Hear from Our Customers
Marple Township’s clay-heavy soil and relentless freeze-thaw cycles are the reason so many patios in this area crack, shift, or start sinking within a few years. It’s not the material that fails it’s the base underneath it. When the base is right, the patio holds. When it isn’t, no surface material in the world saves you from the damage a single hard winter can do.
Homes throughout Marple were mostly built between the 1950s and 1970s long before outdoor living was part of the design conversation. That means most homeowners here are starting from scratch, not replacing something that was already there. That’s actually an opportunity. You get to do it right the first time, with materials and a layout that fits how you actually use your yard.
A well-built patio also pays you back at resale. Professionally installed patios return over 80% of their cost, and paver patios specifically outperform plain concrete by 30–50% in ROI. In Marple’s real estate market, where buyers expect well-maintained, move-in-ready homes, a quality outdoor space isn’t a luxury it’s a smart long-term investment.
We’re based in Aston, PA right here in Delaware County. Marple Township is less than 25 minutes away, and that proximity matters. This isn’t a regional company reaching into an unfamiliar market. We’ve been working in Marple and the surrounding Delaware County neighborhoods for over 15 years, understanding the soil conditions, the housing stock, and the drainage challenges that come with them.
Renato Spennato’s name is on the business and on every project. That’s not a marketing angle it’s how accountability actually works. When a homeowner in Marple calls with a question two winters after installation, there’s a real person on the other end of the phone who cares about the answer.
One experienced crew handles your project from excavation to final cleanup. No subcontractors handed off mid-job. No gap between who dug the base and who laid the surface. Just consistent work, from start to finish, by people who know what they’re doing.
It starts with a conversation about your yard, your goals, and your budget. We look at the actual site the grade, the drainage, the tree coverage, the relationship between your house and your outdoor space. Marple’s older homes often have mature root systems and settled grades that affect where a patio can go and how it needs to drain. That gets factored in before anything is drawn up, not discovered mid-project.
From there, you get a written estimate with real numbers. We publish our pricing range $15 to $50 per square foot depending on material, with most residential projects landing between $3,500 and $12,000. You’ll know what you’re working with before anyone picks up a shovel. No vague quotes that balloon once the job starts.
Installation begins with proper excavation and a compacted aggregate base typically five to six inches minimum graded to direct water away from your foundation. That base is what separates a patio that holds through forty-plus freeze-thaw cycles from one that doesn’t. Once the base is right, the surface goes down: pavers, flagstone, Pennsylvania Bluestone, or concrete, depending on what fits your property and your budget. We clean up completely when we’re done, and you have a direct line to us if anything comes up after the fact.
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We work with the full range of hardscape materials interlocking pavers, Pennsylvania Bluestone, natural flagstone, and concrete. Each one has real trade-offs, and the right choice depends on your yard’s specific conditions, the character of your home, and how you plan to use the space. For Marple’s older colonial and split-level homes, natural stone and flagstone tend to age well alongside established landscaping in a way that stamped concrete often doesn’t. For homeowners who want lower long-term maintenance and a clean, uniform look, pavers are usually the better fit.
If your backyard is on the smaller side which is common in the denser residential streets throughout Marple that doesn’t mean you’re limited. A well-proportioned 200 to 300 square foot patio, designed around how you actually use the space a dining area, a lounge zone, or both can completely change how your yard feels and functions. Small patio ideas work best when the design is intentional, not just scaled down.
Covered patio additions pergolas, shade structures, and similar features are also available and increasingly popular for Marple homeowners with significant tree canopy who want to manage shade and weather exposure. Any structure attached to the home will require a permit through Marple Township, and we’re familiar with the local requirements and can walk you through what applies to your specific project before work begins.
For most standard patio installations pavers, flagstone, or concrete laid at or near grade level Marple Township typically does not require a building permit. However, “at grade” has a specific meaning, and any work that involves significant changes to drainage patterns or proximity to your home’s foundation may warrant a review before you start.
