Archadeck of Charlotte

Ultimate Outdoor Living Area design concepts and ideas

archadeckofcharlotte — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 16:34:29 +0000

Archadeck of Charlotte has been designing and building outdoor living spaces for over 24 years now. The outdoor living space has been redefined in recent years and the concepts and ideas are endless. Consumers are looking to extend their homes to the outdoors more and more and it is no longer just a nice deck or patio.

Archadeck of Charlotte outdoor fireplace, travertine patio, and stone sitting walls

Today’s trends are centered around 4 areas: shade, fire, cooking, and water. Home entertaining is more and more popular as people don’t want to drink and drive, they avoid the expense of restaurants, vacations, or just love the idea of escaping in their own backyard.

Shade structures are an important part of outdoor living. Screen porches are largely popular in Charlotte as they provide refuge from the sun and insects. Other solutions include covered patio’s, pergola’s, and retractable awnings.

Whether it’s a stone outdoor fireplace or stone fire pit, the fire features are still growing in popularity. It is not just the idea of providing heat, it is a visual focal point and great gathering area for friends and family.

Outdoor kitchens are growing every year in popularity. People are no longer satisfied with just a grill. Most common additions include a refrigerator, a sink, a smoker, and side burner.

Water features can be a hot tub, spa, pond, or water fall to create soothing noise. Water features are mostly about ambiance and beauty.

Screen Porch with integrated outdoor fireplace and outdoor TV and tile on screen porch

The latest trend is outdoor showers and bathrooms. Archadeck is seeing an large increase in demand especially in backyards equipped with pools, hot tubs, or a lakefront property. To view the latest in outdoor livng design concepts and ideas, go to www.charlotte.archadeck.com

Outdoor Kitchen cooking demo at Archadeck 2/18/12 and Open House

archadeckofcharlotte — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 13:19:58 +0000

Archadeck charlotte pergola and screened room

Archadeck of Charlotte and Value Remodelers are hosting an Open House this coming Saturday 2/18/12 from 9am – 5pm at 2311 Village Lake Drive in Charlotte right off of Independence Boulevard.

There is going to be a live cooking demonstration on an outdoor kitchen at their exterior outdoor living showroom. Food and beverage is FREE. See the latest in outdoor kitchens, a stone pizza oven, composite decks, wood decks, various rail designs, paver and stone patio’s, screen porches, outdoor stone fireplaces and fire pits, and more.

In addition, connected to the exterior outdoor living show room in Value Remodelers kitchen and bath showroom where you can get great remodeling ideas for your home in the Charlotte market!

Charlotte bathroom remodeling Archadeck of Charlotte

Don’t miss one day savings, drawings, great food, and more on Saturday. For more information, call 704-944-1350 or go to www.charlotte.archadeck.com or www.valueremodelers.com

Charlotte Deck Builder explains deck options and the prices…

archadeckofcharlotte — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 21:02:58 +0000

Outdoor Fireplace with travertine tiles and stone seating walls

The cost of building a deck comes down to 3 basic components. The material you select will have the greatest overall influence on the eventual price of building a deck. The three components are of course the material cost, the cost of the hardware, and the cost of the labor.

The least expensive deck board is going to be a Southern Yellow Pine that you can buy at a Lowe’s or Home Depot. There are however better grades of Southern Yellow Pine and you’ll want it to be pressure-treated to avoid rot and that adds to the cost while still being affordable. Then you can jump to Brazilian Hardwoods like IPE and Tigerwood and these are on par cost wise with many of the composite decks on the market. Today, people are also opting for stone on their deck. This is the most expensive option and requires additional structure to the deck to support the additional weight. For great photos and more information on these options, go to charlotte.archadeck.com

Considerations for deck designs by a Charlotte Deck Builder…Archadeck

archadeckofcharlotte — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 13:09:09 +0000

There are thousands of homeowner’s who attempt to build their own decks each and every year with varying degrees of success. At Archadeck of Charlotte, we often get called by these people as they want to see if we can build the deck as cheaply as they can. The answer is probably not.

