio gets used. A slab on the west side of a house can be too hot to sit on in a July afternoon and lovely on a September evening. Before we talk about finishes, we talk about where the patio goes and when you plan to be on it.

Placement questions we ask

• Morning or evening? East-side patios get morning light and afternoon shade; west-side patios get the late sun.
• Shade later? If a pergola or covered roof is in the plan, we size and thicken the slab so posts can be added.
• Hot tub? A filled tub is a heavy point load and needs extra thickness and steel under it.
• How many people? Table, chairs pulled back, a grill with room to work, and a walking lane add up quickly, so we stake the outline on site and let you stand in it.
• Where does the water go? The answer to this one decides the slope.

The foundation question

A patio usually sits right against the house, which makes it part of your foundation's drainage. The Colorado Geological Survey notes that landscaping and irrigation near foundations, and poor handling of surface water, make expansive-soil damage worse, and it lists cracked and heaved patios among the most common signs of that soil. So a patio has to move water away: we set a fall of about a quarter inch per foot away from the house, route downspouts past the slab, and check where sprinkler heads throw water. Planting beds that get watered daily do not belong in a pocket between the patio and the foundation.

Finishes

• Broom: light ridges for grip, the most affordable, simple to clean
• Integral color: pigment mixed in at the batch plant, through the full depth
• Exposed aggregate: the surface washed back to show stone; hides dust and grips well
• Saw-cut grids: plain concrete scored in squares or diamonds, which also act as control joints
• Stamped: flagstone, slate and brick textures; see our stamped concrete page

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Construction

We strip sod and topsoil, shape the subgrade to the planned fall, compact it, and add a compacted base layer. Forms set the outline, including any curves or a step down to the yard. A typical backyard patio is 4 inches thick with wire or rebar; tub pads and post locations get more. The concrete is air-entrained for freeze-thaw, finished, edged and jointed, with an isolation joint where the slab meets the house so it can move independently of the foundation.

An old patio: keep, lift or replace

An existing slab is worth replacing when it has tipped toward the house, when cracks have offset into trip edges, or when the surface has worn through to loose sand and gravel. If it is intact but has settled as one piece, lifting may restore the slope for much less, and we will price that alongside a new patio. If it is heaving because the ground keeps getting wet, the water has to be fixed either way.

Care

Sweep and hose off. Set planters on feet so they do not trap water. Reseal broom and exposed-aggregate patios every few years, colored and stamped ones on the schedule we leave with you. Do not put salt on a patio; sand works. And walk the sprinkler system each spring to make sure no head is aimed at the slab.