Backyard Landscape and Extending a Concrete Patio Design

by Steve
(Southern Ontario Canada)

Extending a Concrete Patio Design (see reply below)

My wife and I recently purchased a Hot Tub last fall and after the winter we experienced we would like to incorporate some type of 4 season pergola over the top and around it. We thought about extending out our concrete patio to 8x20 but the cost just wasn't in our budget.

The tub can be moved about 3 feet to the left on the picture submitted. However it slopes on that side of the concrete and water does pool up on that side.

I thought of adding the pergola with the 4 posts on the grass (1 post on either side of the tub) and then in the winter months put up some fencing around the tub to protect us from the wind.However, I haven't found any type of design to help me out.

The reason why we would like to extend the patio out is that we now have no entertaining space...so I thought of maybe adding rustic pavers around the concrete patio built up???? Or maybe put a small retaining wall around the patio with columns around the posts and leave 2 openings going out to another patio to the left of the tub....Help please!!!! Just at a huge stand still on what to do and could sure use a different set of eyes and ideas to help us out ....Thanks in advance.

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Hi Steve,

Based on what you told me, I think the first thing you have to do is establish your budget. I can see you have given this a lot of thought and some of your ideas are good ones, so let me try to give you some of my thoughts from a both a practical and creative standpoint.

It seems you have two goals. The first is to extend or enlarge your patio space for entertaining. The second is to be able to use your hot tub comfortably in the winter.


Extending the Concrete Patio

Without ripping up what you have, I would consider two options. The first would be, as you suggested, extending the space with pavers.
The second would be to place a border of pavers (maybe two or more rows) along the existing concrete patio perimeter, and then add more concrete as a separate pour.

Winter Protection For Hot Tub Use

When you say a four season room, I think of a room that can be open in the summer and have screen or even glass during the other seasons. From your description, I don't think you mean this. (Do you?)

So let's discuss the pergola. You might consider adding a pergola over the hot tub area, extending it out from the house and placing the outer posts in the paver border area. You would have to see if structurally this would work and that would depend on the pergola size and dimensions. Or...you could place the hot tub further out and to the left, and then have the pergola as a free standing structure over the hot tub..towards the left and the back of your property in the photos.

I am not sure which direction the wind is coming from in your backyard, but I would use tall evergreen shrubs as your windscreen. I think it would be prettier in the backyard landscape and that type of solutions works well for wind. I also think fencing would just block in the area and look cold, unless you do so and put lots of plantings in the front and back of the fencing.

If you need any more specific design help, let me know. I can also design it for you if you are interested...it would not be that costly. Just Contact Me.

I hope this has been helpful.

Regards,
Susan