Should I build a deck, a patio or a paver courtyard behind my house?

Start with the grade

The single most useful question is: how far is the finished floor inside the house above the dirt outside the back door? If the answer is a step or two, a deck is the natural solution. It gives you a level floor at the height of the room, with no retaining walls, no imported fill and no drainage headaches, and it keeps the yard beyond it intact. If the answer is a few inches, a hardscape patio does the same job with no structure to maintain.

Sloping lots, which are common in the hills of Carlsbad, Vista and San Marcos, push hard toward a deck. Holding a level patio on a slope means cutting, filling, retaining and compacting, and every one of those is a place water can go wrong. A deck simply stands on posts and lets the grade be the grade.

What a deck does best

A deck connects to the house at floor level, so the room flows outside without a step down. It is warm underfoot and dries quickly after the marine layer. It can be shaped to the furniture rather than the other way around, and it can change: boards can be refinished or replaced, a pergola can be added, a railing can be redesigned. It also tolerates ground movement that would crack a slab.

Its costs are maintenance and a finite life. Even composite sits on a wood frame that needs to be kept dry, and any deck above 30 inches needs a guard rail that becomes part of the view.

What pavers and poured patios do best

A paver or concrete patio is as permanent as anything in the yard. It does not rot, it will not burn, and it wants little more than an occasional wash. Pavers in particular can be lifted and reset if a tree root or a trench ever disturbs them, and they let water through the joints, which is good for drainage and for the trees. Stone and brick also carry a kind of weight and age that wood does not.

The costs are the step down from the house, heat storage (a dark paver court radiates for hours after sunset), and the need for careful base preparation and drainage. A patio that slopes toward the house is a leak waiting to happen. The retaining wall and paver walkway we built in North County started as a drainage problem: soil was washing onto the pavers until the slope was held back.

The hybrid most yards actually want

Our favorite answer is usually both. A deck at the house carries the dining table and the door traffic at floor level, then one or two broad steps drop to a paver court for lounge chairs, a fire feature or planting. The deck gives you the connection to the kitchen; the pavers give you the permanence and the sense of a garden room. The transition step is where the design lives, and it is worth drawing carefully.

Shade is the other design driver. In most North County yards the afternoon sun comes from the west and southwest. A pergola over the deck or a tree over the pavers decides where you will actually sit in August.

Questions we ask before recommending one

The answers usually point to a clear plan, and because we design and build decks, pergolas and stone and paver work ourselves, we have no reason to push you toward one material.

• How far above the yard is the floor at the back door?
• Which way does water move across the yard now, and where does it end up in a heavy rain?
• Where is the afternoon sun, and what blocks it?
• How many people do you want to seat for dinner, and how many for a party?
• Do you want to maintain a finish, or never think about it?
• Is the property in a fire hazard zone or an HOA with material rules?

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