Outdoor Living in Carrollton, TX
Outdoor living is the covered patio, pool, kitchen, stone and lighting that make a backyard part of the home. Longhorn designs and builds them together for Carrollton homeowners in Dallas County, with one family-owned team.
- 40+Years in Business
- 15,000+Projects Completed
- 1984Family-Owned Since
- 90DFW Cities Served
Before you build in Carrollton
Carrollton’s housing stock is largely 1970s through 1990s subdivision, with an older historic downtown square dating to its railroad origins, so most backyards have decades-old trees and established fence lines. The Elm Fork of the Trinity River forms the city’s west side and puts part of the city near floodplain.
That ground decides how a slab, a pool shell or a footing has to be built here. Here is what it does to a patio.
We file the permit with the City of Carrollton and follow it through review, so the schedule doesn’t stall on paperwork.
Longhorn has built across Dallas County and the wider Metroplex since 1984, and every project starts with a free design visit and a firm price.
Homes and Yards in Carrollton
Almost three-quarters of the homes standing in Carrollton in 1980 had been built during the 1970s.
In neighborhoods of that age the original patio and fencing are often due for replacement, and mature trees shape where a pool or a cover can sensibly go.
The Elm Fork of the Trinity River crosses the western city limits, flanked by a timbered strip of elm, oak, and willow. Where an older oak survives on a lot, it is an asset: its root zone is marked before any digging, and its shade goes into the layout.
City of Carrollton, which buys treated surface water from Dallas Water Utilities and also has a city well.
An agent for the unfinished Dallas and Wichita rail line filed an early plat of Carrollton in 1878, and when the Cotton Belt line crossed the Katy there in 1888 the town developed as a shipping center. The city incorporated in 1913 with W. F. Vinson as first mayor. Growth came with the Sun Belt boom: 1,610 residents in 1950, 13,855 in 1970, a 193 percent jump to 40,595 in 1980, then 82,169 in 1990, 109,576 in 2000 and 133,434 in 2020. The city lies on Interstate 35E fourteen miles north of downtown Dallas.
Dallas County is primarily flat, heavy Blackland Prairie with elevations from 382 to 850 feet; the eastern two-thirds has slightly acidic clayey soils with loamy topsoil, Austin chalk underlies the county, and pecan and oak grow along the streams. The Elm Fork of the Trinity rises south of Saint Jo in Montague County and runs eighty-five miles across flat to rolling land with shallow, stony loams before meeting the West Fork just west of downtown Dallas. It was dammed in 1928 to form Lake Dallas, and a larger dam completed in 1955 created what was renamed Lewisville Reservoir in 1960.
Dallas Water Utilities, which sells treated water to 23 wholesale customer cities, takes surface water from six connected reservoirs (Lewisville, Tawakoni, Grapevine, Ray Hubbard, Ray Roberts and Fork), treats it at the East Side, Elm Fork and Bachman plants with a capacity of 900 million gallons a day, and maintains 5,088.25 miles of water main.
Carrollton services, one by one
What each project needs on Carrollton ground and through the City of Carrollton.
What each outdoor project needs in Carrollton, TX
How is a pergola built to last in Carrollton?
On Blackland Prairie clay a pergola’s posts are what decide whether it still stands square in five years. The clay moves most in the top few feet, so footings go deeper than the movement rather than resting in it, and the slab underneath gets its own drainage plan. More on pergolas.
What does a patio cover need in Carrollton?
Blackland Prairie clay lifts and drops with the season, so a patio cover’s footings are the whole job. Posts set in shallow pads move with the top of the soil and take the roofline with them; footings taken below the active zone, tied to a slab that drains away from the house, do not. In Carrollton the permit goes through the City of Carrollton, and Longhorn files it and follows it through inspection. More on patio covers.
How is a pool built in Carrollton?
Blackland Prairie clay swells through a wet spring and shrinks hard by August, and a pool shell is a rigid object sitting in ground that moves around it. Here that means the shell, the beam and the deck are engineered for that movement from the drawing stage, and the flatwork gets its control joints placed on purpose rather than wherever the pour ends. In Carrollton the permit goes through the City of Carrollton, and Longhorn files it and follows it through inspection. More on pools.
Can a sunroom or screened enclosure be added in Carrollton?
A sunroom or screened enclosure in Carrollton is attached to the house, so it is permitted through the City of Carrollton and sits on footings designed for the ground under it. We match the roofline and the exterior to the house so it reads as part of it. More on sunrooms and patio enclosures.
How a Backyard Project Runs in Carrollton
- 1
A free design visit in Carrollton
A designer comes out to the house, measures the space a backyard project has to fit, walks the access a crew would need, and talks through what you want it to do. You leave with a firm price. On Blackland Prairie ground, that is also when the grading, drainage and movement details get decided rather than improvised on site.
- 2
Drawings, permit and HOA
We file the permit with the City of Carrollton and follow it through review, so the schedule does not stall on paperwork. Where an HOA wants a submittal, we prepare the drawings it asks for.
- 3
One crew, one schedule
The same team builds the whole backyard project in order, so the slab, the structure, the electrical and the finish work are not three different companies working around each other.
- 4
Walkthrough and warranty
We walk the finished backyard project with you, settle the punch list and leave one warranty on the work, and we are still Dallas County-local if you need us later.
Carrollton outdoor living questions
Almost always, for pools and for anything attached to the house, including patio covers, sunrooms and enclosures. Longhorn files the permit with the City of Carrollton and handles the inspections, so the schedule does not stall on paperwork.
Carrollton sits on Blackland Prairie ground in Dallas County. The ground decides how a slab, a pool shell or a footing has to be built, so we plan the drainage and the footings for it at the first visit rather than after something moves.
Where an HOA in Carrollton asks for a submittal, we prepare the drawings and details it wants, alongside the city permit, so the approval runs in parallel with the design rather than after it.
Yes. Many homeowners start with one piece, such as a pool or a patio cover, and add the rest later. We plan the whole space up front so the gas, power, water and drainage for later phases are in place from the start.
Other cities we build in near Carrollton
Outdoor living guides
Outdoor Flooring for a Frisco Backyard: Pick by Zone
One yard, five jobs for the ground: dining, cooking, swimming, play and the dog. Here is how to match a surface to each zone, and what Frisco’s clay, heat and city rules change.
Outdoor Kitchen Countertop Materials in Frisco, TX
Granite, porcelain, quartzite and quartz all behave differently in Frisco sun, freezes and clay. Here is a pick by exposure, a sealing test, and what the base under the stone needs.
HOA Approval for a Patio Cover in Texas: DFW Guide
The HOA and the city are two separate approvals, and the HOA usually comes first. Here is the packet a DFW committee wants, how long it takes, why it says no, and how to answer a denial.
Free design visits in Carrollton
Tell us what you have in mind and we’ll come measure, talk options and give you a straight number. No obligation, no pressure.
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