A concrete patio gets the most foot traffic of anything in your backyard and the least attention from most contractors. The result is patios that pond water against the house, crack diagonally across the open span within 18 months, and look ten years old after one wet winter. Patios deserve the same engineering attention as a driveway — they just hide it under a softer finish.
We pour patios with a minimum 1/8 inch per foot slope away from the building, control joints set on a layout that respects the slab's length-to-width ratio (we never let a panel exceed 2.5:1), and a finish that matches how you'll use the space. Broom finish for casual seating, smooth steel-troweled for outdoor dining tables that don't wobble, exposed aggregate for grip and visual texture, or stamped for stone-look entertaining areas.
Drainage is what kills more patios than any other single factor in Sacramento. Winter rain that ponds against the foundation will, over enough cycles, work its way under the slab and eventually under the home. Every patio we build has positive drainage to a defined outlet — either daylighted away from the structure or tied into a French drain or area drain that we install as part of the scope.