Not all patios have floors, but you might want to floor yours so it can be used more like a room. Without a floor the base of the structure will eventually get wet, no matter how dry your climate is. This means that the furniture or anything else sitting under the patio will also get wet from the ground up.
Chair and table legs made of timber will end up rotting, while cupboards will the ruined, especially if they are clad with MDF, which absorbs moisture and expands, then falls to pieces. So what kind of floor will you have for your patio? Much depends on how you want to use it. If it is just to park the car under, there is no real need for any floor.
But if you want to use it during rainy weather or put furniture in it, then a floor of some kind is advisable. Here are 7 suggestions for a patio floor.
- Pavers/tiles. These can be set into cement, or sand and gravel. The latter will stop the floor from becoming muddy, but it might still be damp from the surrounding earth, depending on how much rain you get.
- These also have to be set into a base of some kind, otherwise they are likely to sink out of sight with use and damp weather. But they will certainly look attractive, as will the pavers.
- A timber floor will need to be up off the ground so termites and other ants won’t make their homes in it. This entails doing concrete piers and laying timber beams across. It will end up being high off the ground so you will need at least one step, maybe two.
- A steel floor could work, but it will be noisy to walk on and possibly flex, making your drink wobble. All depends on how it’s done.
- A slab of concrete is ideal for a patio, and gives ground level access. You can build it up a little to prevent heavy rain washing over it.
- This sounds simple, but many grass species don’t grow well in the shade. You can use a special ground cover or a grass that will grow in shade, which entails removing the grass that is there now, so the solution is not completely without work. And don’t forget, it will be wet at times.
- You could create an edging of timber or concrete and fill it in with gravel. The grass would have to be removed so it does not grow up into the gravel, spoiling the look of it. The floor won’t be as stable; table and chair legs tend to sink down into it with use.