Outdoor Living in Cedar Hill, 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 Cedar Hill 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 Cedar Hill
Cedar Hill sits on the White Rock Escarpment and has real elevation change for this region, rising a couple hundred feet above the creek bottoms near Joe Pool Lake, so sloped and terraced backyards are common here in a way they are not in flatter Dallas County suburbs. The Austin Chalk under town is capped by clay that can be only inches deep in places.
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 Cedar Hill 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 Cedar Hill
Cedar Hill grew dramatically in the 1980s, especially after nearby Joe Pool Lake opened in 1989.
Yards from those decades are usually established, with grown trees, a fence line and an original patio that is often too small. Most projects become a retrofit, planned around what is worth keeping.
Hilly terrain around 800 feet elevation, full of native eastern red cedar, on the eastern shore of Joe Pool Lake beside Cedar Hill State Park. Where the ground slopes or rock sits close to the surface, retaining walls or rock excavation get priced at the design visit rather than discovered during the dig.
City of Cedar Hill buys treated water from Dallas Water Utilities.
The settlement was established in 1846 on land donated by Abraham Hart, who held it through the 1841 Peter’s Colony grant; a post office opened in 1852, and an 1856 tornado destroyed most of the buildings and killed nine people. The count went from 1,848 in 1960 to 6,849 in 1980, 19,988 in 1990, 32,093 in 2000 and 49,148 in 2020. The town sits in the rolling hills of southwestern Dallas County, two miles north of the Ellis county line.
Joe Pool Lake lies on Mountain Creek in southwestern Dallas and southeastern Tarrant counties. Its rolled earthfill dam was completed in December 1985, impoundment began in January 1986, and the lake covers 7,470 surface acres.
Under Stage 1 of the city’s drought response, odd-numbered addresses are asked to water Monday and Thursday and even-numbered addresses Tuesday and Friday, from 6 p.m. to 10 a.m.; Stage 2 makes that schedule mandatory, and Stage 3 bans outdoor watering at any time. Plants may be watered from hand-held containers at any time, and soaker hoses may run around home foundations at any time.
A permit is required for any construction, alteration or repair of any structure. A fence application needs a site plan showing fence locations, fence height and gate swing direction; a pool, spa or hot tub needs a site plan and a pool depth profile, and a fence permit if there is no existing fence. The city has over 60 miles of trails, including the 3.6-mile Lake Ridge Trail from Mansfield Road to US Highway 67.
What each outdoor project needs in Cedar Hill, TX
How is a pool built in Cedar Hill?
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 Cedar Hill the permit goes through the City of Cedar Hill, and Longhorn files it and follows it through inspection. More on pools.
What does a patio cover need in Cedar Hill?
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 Cedar Hill the permit goes through the City of Cedar Hill, and Longhorn files it and follows it through inspection. More on patio covers.
How is a pergola built to last in Cedar Hill?
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.
How a Backyard Project Runs in Cedar Hill
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A free design visit in Cedar Hill
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 Cedar Hill 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.
Cedar Hill 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 Cedar Hill and handles the inspections, so the schedule does not stall on paperwork.
Cedar Hill 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 Cedar Hill 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 Cedar Hill
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 Cedar Hill
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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