Outdoor Living in Italy, 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 Italy homeowners in Ellis County, with one family-owned team.
- 40+Years in Business
- 15,000+Projects Completed
- 1984Family-Owned Since
- 90DFW Cities Served
Before you build in Italy
Italy is a small Ellis County town on I-35E south of Waxahachie that grew as a cotton and railroad stop, and most of its lots are either old townsite parcels or surrounding farm acreage rather than modern subdivisions.
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 Italy and follow it through review, so the schedule doesn’t stall on paperwork.
Longhorn has built across Ellis 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 Italy, TX
Homes and Yards in Italy
Italy is an old Blackland Prairie farm town. It started growing again in the late 1970s as some residents took jobs in Dallas–Fort Worth, but it never filled in with modern subdivisions.
Bigger lots give a backyard room to breathe. The planning shifts to utility runs, drainage across open ground and, where there is one, keeping well clear of the septic field.
Italy sits on the Blackland Prairie, with a creek flowing through town. Near a creek or river it is worth checking the flood maps early, before a pool or slab is placed.
City of Italy, using groundwater from city wells.
The Aycock brothers built the first house on the Italy townsite in 1879, the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railroad arrived in December 1890, and the town incorporated in 1891. By 1925 the population was 1,500 and cotton ran the economy, with five gins, a compress and a cottonseed oil mill. The Depression began a decline that lasted about thirty-five years, to 1,183 residents in 1960; an upswing began in 1975 with milo and corn. The count was 1,863 in 2010 and 1,926 in 2020. Houston Creek flows through town.
The town’s Colored City Hall was dedicated in 1953, after Ebony magazine in 1951 reported 1,000 white and 400 Black residents and featured the town’s Black mayor and councilmen. The building closed in 1965 and received a Texas Historical Commission marker in November 2018.
Ellis County is 939 square miles of Blackland Prairie, almost treeless away from the streams, with calcareous clays and clay loams that hold moisture well; groundwater there is sufficient for household use. The city’s Public Works and Utilities Department handles water and sewer service, with an after-hours line for main breaks at 972-483-6212.
The Building Inspections office at 161 West Main Street, 972-483-7329, says a permit is required for a fence, a roof, a traditional water heater or a yard sprinkler system, and an inspection is required before any foundation, framing, electrical or plumbing is covered up. The city lists two parks: Upchurch Ball Fields at 200 Dillworth and George E. Scott Memorial Park at 400 College Street.
What each outdoor project needs in Italy, TX
What does a patio cover need in Italy?
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 Italy the permit goes through the City of Italy, and Longhorn files it and follows it through inspection. More on patio covers.
How is a pool built in Italy?
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 Italy the permit goes through the City of Italy, and Longhorn files it and follows it through inspection. More on pools.
How is a pergola built to last in Italy?
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 Italy
- 1
A free design visit in Italy
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 Italy 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 Ellis County-local if you need us later.
Italy 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 Italy and handles the inspections, so the schedule does not stall on paperwork.
Italy sits on Blackland Prairie ground in Ellis 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 Italy 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 Italy
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 Italy, TX
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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