Since the backyard was nothing but dirt, it was a simple matter to spray paint some width and length lines of the proposed deck on the ground. The owners at first, wanted the deck width to extend within three feet of the rear fence, leaving only a narrow strip of plants in front.
The length at first, was only to extend about halfway down the house leaving a bit of yard on that side.
After laying down some lines on the ground, we played around with moving the owners existing patio furniture, BBQ, planter pots and kids play area, inside the lines to see how it fit in with the limited space they had.
During this process, it was decided to shorten the width, leaving a small strip of grass between the deck and the rear fence-partly due to setback requirements, and partly to allow some room for aesthetics-a green strip of sod in front of the plants, room for the plants to grow, and some room to work or move objects around from side to side.
The length was extended to the full length of the house-mainly to accommodate a second patio set and a small section, set up with a toddlers sandbox and play toys.
I have used this same method over many years. Even if you don’t have patio furniture yet, you can use kitchen chairs, a small table, planter pots, etc. to experiment with.
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