A patio is the piece of the backyard you actually live on. We build them to hold up to North Texas heat, clay movement, and a decade of cookouts — in broom-finish concrete or stamped patterns that read like stone at a fraction of the cost.
Nearly every patio conversation we have starts in the same place: should it be plain concrete or stamped? The honest answer depends on the house, the budget, and how much of the yard the patio is going to dominate.
Straightforward, durable, and the most cost-effective square footage you can add to a backyard. A well-poured broom-finish slab with clean tooled edges and properly spaced joints looks intentional rather than cheap, and it stays cooler underfoot than most darker finished surfaces. If the patio is largely going to live under furniture, a grill, and a shade structure, plain concrete is often the smart money.
Stamped concrete is poured the same way, then imprinted with a pattern and color while it is still workable — ashlar slate, seamless stone, wood plank, running bond brick. You get the look of flagstone or pavers as a single monolithic slab, which means no individual units to settle, shift, or grow weeds between. It is the finish in most of the pool deck and patio photos on this site.
Stamped costs more than broom finish and is worth it when the patio is a focal point — wrapping a pool, fronting an outdoor kitchen, or visible from every window on the back of the house.
Most of the concrete failures we get called out to look at are not concrete problems. They are base problems. North Texas sits on expansive clay that swells when it rains and shrinks when it bakes, and a slab is only ever as stable as what is underneath it. That is why the least visible part of our process is the part we are most particular about.
We verify measurements and layout, contact the utility locating service before anything goes in the ground, and protect the landscaping, sidewalks, and structures we are working around. Where we are tying into existing concrete, we saw-cut a clean transition joint rather than butting new against old and hoping for the best.
Existing concrete is demolished and hauled off. We excavate to proper depth, remove unsuitable soil and organic material, then install roughly six inches of crushed aggregate base and compact it with mechanical equipment. Fine grading sets the drainage — always away from the house and the garage, never toward it.
Heavy-duty forming lumber goes in, and we verify elevation, pitch, and finished dimensions before bracing the forms so nothing moves during the pour. Steel reinforcement is installed throughout and properly supported so it sits centered in the slab, where it can actually do its job of adding structural strength and limiting cracking.
We pour 3500 PSI ready-mix continuously to minimize cold joints, then screed, level, and consolidate to eliminate air pockets. Control joints go in at engineered spacing and expansion joints wherever the new concrete meets an existing structure. Concrete is going to move. Joints decide whether it moves where we planned or where it wants to.
Edges are tooled for durability and appearance, and the surface gets a professional broom finish for traction. Then it cures using standard industry practice — which mostly means leaving it alone for the right amount of time, something that matters more in a Texas August than people expect. Forms come off after the appropriate cure, the work area is cleaned completely, and we walk the finished job with you.
We give written estimates rather than square-foot rules of thumb, because the variables genuinely move the number:
A lot of our patio work is not a new patio at all — it is making an existing one big enough to be useful. Builder-grade patios are frequently sized for a small table and nothing else. Extending out to fit a seating area, a grill run, or a dining table often transforms how much the backyard gets used, for meaningfully less than a full tear-out.
Where we join new concrete to old, we saw-cut a clean edge and install an expansion joint at the seam. New and existing slabs will always move somewhat independently; the joint is what keeps that movement from cracking either one.
Soil behavior is regional. The clay under Rowlett, Rockwall, and Heath moves differently than soil two hours in any direction, and the crews who work here every week build for that by habit. We are based in Rowlett, our founders live here, and we drive past our own work on the way to yours — which is a decent accountability system on its own.
A&A Exteriors is family-owned, seven years in business, and fully insured. Estimates are free, in person, and come with a written scope so you know exactly what is included before anything starts.
Free on-site estimates in Rowlett, Rockwall, Heath and across the DFW Metroplex.
Request Your Free Estimateor call 469-496-7500