Outdoor Living in Garland, 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 Garland 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 Garland
Garland is a fully built-out inner-ring Dallas suburb whose dominant housing stock is 1950s-1970s single-story brick ranch homes on flat quarter-acre-scale lots with large mature shade trees. The city owns and operates its own electric utility, Garland Power & Light, and its eastern boundary fronts Lake Ray Hubbard.
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 Garland 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 Garland
Garland is a post-war suburb whose population nearly quadrupled in the 1950s; neighborhoods include Firewheel Oaks and Eastern Hills.
On older lots, big shade trees, narrow side gates and aging utility lines are common, so crew access and where the old lines run get checked at the first visit.
Duck Creek runs through the city and Lake Ray Hubbard lies on its eastern border. Open ground near the water tends to catch more wind, so shade structures are anchored and placed with the breeze in mind.
City of Garland, an original member city of the North Texas Municipal Water District.
Duck Creek got a post office in 1854, but in 1886 two railways bypassed it, and in late 1887 Congressman Joseph Abbott settled its rivalry with Embree by creating Garland between them; the town incorporated on April 21, 1891. A fire in 1899 destroyed twenty-eight of thirty businesses, and the town rebuilt around a square. In the early 1920s voters approved a $100,000 bond for a 2,300-foot well and storage tank; before that each house had its own well.
The townsite covered 6,832 acres in 1954 and 8,000 acres in 1957 as the population rose from 10,571 in 1950 to 38,501 in 1960, 81,437 in 1970, and 138,857 in 1980. A two-block stretch of South 11th Street with homes from 1913 joined the National Register in 2017, along with the Downtown Historic District. The 1901 Santa Fe depot houses the Garland Landmark Museum, a DART light-rail station opened downtown in 2002, and Firewheel Town Center opened in 2005.
Central Park, the first park, was purchased in 1948; in 2019 the city counted thirty-four neighborhood parks, five community parks, and two regional parks, plus Firewheel Golf Park from 1983. Garland is one of the 13 member cities of the North Texas Municipal Water District, which draws on Lavon Lake, Bois d’Arc Lake, Jim Chapman Lake, Lake Texoma, Lake Tawakoni, and the East Fork Water Reuse Project.
What each outdoor project needs in Garland, TX
What does a patio cover need in Garland?
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 Garland the permit goes through the City of Garland, and Longhorn files it and follows it through inspection. More on patio covers.
How is a pergola built to last in Garland?
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 Garland?
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 Garland the permit goes through the City of Garland, and Longhorn files it and follows it through inspection. More on pools.
Can a sunroom or screened enclosure be added in Garland?
A sunroom or screened enclosure in Garland is attached to the house, so it is permitted through the City of Garland 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 Garland
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A free design visit in Garland
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.
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Drawings, permit and HOA
We file the permit with the City of Garland 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.
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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.
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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.
Garland 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 Garland and handles the inspections, so the schedule does not stall on paperwork.
Garland 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 Garland 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 Garland
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 Garland
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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