HOW TO PLAN THE PERFECT PATIO

from The Real Estate Book, Lake Area: Issue #6, Lake Oconee and Surrounding Areas

by The Real Estate Book, Lake Area - Lake Oconee, Lake Sinclair GA

INSPIRING SUMMER OUTDOOR DESIGN IDEAS

the home three years before, and Dr. Larsen and his wife trusted me. Little did they know, I had no clue how to build the three simple walls needed for the small new bathroom.

By Tim Carter

DRo you want to build a new wall inside your home? Perhaps you're trying to create a new small space for a home office or hobby room, or maybe you have a bigger appetite and are transforming a dank basement into a finished living space. But you have no idea where to start. I've been there. I've experienced your anxiety.

ecently, I had the enormous pleasure to help my son achieve one of his goals. He bought a new home last year and quickly discovered how much he missed the stunning red-brick patio he grew up with at our last home.

One day last fall, his mother and I were visiting and he said: “Dad, I’m finding it’s very hard to get bids for a patio and the prices I’m receiving are in the stratosphere. Do you think you and I could build a patio like we had at home?”

I survived with the help of a few phone calls to my boss. It was a humbling experience as I discovered you don't know what

You can't always do this in an existing home, especially if the ceilings in the room are finished with drywall or plaster. As you tilt the wall up, it binds against the ceiling. If you're challenged by a finished ceiling, you'll most likely have to install your top and bottom plates, making sure the plates are so you Sixteen standard Don't opening you just

Every now and then it's interesting to go back in time. I clearly remember having to build my first partition wall inside a house. I was a soaking wet-behind-theears carpenter working for a small remodeling company. One of my college professors, Dr. Larsen, had asked me to install a half bathroom in his home. I had no idea what to do, so I told him that my boss could do the job.

In an instant I knew how much work it would be, but I didn’t hesitate to say yes. I told him, “The first step is to discover exactly what you want.”

Over the years, I’ve performed countless autopsies on projects that didn’t turn out the way the homeowners wanted. In almost all cases, it came down to inadequate thought and planning before the first shovelful of dirt was turned.

Once the simple plans were drawn and the contract signed, I was sent to my professor's house to start the job. I had painted the outside of you don't know. Keep in mind this was decades before the Internet and YouTube. You have no idea what an advantage you now have when you have to educate yourself about how to repair and build things around your home. Count your blessings!

You might be like many past customers of mine. God has given all of us different talents and skills, and you may lack the ability to see in three dimensions a finished house, room or even a flat patio. This immediately puts you at a disadvantage. There’s a great chance you’ll not think about how the space will be used and how furniture will create what I call invisible hallways in rooms. There’s a very good chance you’ll underestimate the overall size something needs to be to function properly.

My son doesn’t have this talent, so I did with him what I had done for years with past customers. Two months ago, my wife and I went to our son’s house to start the patio planning process. I was armed with a roll of colored mason’s string, some wood stakes, a 4-pound hammer and a few tape measures.

“Share with me what would be the ideal weekend gathering you might have with your friends,” I said. “Who will be here and what will you be doing?” He said he’d have four or five friends over, he’d serve smoked brisket from a smoker he had over in the grass, and after they ate they’d play a board game or just sit around engaged in relaxing conversation. He also mentioned he might like to have a small water feature for birds and for creating soothing background ambiance.

Building a new interior wall in an existing house can be much different from doing it on a new home job site. When we carpenters build a wall for a new home, we typically build it flat on the floor. Once all the studs are nailed to the bottom and top plates, we tilt the wall up and secure it so it doesn't fall over.

This meant the patio had to have room for a table that would seat six people, additional room for his smoker, space for a portable water fountain, a place for two chairs, and maybe a few potted plants around the edge of the patio. It was time to drive stakes and stretch string.

Over the years, I’ve found that you need a space at least 12 feet by 14 feet for a rectangular table that seats six people. A 12-foot by 12-foot space is required for a 4-foot round table that seats four people. This provides plenty of room to move around the table while people are seated. Think about what happens if you have to get up and go back inside the house for something. plumb in the same plane. You'll then cut each wall stud to fit snugly between the plates and toenail them in place. Drill angled pilot holes in the ends of the wall studs for the nails. Use no less than 3-inch-long 16d sinker nails to connect the wall studs to the plates.

If there is no ceiling, you can tilt the wall up so long as you orient the wall in the same direction as the floor joists above. You simply make sure the top of the wall rises up in between two parallel floor joists. Once the wall is vertical, you can then slide it into position under

Before we went outside to stake out the patio, we made a quick sketch on paper to get a rough idea for the overall size knowing what he wanted. Using the string and wood stakes, within minutes we had created the outline of the patio. A set of steps from the house leading to the patio controlled the overall design. A small space on one side of the steps was reserved for the smoker and the other side was the much larger seating area.

The overall length of the patio, including the steps, was 29 feet and the width ended up 15 feet. Stretching the string around the wood stakes made the shape come alive for my son. I used smaller stakes and some string to create the actual furniture to show that everything would fit and there’d be plenty of room to walk across the patio without bumping into anyone.

My recommendation your new it at your rough opening measurements Measure of the where attached the door. measurement. of your much the frame the door. be trimming when you you want between the top You height just one-quarter the factory Trust me, install over drywall gap between and the ©2021 Tim Content Agency,

You can do the same thing by setting patio furniture on your lawn, spacing it how you want it. Then put string around your furniture layout to determine the overall size of the patio. Trust me, that huge patio in your head will shrink in size once you place furniture on it. Always go bigger. You’ll never regret it.

154

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