Messages and Online Forum Q&A

Re: Patio on New Home Construction

From: ak1769@wayne.edu
Category: Landscaping
Remote Name: 207.72.4.219
Date: 19 Feb 2006
Time: 06:01 PM

Comments

Question: We live in the south-east Michigan area. We are currently planning our landscaping for our new home. We want to have a patio installed on the back attached to the home. Many friends told us that we should wait for a year or two for the building to settle down before we have a patio installed. Is there any benefit for us to wait for a year or two? We have five quotes from five different landscaping companies and none of them mentioned the waiting period Thanks advance for your advice. Joy.

Builders Websource® Answer: Joy, when you say you want the patio attached to your home, is this an enclosed patio or simply an external landing/decking area? It is true that any new home will tend to settle slightly after a year or two depending on the soil condition and type of foundation. It also depends on how well the subsurface was compacted during the construction process. If you have a basement, it's unlikely the home will settle too much, as the foundation is deep below any frost line. However, if you have a more shallow foundation and footing, it's possible to experience some settlement as the seasons come and go. However, if your home settles more than 1/4" or so, you have a more serious problem. Anytime you add a new structure to an existing structure, there's opportunity for differential movement between the old and new. As such, a proper design will accommodate slight differential movement and settlement by way of expansion joints and other mechanisms. If you could email us with a little more description of your proposed patio addition, we can supply additional advice here that may help to eliminate any concerns you have about adding a patio to your new home. In our opinion, with proper engineering and structural design, nothing should hold up your proposed project.

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