While there a some very talented consumers that have the capability of digging holes and screwing boards together, very few actually can build the deck safely or up to building code requirements. Fewer still have any ideas on how to actually design the deck to maximize functionality and provide great aesthetics.

Charlotte Deck Builder (Archadeck) custom designed composite deck

Here are some considerations from a Charlotte deck builder that has designed and constructed well over 20,000 projects in the past 23 years, Archadeck of Charlotte:

1. Look at the grade of your yard to determine how many steps will be needed to bring you down to grade.

2. Determine the best area to design and build the stairway based on which side of the deck you want to exit to get to areas of the backyard, which way people are likely to come around from the front yard, what obstacles are going to be in the way of your new stairway, consider to stairways…

3. Level changes on decks can add great aesthetic value and character, a major consideration however is where do you make the level change and how much functional space does that leave each level

4. Rail materials and design are what your neighbors can see when they look across your backyard. There are multiple options here and aside for aesthetics, consider what rail designs may or may not obstruct view.

For more deck design ideas, check out our YouTube site as well as our photo gallery at www.charlotte.archadeck.com

Archadeck of Charlotte wins 7 awards at Hammock Beach Resort!

archadeckofcharlotte — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 23:15:02 +0000

Charlotte Deck Builder (Archadeck) custom designed composite deck

Archadeck of Charlotte won 7 awards collectively at the annual Archadeck meetings at Hammock Beach Resort in Palm Coast, Florida. They were recognized for largest sales volume, top selling franchisee owner, 2nd place salesman of the year, rookie salesman of the year, outstanding marketing acheivement, President of all franchises, and achievement in design! The team traveled together to the Hammock Beach Resort and below you will see a photo of the owner and the sales organization holding their trophies! It is quite an accomplishment to be the number one franchise for over 15 consecutive years! To learn more about Archadeck of Charlotte, go to www.charlotte.archadeck.com

Archadeck of Charlotte wins 7 awards at Hammock Beach Resort

Handyman Service in Charlotte experts with bathroom remodeling!

archadeckofcharlotte — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 13:34:50 +0000

Value Remodelers and Handyman Services is a subsidiary of Archadeck of Charlotte. They have evolved into bathroom remodeling experts as the demand in Charlotte seems insatiable. There are always needs where the grout our caulk needs resealed or cleaned. Faucets and fixtures go bad or out of style. People’s needs change as they age for handicap accessable showers and baths. Value Remodelers have kept up with the latest building codes, designs, trends, and functional space planning and it has translated into a bathroom remodeling business that is experiencing double-digit growth! To get more information or see the photo gallery, go to http://www.valueremodelers.com or http://www.charlotte.archadeck.com

Charlotte bathroom remodeling Archadeck of Charlotte

Charlotte Outdoor Kitchens really taking off….why?

archadeckofcharlotte — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 13:10:25 +0000

The outdoor kitchen business in Charlotte is growing exponentially. Why is that? At Archadeck of Charlotte, we design and build outdoor living spaces and outdoor living rooms. We see the trends and we are in the middle of a weekend Home Show here in Charlotte. By far the biggest request for information is on outdoor kitchens. Perhaps it’s our love of the concept of moving the inside features of homes outside? Perhaps it’s just trying to “keep up with the Joneses”?

More likely, it’s the idea that we American’s love to grill, love to entertain, and if you live in a great climate like Charlotte, North Carolina, you can be outdoors at least 85 – 90% of the time. The requests certainly start with a nice grill, and can include but are not limited to a refrigerator, a sink, a warming drawer, a side burner, an ice machine, storage drawers, and a pull out trash receptacle. We primarily are getting requests for stone cabinets that are constructed of stainless steel framing, cement board, and various stone cladding. The countertops can have raised backsplashes with lighting, outlets, and every finish from stone to granite to tile. To see various outdoor kitchen projects and pictures, go to www.charlotte.archadeck.com

Archadeck outdoor kitchen will all of the appliances in Charlotte

How do I know if my screen porch is big enough or how to plan for the neccessary space?

archadeckofcharlotte — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 21:12:40 +0000

At Archadeck of Charlotte, we often find that people choose the size of their screen porch based more on the back of their house rather than thinking through how they are going to furnish the screen porch or how there are going to utilize the space. While looking at the different roof lines, doors, and windows on the back of the house are all elements for consideration, another important element is how much furniture you would like to place inside the screen porch on how you would like to situate it.

