Outdoor Living in Richardson, 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 Richardson homeowners in Dallas County, with one family-owned team.
- 40+Years in Business
- 15,000+Projects Completed
- 1984Family-Owned Since
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Before you build in Richardson
Richardson’s older neighborhoods come with mature canopy and smaller back lots. Fitting a pool in often comes down to access and finding somewhere the equipment can live quietly.
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 Richardson and follow it through review, so the schedule doesn’t stall on paperwork. Richardson’s water comes from the North Texas Municipal Water District.
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 Richardson
Richardson became an affluent Dallas suburb in the postwar boom, when new residential additions such as Richardson Heights replaced cotton fields.
Older neighborhoods tend to mean mature trees and tighter access, which decides how a pool gets dug, where the equipment sits and how materials reach the back of the house.
Prairie, Spring, Duck, and Cottonwood creeks flow through the city, and the Spring Creek Nature Area preserves wooded land. Where an older oak survives on a lot, it is an asset: its root zone is marked before any digging, and its shade goes into the layout.
City of Richardson, which buys treated surface water from the North Texas Municipal Water District.
Richardson’s first residential addition, North Richardson, began selling lots in 1909, and the Walton Place and Pittman-Stults additions were developed after World War I. Central Expressway was extended through the city in 1954, and after 1960 the city expanded by annexing previously unincorporated land outside the original city limits. The population went from 1,288 in 1952 to 16,810 in 1960 and 74,840 in 1990. The DART Red Line reached Richardson in 2002, with three stations in the city.
The city covers slightly more than twenty-eight square miles in northern Dallas County and a small part of southern Collin County. Richardson is one of the 13 member cities of the North Texas Municipal Water District, whose largest current source is Lavon Lake in Collin County.
The city’s Summer Water Conservation Plan runs April 1 through October 31. Even-numbered addresses may run sprinklers on Tuesdays and Saturdays and odd-numbered addresses on Wednesdays and Sundays, and sprinkler systems may not run from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. during that period. Drip irrigation, soaker hoses and hand-held hoses with shutoff nozzles may be used any day at any time, and the water district may impose stricter limits during drought.
Breckinridge Park, the city’s largest, opened in 1992. The Spring Creek Nature Area opened in 1994, and fifty-seven acres of woodland were added to it in 2014. The Glenville hike and bike trail was completed in 2011, the current city hall opened in 1980, and the Eisemann Center for the Performing Arts opened in 2002.
What each outdoor project needs in Richardson, TX
What does a patio cover need in Richardson?
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 Richardson the permit goes through the City of Richardson, and Longhorn files it and follows it through inspection. More on patio covers.
How is a pergola built to last in Richardson?
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 Richardson?
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 Richardson the permit goes through the City of Richardson, and Longhorn files it and follows it through inspection. More on pools.
Can a sunroom or screened enclosure be added in Richardson?
A sunroom or screened enclosure in Richardson is attached to the house, so it is permitted through the City of Richardson 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 Richardson
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A free design visit in Richardson
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 Richardson 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.
Richardson 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 Richardson and handles the inspections, so the schedule does not stall on paperwork.
Richardson 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.
Richardson’s water comes from the North Texas Municipal Water District. Watering schedules can tighten in a drought, so we plan the planting and irrigation around the current rules and choose heat-tolerant plants that can establish on them.
Where an HOA in Richardson 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 Richardson
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 Richardson
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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