Pools & Spas in McKinney
Gunite pools and spas planned with the deck, shade and kitchen.
Outdoor Living in McKinney, 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 McKinney homeowners in Collin County, with one family-owned team.
- 40+Years in Business
- 15,000+Projects Completed
- 1984Family-Owned Since
- 334Texas Cities Served
Before you build in McKinney
McKinney, the county seat of Collin County, lies just west of State Highway 5, thirty-two miles north of Dallas. William Davis, who owned 3,000 acres where the city now stands, donated 120 acres for the townsite on March 24, 1849.
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 McKinney the job is reviewed by the Building Inspections, Development Services, and we file and follow the permit through that office ourselves. 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 McKinney, TX
Outdoor Kitchens in McKinney
Stone islands, built-in grills, fridges and a real vent hood, under cover.
Patio Covers in McKinney
Solid-roof shade over the patio. It’s the simplest way to use it year-round.
Pergolas in McKinney
Fixed or louvered, built to your slab, the yard’s centerpiece.
Sunrooms in McKinney
Glass walls under a solid roof. Real square footage, light all day.
Patio Enclosures in McKinney
Screened rooms: the breeze and the view, none of the mosquitoes.
Hardscaping in McKinney
Travertine, pavers, seat walls and fire pits, with drainage solved first.
Landscaping & Lighting in McKinney
Water-wise planting, irrigation and lighting for North Texas.
Outdoor living ideas for McKinney homes
Homes and Yards in McKinney
McKinney became the county seat in 1848 after a vote of ten to one, replacing Buckner, and like the county it was named for Collin McKinney. The Houston and Texas Central Railway reached the town in 1872.
Around an older county seat, a patio cover or pergola with trim, columns and roof pitch drawn from the main house helps new work look like it belongs.
Collin County’s surface is generally level to gently rolling, at 450 to 700 feet above sea level, with deep clayey soils over marl and chalk in its central and western part. Rainfall averages just under thirty-five inches a year.
Water comes from the City of McKinney, which treats surface water.
For its first 125 years McKinney was the main commercial center of the county, with flour, corn, and cotton mills, cotton gins, a cotton compress, and, from the 1880s, an opera house. The Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railroad arrived in 1881, and the Texas Electric Railroad served the town from 1908 to 1948.
In 1943 the United States Army built the 1,500-bed Ashburn General Hospital, now the McKinney Job Corps Center. A tornado on May 3, 1948, killed three people. By the mid-1980s McKinney had become a commuter center for people working in Plano and Dallas, and in 2000 it had 54,369 residents and 2,005 businesses.
NOAA’s Storm Events Database lists 310 hail reports in Collin County from 2016 to 2025, 265 of them an inch across or larger, with stones up to 5.25 inches. 25 of those reports were logged at McKinney itself, the largest 2.75 inches. The same records show 108 damaging thunderstorm wind reports, with gusts up to about 85 mph, and 9 tornadoes. That is why a patio cover’s roof panels, fasteners and posts here are chosen for hail and wind, not only for shade.
What each outdoor project needs in McKinney, TX
How is a pool built in McKinney?
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 McKinney the permit goes through the Building Inspections, Development Services, and Longhorn files it and follows it through inspection. More on pools.
What does a patio cover need in McKinney?
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 McKinney the permit goes through the Building Inspections, Development Services, and Longhorn files it and follows it through inspection. More on patio covers.
How is a pergola built to last in McKinney?
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.
Can a sunroom or screened enclosure be added in McKinney?
A sunroom or screened enclosure in McKinney is attached to the house, so it is permitted through the Building Inspections, Development Services 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 McKinney
- 1
A free design visit in McKinney
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 Inspections, Development Services at the City of McKinney 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.
McKinney outdoor living questions
The Building Inspections, Development Services reviews residential projects in McKinney. 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.
McKinney 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 McKinney 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 McKinney
Every town we serve in Collin County · See all 334 cities we serve
Outdoor living guides
Hardscaping
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.
Patio Covers
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.
Patio Covers
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 McKinney
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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