Patios, Walkways and Steps in Sandy Springs

What the scope covers

• A check against the city stream buffer and river corridor layers before any layout is drawn, because in some places the answer is that the patio moves
• Excavation to a real depth, graded aggregate base placed and compacted in lifts, and a bedding course appropriate to the paving material
• Positive fall built into the finished surface, away from the house and toward somewhere the water is meant to go
• Paver, flagstone, bluestone and poured options priced side by side, including the joint treatment each needs to stay put on a slope
• Permeable paving where added impervious area is a problem, with the deeper open-graded base section that makes it work
• Steps set on footings rather than on fill, with consistent risers, because a garden step that varies by an inch is the one people trip on
• Edge restraint and a drainage path at the low edge so the base is not slowly washed out from under the surface

To have this priced on your own property, call (404) 737-3568 or use the quote form. Someone walks the yard, takes measurements, and leaves a written scope with a price on it. No charge for any of that.

Read next

• The Sandy Springs landscaping guide
• What landscaping costs here
• Working with Georgia red clay
• The glossary, for the words that turn up on a quote

On patios and paths, specifically

Do I need a permit for a patio?

It depends on how much ground gets disturbed and where the property sits. Sandy Springs generally requires a land disturbance permit once 1,000 square feet or more is disturbed, and notes that smaller work can still need one where it changes topography or drainage. Separately, if tree removal is tied to construction activity, and the city names patios specifically among those activities, the submittal is a Tree Conservation Plan rather than a simple removal permit. Both are handled by the contractor, and both add time to the schedule.

What is the impervious surface setback along the river?

The Chattahoochee River Corridor covers properties within 2,000 feet of the river bank, running from just downstream of Buford Dam to the Fulton and Douglas county lines. Inside it, the city applies a 50-foot undisturbed buffer from the bank and a 150-foot impervious surface setback that restricts concrete, gravel, pavers and structures. The city enforces these on behalf of the Atlanta Regional Commission under the Metropolitan River Protection Act. If a property is in that band, the patio layout starts from the setback line.

Pavers or poured concrete on this soil?

Pavers are more forgiving. Clay subsoil moves a little with moisture even where the clay is a low-shrink kaolinite, and a segmental surface accommodates that by flexing, whereas a slab telegraphs it as a crack. Pavers also come up and go back down when a drain has to be run underneath, which happens more often than anyone plans for. Poured concrete is cheaper per square foot and cleaner under furniture, and it makes sense on flat ground away from trees.

Will a patio make my drainage worse?

It can, if the water is not accounted for. Every square foot of hard surface is a square foot that no longer absorbs anything, and on a sloping lot that runoff has to go somewhere before it finds the foundation. The usual answers are a built-in fall to a collection point, a permeable section where the added area is significant, or a drain line tied into whatever already carries water off the property. Patio and drainage design are one job here, not two.

How close can a patio go to a big oak?

Further than most plans assume. Compacting a base over a root zone does long-term damage that shows up years later as decline, and a tree that then has to come down at 18 inches diameter or more is a permit and a gap in the canopy. Where the layout has to be near a large tree, the options are a floating deck, a surface on a shallow open-graded section, or moving the patio. The tree usually wins that argument on value alone.