Patio Shade in Arlington: How to Cool a 1970s Backyard

Arlington is one of our favorite cities to work in for a genuinely boring reason: the backyards are already set up for it.

An enormous share of the housing stock here went up between the mid-1960s and the mid-1980s. That means generous flat lots, an existing concrete patio slab poured against the house, mature trees that were saplings when the houses were new, and very often a pool from the 1970s or 80s that has never had one square foot of shade over it.

You are not starting from nothing. You are starting from something that needs one thing added.

First: is the slab worth building on?

Most Arlington projects start with concrete somebody poured decades ago, and usually that is an asset. We core-drill through the slab where the posts land and set footings down into soil, so the structure bears on the ground and the slab just becomes the floor. That is straightforward and it saves you real money versus a tear-out.

But we check three things before we agree to build on it, and you should too:

• Has it heaved? Sight down the slab from one corner. Significant lift or a pronounced hump usually means soil movement that is still active.
• Is it cracked through? Hairline surface cracks are normal and fine. A crack you can get a fingernail into that runs the width of the slab is different.
• Which way does it drain? If it pitches back toward the house, that needs solving regardless of whether you build over it.

If the slab is failing, we will say so. Putting a permanent structure on top of concrete that is already moving is one of the few genuine ways to waste money on a project like this.

The forty-year-old pool problem

Interlochen, the Country Club area, big stretches of southeast Arlington — these neighborhoods are full of 1970s and 80s diving pools with a bare concrete deck and nowhere at all to get out of the sun. It is the single most common request we get in this city.

And the answer is almost never "cover the whole deck."

Here is the reasoning. A pool that is fully shaded stays cold, and a cold pool in North Texas gets used far less than people expect. It also loses the sun that keeps algae in check, which means more chemistry and more work. What you actually want is a shaded zone to retreat to — sited on the west or southwest side where the afternoon sun is worst — with the rest of the deck left open.

That structure is also where the television, the fan and the outlets go — which is what turns a pool deck into somewhere people spend a Saturday rather than somewhere they swim and then go inside.

The shade ladder, cheapest to best

People usually come to us asking for one specific thing. It is worth knowing the whole range first:

What Arlington's tree canopy does to a roof

The established neighborhoods here have serious cover now — post oaks and pecans that have had fifty years to fill in. That canopy is worth keeping and it genuinely changes what we build under it.

A low-slope shingle roof under a big pecan collects leaf litter, holds moisture and stays damp in shade far longer than a roof in open sun. Under heavy overhang we favor metal roofing or a steeper pitch so debris sheds instead of composting up there. It is a small spec decision that decides whether you are on a ladder every October.

Dalworthington Gardens and Pantego are separate cities

Worth flagging because it surprises people: both are independent municipalities surrounded by Arlington, with their own permitting requirements. If your address says Arlington but your city is actually one of those, the process is different.

We sort that out before the bid rather than discovering it after. Filing with the wrong jurisdiction and starting the clock over is an entirely avoidable way to lose a month.

Where we would start

If you have an existing slab, an aging pool and no shade, the highest-value project is almost always a covered section on the west or southwest side — deep enough to shade real seating, with a finished cedar ceiling, a fan and lighting. Not the whole deck. Not an open pergola.

Come look at the gallery and you will see that same structure solved a dozen different ways depending on the house. Then have us out — we will tell you where the shade actually needs to go on your specific lot, and it costs nothing to find out.