Any thought on converting grass backyard to hard surface(Concrete). (drainage, rain)

[TheOverdog]

Like a quarter of the homes in Dallas have an added circular driveway in their front yard (especially as you move up the income brackets), which is basically the equivalent of laying a metric ton of concrete in your backyard. Then they cover the entire backyard in a pool and decking. The same drainage issues apply yet nobody bats an eyelash.



If you want to concrete your backyard and put in fake grass, go for it.

[EDS_]

Originally Posted by TheOverdog

Like a quarter of the homes in Dallas have an added circular driveway in their front yard (especially as you move up the income brackets), which is basically the equivalent of laying a metric ton of concrete in your backyard. Then they cover the entire backyard in a pool and decking. The same drainage issues apply yet nobody bats an eyelash.



If you want to concrete your backyard and put in fake grass, go for it.

That's just incorrect in implication.

Pools generally speaking must have incorporated gravity overflow and deck drainage to the storm sewer and drain/backwash flow to the sanitary sewer.

Circle drives per code in Dallas and I'm sure most cities must via gravity or drains/pumps move water into the storm sewer.

I have both a pool and circle drive it would be a low level catastrophe if either didn't drain properly - especially the circle drive.

[EDS_]

Originally Posted by Sunbather

Our neighbor's yard is the yard of a landscaper and they have a xerisacped backyard . They've had it for 5 years and it still looks great. We both have a lot of shade in our backyard. I'm not too worried about executing it. I did xeriscaping at my house in South Carolina which I believe is a more challenging area to execute it thean than Dallas And I've also seen lots of good examples here in Dallas executed well.

Also note that I specifically said low water, not zero here.

They key is planting for your local climate zone, specific shade situation, drainage situation etc. It truly has to be site specific.

The only one I've seen around here that has looked good long term is tended near daily by the owner.

[Sunbather]

perhaps it is that different here than what I am used to in the past. I cannot comment directly on maintaining a low-water or xeriscape lawn in Dallas personally (despite having several friends/acquaintances who seem to have successfully executed it)

But compared to watering, fertilizing, mowing a lawn, I've had good experience with low-maintenance landscaping in the past. It was far from daily landscaping. In the absolute peak growing season, it was once a weekend for maybe an hour. Fall/Winter, it was once a month maximum, no exaggeration. Weed-whacker + manual pulling as needed. Significantly less time and water.

My personal experience so far: I have only been at this house since April. It already has two large graveled planting areas. and the driveway is 2/3 decomposed granite, 1/3 concrete. I did not hand pick any weeds the entire spring or summer out of these areas. I used the weed-whacker/edger about once a month - but pretty much just to edge any wandering grass above ground. They are shaded, and well-drained.

[TheOverdog]

That's just incorrect in implication.

But your implication that the person wouldn't add drains to code is correct? No I don't think so. The heat effects are the exact same.

[EDS_]

Originally Posted by TheOverdog

But your implication that the person wouldn't add drains to code is correct? No I don't think so. The heat effects are the exact same.

No. I was referring to your post.

__________________________________

The heat effects are very, very different and easy to "see" so with an IR/laser temp. gage. A slab of several to many tons will have much more thermal mass than the same displacement of grass covered dirt. It's absurd that you'd argue otherwise.

It works like this. Thermal mass in most cases is tightly associated with mass/density. Concrete has a density of roughly 150 lbs. per cubic foot, clay soil about 55 or 60 plus grass cover negates considerable heat absorption from sunlight.

That's most of the reason why you can comfortably walk barefoot on grass even on the hottest day while standing barefoot on concrete/flagstone etc. will burn your feet in seconds.

[Sunbather]

agreed. they are very, very different.

[calgirlinnc]

We had a fairly small and really useless strip of grass between the pool deck and the fence. It was a pain to mow and keep up with. We ripped out the grass and put in landscape roses that don't need pruning or spraying, and lavender, and annual flowers, and mulched it. It looks better and is easier to maintain.

No grass does not necessarily equal concrete.

[EDS_]

Originally Posted by calgirlinnc

We had a fairly small and really useless strip of grass between the pool deck and the fence. It was a pain to mow and keep up with. We ripped out the grass and put in landscape roses that don't need pruning or spraying, and lavender, and annual flowers, and mulched it. It looks better and is easier to maintain.

No grass does not necessarily equal concrete.

I'm a big fan of lavender around here FWIIW.

[Skipito]

Originally Posted by Indyguy_2011

[SIZE=2][SIZE=2]We have a backyard of size 30*50 feet in our north dallas home. I would like to convert this to hard surface(concrete slabs or some other material) which makes backyard more usable.

My plan is to leave around 5 feets of grass all around and convert the rest to hard surface. I will be using the hard surface mainly as play area(badminton court/ kids bike area ..etc).

I want to know if anyone has done this and what's the thought on this??.

Will this bring down the property value?.

Will we have to careful about the under ground utility pipes(I am leaving 5 feet all around).

Also what is the best material you suggest to use for this...

Thank You in advance for your response....
[/SIZE][/SIZE]

I would suggest moving.