Inexpensive patio?
Question:what is an inexpensive way to create a patio area?
Answers:
Paving stones, sand or straight concrete. If you have the patience, paving stones can make a great patio area. The expense depends on the type of stones you use so your imagination is the limit. Level out the area and then lay out stones in a pattern, then you can use a mortar mix that you can pour around the stones as a dry powder and wet it to set in place.
The sand idea I've seen on HGTV where they pour colored sand into an area and then use some kind of motorized leveler to flatten it out. They claim that over time the sand hardens in place.
Concrete is reeally cheap and you can get it colored or paint it after it dries to suit your tastes. You can even lay a pattern on it as it dries, like grids, brickwork or a fan pattern using a brush. That is my plan when I hopefully make my patio area.
it depends on what area you start with. if you want like a deck and a foundation to start on, Lowe's has very friendly people and lots of stuff to get started with. but the garden stuff is kind of on the expensive side. when you get to decorating, walmart always has good stuff. i just decorated our porch with a table, 4 chairs, 4 tiki torches, 4 trellises, and a barbecue grill for about 200. we even got a little thermometer to hang! just shop for deals. go to liquidation marts and then there is always the thrift store and local yard sales. don't try to do everything in one day. and its always funnier to do it with other people helping. hope this helps!
If there is a place that sells granite and marble (as for counter tops etc.) near you, ask if you can have their scraps. Take them home, dig out the area you want to make a patio out of, put sand in it, and make a mosaic of the stone scraps, putting sand between them and leveling them with sand. This is SO cheap, (pretty much the cost of sand and the gas to pick up scraps) and looks so great. Careful, the shiny side of the stones can be slippery to walk on, also.
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