Decks, patios and other outdoor living spaces are an important feature for any home and for good reason. When the weather is nice, you can move lots of activities outdoors from grilling hamburgers or steaks to relaxing family dinners, neighborhood parties and more. When you spend lots of time outdoors using your deck or patio, it?s common to expand and enhance this outdoor space.
In fact you have many choices in how you update your backyard. It depends on what?s most important so we?ll explore your options, as homeowners are getting real creative as they transform old fashion decks into outdoor rooms.
Enhancing Your Home?s Backyard
When you make improvements to your home, focus on items that are functional, ones you?ll use a lot and buyers will want when it comes time to sell your home. The important phrase here is ?what you will use a lot? as very few of us have an open ended budget. The best way to do this is to think about how you spend your time outdoors ? the top 3 to 4 activities you enjoy the most in your backyard. Then consider what improvements would enhance the experience?
For example, many families love having dinner on the back deck and there?s just enough room for the grill and a table that seats 5 people. There isn?t enough room to add a second/larger table so you can?t invite others to join you for casual outdoor meals. The perfect solution could be to expand the existing deck, and include built-in seating.
| Favorite Backyard Activities | Ways to Update What You Have | Features to Add |
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Backyard Features Everyone Wants
When making enhancements to your home, try to stay consistent with the neighborhood and size/style of your house to increase your ?return on investment? when you sell your home.? you own. You can research how much future buyers might pay for your improvements using the remodeling.com annual, Cost vs Value survey. They include the features of a deck remodel, the average cost in your region of the country and how much buyers will value (pay) for a particular update.
But today?s backyard home improvements go beyond the basic deck, patio, landscaping or fencing. Homeowners are getting really creative about functionality and fun features like outdoor stereo systems, so we created this infographic to help you see which features are most popular ? as they might be obvious but we found some surprises. Most of the features seem to focus on outdoor cooking/eating (grills, sinks, counter space, utility storage and seating) or ways to relax and entertain (fire pits/fireplaces, seating and furniture, stereo systems).
Questions to Ask When Buying Outdoor Products
There seems to be an explosion in outdoor furnishings so you?ll want to do some research before buying products for your home. The big question always is whether items have been adequately built to withstand harsh weather. We?ve seen issues where an outdoor tile patio cracked after the first winter because they used the wrong tile.
One of the most important items to consider is maintenance, i.e. how much work will be needed to keep a product looking like new? Here are some questions that will help you make decisions you?ll be happy with for many years.
- How does this product hold up to weather, sunlight, rain, standing water? Teak furniture might cost more but it won?t rust or crack like vinyl deck furniture.
- How do I clean this product? How often is this recommended? For example, pressure treated decks need to be cleaned and sealed every year to keep them looking good. Many homeowners are replacing their decks with new composite materials that only need to be cleaned.
- What is the product lifetime and is there a warranty? Maybe you don?t expect painted furniture to last more than 5 years but you want to know if the company will make repairs if paint chips after 1 year.
?Enjoy your summer. Enjoy your backyard!
About Dennis Turmel
Dennis Turmel has maintained buildings for many years, with 20+ years at the Eagle Tribune and of course, his own homes. He enjoys working with homeowners to solve problems, or even more fun, update their homes so they'll enjoy them more. Dennis pefers helping home owners with routine home maintenance, to minimize costly repairs and of course, there's less stress.sylvia plath whitney houston whitney houston autopsy results obama trayvon jim yong kim michael bush the host trailer
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