Custom Homebuilding
On a new house, the loggia, the pool and the grading are designed with the slab, which is the only time it is straightforward.
Custom Homebuilding →→Approach
Outdoors, the climate is the client.
North Texas gives you roughly eight usable months and four difficult ones, and which eight you get depends almost entirely on decisions made at the drawing stage: how deep the cover is, which way it faces, where the afternoon sun lands in July, and whether air can move through the space at all. Everything else — the stone, the appliances, the furniture — is chosen afterwards, and none of it rescues an orientation that was wrong.
The second thing that decides an outdoor project is water. A patio is a large impermeable surface added to a lot that was already shedding rain somewhere. On Dallas clay, sending that water toward the house is not just a puddle problem: sustained moisture against a foundation moves it. Grading, positive fall, area drains and where the runoff eventually goes are engineered before a slab is formed.
We build these as rooms. Slab and footing designed for the soil, roof structure detailed like the house's, gas and water and conduit run for what you will want in five years, and finishes chosen for a surface that will sit at 140 degrees in August.
What is included
An outdoor commission can be any of the below, and most are several at once. We design the whole scheme even where the build is phased.
Covered patios and pavilions
Structures framed and detailed to match the house, with cover depth and orientation set by where the sun actually is in late afternoon rather than by the footprint that was left over.
Outdoor kitchens and grills
Grill, ventilation, refrigeration and storage in cabinetry rated for outdoor use, with gas, water and drainage run properly and the appliances sited so the cook is not facing a wall.
Pools and pool houses
Either way, shell, deck, equipment enclosure, bonding and drainage are sequenced inside our program, along with any pool house, bath or changing room.
Fireplaces and fire features
Masonry fireplaces, gas fire tables and fire bowls, with flue design, clearances, gas sizing and controls handled as construction rather than as an accessory bought late.
Pergolas and shade structures
Fixed and louvered pergolas, sail shades and screens, positioned for the western sun. Louvered systems buy you the afternoon; fixed timber buys you the look and less of the afternoon.
Decking and hardscape
Stone, porcelain paver, poured and honed concrete, and composite or hardwood decking, selected for surface temperature and slip as much as appearance, laid on a base built for clay movement.
Outdoor lighting and audio
Low-voltage lighting on zones and timers, path and step lighting done for safety rather than effect, and weather-rated audio wired during construction instead of surface-run afterwards.
Screening and insect control
Motorised screens for a loggia, fixed screening for a porch, and mosquito misting where the lot and the water features warrant it. Screens also cut a surprising amount of low sun.
How an outdoor project runs
Shorter than a house, and more exposed to weather. The stage that pays for itself is the drainage design in pre-construction.
- 01
Consultation
We walk the yard, look at where water currently goes and where the sun lands at four in the afternoon, then give a costed range.
- 02
Design
Layout, structure, grading and the appliance and lighting schedules developed together and priced as they change.
- 03
Pre-construction
Drainage engineered, permits and HOA architectural review filed, stone and appliances ordered, trades and any pool contractor booked into one schedule.
- 04
Build
Site work and grading, footings and slab, structure, roof, services, hardscape, appliances, lighting, screens and planting.
- 05
Handover
Gas, water and lighting commissioned, drainage checked under a hose test, controls demonstrated, then a return at eleven months after a full summer and a freeze.
Selected details
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Six things Texas does to an outdoor room.
These are the decisions we argue about most, and the reasons behind the positions we take.
Surface temperature
Dark stone and dense porcelain reach temperatures nobody walks on barefoot in August. Light-toned, thermally reflective paving near a pool is a comfort decision, not an aesthetic one.
Clay movement
The same soil that moves foundations moves patios. A properly compacted and drained base, control joints in the right places, and flexible joints at the house are what keep hardscape from cracking in year three.
Steel versus cedar
Powder-coated steel and aluminum hold their line through heat cycles and do not feed insects. Cedar looks warmer and will need refinishing on a schedule. Both are legitimate; only one is low-maintenance.
Appliance ratings
Indoor-rated refrigeration fails quickly outdoors. Outdoor-rated units, marine-grade fixings and cabinetry designed for heat and humidity cost more once and last.
Fans before misting
Air movement does more for comfort here than cooling does. High-volume low-speed fans first; misting helps on dry days and adds little when the dew point is high.
Drainage that leaves
Positive fall away from the house, area drains sized for a real North Texas downpour, and a discharge point that is not the neighbour's lawn. This is the detail most retrofits get wrong.
Questions
Related work
Kitchens
The indoor kitchen and the summer kitchen are usually one conversation, and one appliance schedule.
Kitchens →→
Media & Entertainment
Weather-rated audio, screens and control run out to the loggia during construction rather than added afterwards.
Media & Entertainment →→
Show us the back of the house.
A few photographs of the yard and where water sits after a storm will tell us most of it. We reply within two business days. Based in Dallas/Fort Worth and available for projects outside the Metroplex.
214-901-3655