Concrete patios and pool decks in Bonaire, GA

Patio prices for Bonaire lots

Almost every patio job in Bonaire starts with the builder's pad: a 10 by 10 broomed square behind a ranch home in The Cottages at Blue Ridge or Harley Farms South, room for a grill and not much else. The patio and pool deck page has the full spec; these are the sizes Bonaire asks for.

A pump adds $600 to $900 when the truck cannot reach the backyard, usual on a fenced lot. Prices are the Houston County rate, the same as everything else on the Bonaire area page; small-pour pricing is explained in the cost guide.

Joining new concrete to the builder's slab

Every Bonaire owner asks whether the extension will match. New concrete is lighter than two-year-old concrete, and the shades take a year or more to come together. What can be controlled is the seam.

1. Check the pad first. Under 3.5 inches, or rocking, it comes out for $2 to $4 per square foot and the patio is poured as one piece, which ends the color question.
2. Dowel it. #4 bars drilled 6 inches into the old slab, epoxied at 12-inch spacing, so the extension cannot drop below the pad.
3. Treat the seam as a joint. Tooled, not hidden; a disguised seam cracks ragged.
4. Match texture, not color. Same broom direction, same edge radius.
5. Or make the line the design. A 12-inch stamped or exposed aggregate border around the whole thing, old pad included, turns a mismatch into a frame.

Getting water off a flat lot

Bonaire builders grade the backyard close to level and set the back door threshold low to it. A 16-foot patio falling a quarter inch per foot drops 4 inches from house to far edge, and on a flat lot that edge ends up below the lawn unless the yard is regraded or the slab is set a step down from the door. Downspouts that discharge where the patio goes are piped under the slab to daylight, because red clay that stays wet under one corner lifts that corner. Under it all: soft fill out, 4 inches of crusher run compacted, 6x6 mesh on chairs, and on a recently graded lot an allowance for hauling off the construction scrap in the first foot.

Covered patios and screen rooms need a county permit

A slab with nothing on it needs no permit in Bonaire. Plan a roof, a bolted-down pergola or a screen enclosure and the footings do, through Houston County Building Inspection, 200 Carl Vinson Parkway, Warner Robins, GA 31088, (478) 542-2018. Decide on the footing before any digging: a 12 by 12 inch turndown under each future post, poured with the slab, is a line on the quote now and saves cutting the new patio open later. HOA review in the subdivisions comes before the county permit.

Stamped, exposed aggregate and pool decks for Bonaire

For a patio that will be sold with the house in three years, the case for many Robins Air Force Base families here, a broom finish in natural gray is the safe pick. Stamped at $13 to $22 per square foot makes sense when you plan to stay; pick a light base color, because a charcoal slab facing west is unusable barefoot in August. Exposed aggregate sits between the two in price and hides a color seam best.

Pool decks carry one Bonaire note: a new pool on a new lot sits in backfill that has not settled, so the deck is poured after the pool is full and the backfill has been through a heavy rain. Broom, salt finish or stamped with grit in the sealer; anything smooth around water does not get poured. Sandhill Concrete matches your project with a licensed Houston County concrete contractor, who measures on site, writes the quote and does the work.