Screen porches are really “outdoor living rooms” these days and many people have a table for dining as well as a couch, rocking chairs, TV’s, and small tables. Our advice at Archadeck is to measure the furniture and leave room for chairs to slide out as well as plan on leaving pathways for traffic flow. By taking these items into consideration, you will create a very functional screen porch. To get ideas, click on this link to our photo gallery at http://www.charlotte.archadeck.com

Archadeck of Charlotte screen porch with outdoor fireplace and travertine tile

“Where is the best place to put a billiards room in your house if you don’t quite have the space”

archadeckofcharlotte — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 15:18:20 +0000

Billiards tables are large, heavy, cumbersome, and really great for recreation and entertaining! Where is the best place to put a billiards table in your home? If you purchase a regulation size billiards table, you not only need room to support the table but additional room to manuver your pool stick. There just aren’t that many rooms in the average home to accomodate this. Archadeck of Charlotte designed and build this outdoor living room that is designed to be a screen porch, sun room, and billiards room! The room features EZE Breeze windows that are retractable and convert a screen porch into a sun room and right back again. A typical billiards table is 7′ x 3’6″ and then there should be at least another 3′ all the way around to manuever. So if you don’t have the ideal spot in your house for a billiards table, why not design and build a combination screen porch and sunroom that can also house the pool table? To see more rooms, take a look at Archadeck’s photo gallery at http://www.charlotte.archadeck.com

EZE Breeze sunroom billiards room

Hardscape Patterns, colors, textures and high style – opposites DO attract!

archadeckofcharlotte — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 13:12:06 +0000

Outdoor Fireplace Charlotte with travertine and stone seating walls

You know those people who say opposites attract? Well they are certainly right if they’re talking about contrast in color, texture and style in the Charlotte area’s most popular and most stylish new hardscapes.

Our customers are looking for distinctive custom hardscape outdoor living areas. These hardscape areas are often multi-level, have varying shapes, and most often include retaining walls and fire features such as custom fire pits, custom outdoor fireplaces, and even water features.

Charlotte Travertine patio with flagstone custom fire pit and flagstone seating wall

Pavers and so much more

Travertine stone, stacked stone, ledge stone, flagstone. The varying types of stones provide a strong compliment to one another and help to achieve that distinctive custom flavor you’re looking for. One stone we’re building with a lot right now is Travertine stone. You may be familiar with Travertine indoors adorning bathroom walls and kitchen floors. Travertine is also wonderful outside. Travertine tile is made from natural stone. It mixes a very classic style with a warm and rustic look. It has an aged look and old world charm.

Here in the Carolinas, there are some other popular stones including stacked stone and ledge stone. These stones are best used for building walls such as retaining walls, outdoor fireplace walls, and other custom features.

Multi oval charlotte hardscape patio

Curvilinear and rectilinear

Many of today’s custom patios are curvilinear meaning they do not follow a straight path and cannot be categorized by the name of any geometric shape. Often curvilinear designs will feature undulating retaining walls that work in harmony with softscaping. Or, they may have concentric circles either in stairs, patio levels or both.

Rectilinear hardscapes often include concentric rectangular patterns such as rectangular stairs attached to an upper patio level or to the home. Rectilinear designs are more interesting and they introduce a new substrate.

Travertine tile screen porch with flagstone fireplace

Robin Steele is a guest blogger from the Archadeck corporate blog. Call us for a free consultation at (704) 944 – 1350 or email us at charlotte@archadeck.net. Feel free to stop by our showroom at 2311 Village Lake Drive in Charlotte. Our showroom includes both an indoor and outdoor showroom. Our indoor showroom includes kitchen and bathroom remodeling showcases. Our outdoor showroom includes hardscapes, custom fire features, deck samples, a screen porch and so much more.

Click here to visit our Archadeck of Charlotte website to see more pictures. Thinking about some interior remodeling or need some handyman work around your house? We have a full service handyman and remodeling service – Value Remodelers. Check out our website.