Outdoor Living in Celina, 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 Celina homeowners in Collin County, with one family-owned team.
- 40+Years in Business
- 15,000+Projects Completed
- 1984Family-Owned Since
- 90DFW Cities Served
Before you build in Celina
Celina is building fast on open prairie, which means new lots with very little shade and a lot of sun to manage. Here the shade structure usually leads the design instead of following it.
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.
In Celina the job is reviewed by the Building Services, Development Services Department, and we file and follow the permit through that office ourselves. Celina publishes a dedicated residential pool permit packet with its own submittal checklist, and asks for a signed pool-protection acknowledgment as part of the application. Our permit guide lists the office for every city we have checked.
Longhorn has built across Collin County and the wider Metroplex since 1984, and every project starts with a free design visit and a firm price.
Outdoor living we build in Celina, TX
Most asked for in Celina: patio enclosures, patio covers, sunrooms.
Homes and Yards in Celina
Celina was ranked the fastest-growing city in Dallas–Fort Worth from 2019 to 2021 and has grown several-fold since 2010.
Newer subdivisions usually come with an HOA review and a small builder’s slab, so it pays to plan the full backyard together and take one complete set of drawings to the HOA.
Wilson Creek rises two miles east of Celina and flows southeast toward the East Fork of the Trinity River near Lake Lavon. Near a creek or river it is worth checking the flood maps early, before a pool or slab is placed.
Upper Trinity Regional Water District (Celina is a member city of UTRWD’s regional water system).
Celina was established in 1879 and named by John T. Mulkey for Celina, Tennessee; the town had 150 people in 1884 and fell to fifty in 1892. In 1902, when the St. Louis, San Francisco and Texas Railway reached the area, the town moved one mile north to its present site, and it incorporated in 1907. Celina Pike, built in 1915, was the first road in the county built exclusively for automobiles. The population was 1,126 in 1920, 994 in 1940, 1,520 in 1980, 1,861 in 2000, 6,028 in 2010, 16,739 in 2020 and 23,811 in 2021.
Collin County covers 851 square miles almost entirely in the Blackland Prairie, level to gently rolling, 450 to 700 feet above sea level, with deep clayey soils over marl and chalk across its central and western parts. The East Fork of the Trinity River drains the western and central county, and bois d’arc, oak, elm, ash, pecan and post oak grow along the streams.
Upper Trinity Regional Water District was born when the governor signed its bill on June 6, 1989, and since then 25 entities, including 21 cities and towns, have contracted to become part of the district. Its current sources are Lewisville Lake and Ray Roberts Lake, by contract with the cities of Dallas and Denton, and Jim Chapman Lake by contract with Commerce, and it is building Lake Ralph Hall on the North Sulphur River in Fannin County to add 35 million gallons daily of raw water.
Celina services, one by one
What each project needs on Celina ground and through the City of Celina.
What each outdoor project needs in Celina, TX
What does a patio cover need in Celina?
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 Celina the permit goes through the Building Services, Development Services Department, and Longhorn files it and follows it through inspection. More on patio covers.
How is a pergola built to last in Celina?
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 is a pool built in Celina?
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 Celina the permit goes through the Building Services, Development Services Department, and Longhorn files it and follows it through inspection. More on pools.
Can a sunroom or screened enclosure be added in Celina?
A sunroom or screened enclosure in Celina is attached to the house, so it is permitted through the Building Services, Development Services Department 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 Celina
- 1
A free design visit in Celina
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 Building Services, Development Services Department at the City of Celina and follow it through review. 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 Collin County-local if you need us later.
Celina outdoor living questions
The Building Services, Development Services Department reviews residential projects in Celina. Pools and structures attached to the house, such as patio covers, sunrooms and enclosures, almost always need a permit. Longhorn files it and follows it through inspection. Celina publishes a dedicated residential pool permit packet with its own submittal checklist, and asks for a signed pool-protection acknowledgment as part of the application.
Celina sits on Blackland Prairie ground in Collin 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 Celina 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 Celina
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 Celina
Tell us what you have in mind and we’ll come measure, talk options and give you a straight number. No obligation, no pressure.
Call (972) 534-2716Get Your Free Quote
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