Where permits become required is when you add a covered structure. A pergola, roof, or any shade structure attached to your home crosses into building permit territory under Pennsylvania’s Uniform Construction Code, which Marple Township enforces. The square footage and attachment method both factor into whether a permit is needed. Setback requirements from property lines also apply regardless of permit status most residential zones in Marple have rear and side yard setbacks that determine how close to the property line your patio can be built. We review these details during the consultation so nothing gets flagged after the fact.
All of the common patio materials pavers, flagstone, and concrete can hold up through Pennsylvania winters when they’re installed correctly. The material matters less than the base underneath it. Delaware County averages more than 40 freeze-thaw cycles per year, and Marple’s clay-heavy soil makes this especially relevant. Clay retains water. Water freezes and expands. If your base isn’t deep enough, properly compacted, and graded for drainage, frost heave will find it.
That said, interlocking pavers do have a practical advantage over poured concrete in freeze-thaw conditions: if a section heaves or shifts, individual pavers can be reset without tearing out the whole surface. Concrete cracks are more permanent and more expensive to address. Natural flagstone and Pennsylvania Bluestone are durable options as well, and they tend to handle moisture and temperature cycling well when set on a proper base. The honest answer is that the installation matters more than the material but pavers give you the most flexibility if something does need attention down the road.
We publish our pricing range directly: $15 to $50 per square foot depending on the material you choose, with most residential patio projects falling between $3,500 and $12,000. A basic concrete or entry-level paver patio on the smaller end lands closer to the $3,500 to $5,000 range. A larger natural flagstone or Pennsylvania Bluestone installation with more complex grading or drainage work can move toward the higher end of that range.
What affects cost most in Marple specifically is site preparation. Homes here are 40 to 70 years old, and many have mature trees, established root systems, or grades that have shifted over decades. If your yard needs more excavation, root management, or drainage correction before the base goes in, that adds to the project cost but it’s also what separates a patio that lasts from one that doesn’t. We provide a written estimate before any work begins, so you know the full scope and cost upfront, not after the crew has already started digging.
Most residential patio installations in Marple take between two and four days from the start of excavation to final cleanup, depending on the size of the patio, the material being used, and the site conditions. Larger projects with more complex grading, drainage work, or natural stone cutting can run closer to a week. Concrete patios have an additional curing period before the surface can be used typically 24 to 48 hours for foot traffic, longer before you’re putting furniture on it.
Timing also matters in terms of when in the season you’re scheduling. Spring is the busiest window for patio contractors throughout Delaware County, and Marple is no exception. Homeowners who want a patio ready for Memorial Day weekend are competing with everyone else who had the same idea in March. If you contact us in January or February, you’ll have more scheduling flexibility and a better chance of locking in your preferred timeline. Fall installation September through October is genuinely underrated. The base has time to settle before the first hard freeze, and the patio is ready to use the moment spring arrives.
Both are legitimate options, and the right choice depends on your priorities. Concrete is generally less expensive upfront and gives you a clean, continuous surface. The trade-off is that once it cracks and in Pennsylvania’s freeze-thaw climate, concrete eventually does repairs are visible and often expensive. You’re not patching a single unit; you’re dealing with a surface that shows every fix.
Paver patios cost more upfront, but they offer more flexibility in design, more options in color and pattern, and a significant advantage if something needs to be addressed later. Individual pavers can be lifted, the base can be corrected, and the surface can be reset without it looking like a patchwork repair. For Marple homeowners who are thinking about this as a long-term investment and given the age of the housing stock here, most are pavers tend to deliver better value over time. They also tend to complement the character of older colonial and split-level homes throughout Marple in a way that plain concrete often doesn’t.
Yes and this comes up often for homeowners in the denser residential streets throughout Marple, where backyards are real but not expansive. The assumption that a small yard can’t support a meaningful patio is one of the more common things that stops homeowners from moving forward, and it’s usually not accurate.
A 200 to 300 square foot patio, designed intentionally around how you use the space a dining area, a lounge zone, or both can transform a modest backyard into something that genuinely gets used. The key is proportion and layout. A patio that’s too large for the yard feels cramped and leaves no breathing room. One that’s sized and positioned correctly feels like a natural extension of the house. We design around the yard you have, not a hypothetical larger one, and part of the consultation is an honest conversation about what will actually work given your specific dimensions, grade, and how the space connects to your home.
