What's the Best Way to Add Resale Value to My Savannah Backyard?

Most everyone who asks me about this has already discussed it with their family. They know the backyard is the weak spot on the property, but they don’t want to put real money into that space and then have a buyer ignore it during a Saturday showing. That’s a legitimate concern, because not everything you can do to a backyard comes back to you.

My name is Randy Thompson. I left an aerospace career to start All Out Hardscapes & Lighting Solutions, and over the last 10-plus years my crews and I have built more than 150 patios, walkways, and outdoor living spaces across Savannah and the Lowcountry, from Wilmington Island to Savannah Quarters. The company is veteran-owned, and we are a certified Techo-Pro installer. I’m also going to tell you exactly where the corners get cut in this trade, including the ones that make my own quote seem expensive next to the other bid.

Here is where I stand on this. I want people to build equity in their homes. We still get first-time homebuyers, and those are fun, because the backyard is the one part of a house where a regular family can add something permanent without having to tear anything down to do it. It’s one of the few backyard investments you get your money out of, but that only works if you put the options in the right order, because the order is where people get tripped up.

What Actually Adds Resale Value to a Backyard Out Here?

The whole answer is permanent, usable square footage. A backyard adds value when a buyer steps out the back door and sees another room instead of a project.

The way a buyer looks at your backyard is like a subtraction problem. They aren’t adding up what has been spent; they are subtracting what they will have to fix, replace, or keep up. Sod has to be watered. A deck has to be stripped and stained. A pool has to be maintained. Every one of those is a debit against the number in their head.

Space that just works is like a credit. A patio that’s the right size for a table and chairs, that drains, and that they can walk on barefoot the first week they move in has no work attached to it. That is why hardscapes hold their value. They are the closest thing to permanent that you can put in a backyard, and permanent is what a buyer pays for.

The Four Questions We Ask Before We Touch a Backyard

Before we talk about a price with anybody, we want to know how they’re going to evaluate the work. These four questions cover that, and they go in this order, because the last one decides whether the first three still count in ten years.

• Does it last, or does it have a replacement date? Anything with a replacement date is a rental. You’re paying to use it, not building equity in it.
• Will it get used, or will it get looked at? A space a family sits in every week looks like a living area to the next buyer, while a bed of shrubs is just yard work.
• What does it need you to do to it every year? Every hour of upkeep and every gallon of stain is money being spent on an investment that you already paid for.
• Will it survive our ground and our rain? Every hole we dig in this area tells the same story: sand up top, and material underneath that holds water instead of letting it drain. Water is what determines whether the patio is still flat in ten years.

A beautiful outdoor kitchen built on a base that moves fails the fourth question, and if it fails the fourth, then the first three don’t matter.

Where Does Each Backyard Option Land?

Here’s the true version of the menu. We build patios for a living, so judge our opinion accordingly, but the two columns below aren’t opinions. They list what each option gives you and what it has to have back from you every year. Compare the rows against the questions.

There is a pattern that you can see. The options that are the least demanding of you every year are those that remain valuable, and the one that will give you the most usable room per dollar is permanent square footage on the ground. Low-voltage landscape lighting, which is a 12-volt system with small fixtures that run on a buried cable instead of household current, is the cheapest thing on that list. It doesn’t add any square footage, but it adds hours to the square footage you already have, which is why we suggest lighting to every homeowner we work with.

Pools are in their own category. We build those too, and for a family that is going to use one, nothing else in the backyard compares. But with a pool, you need to know that you are making a commitment as much as gaining an amenity, and not every buyer wants that.

The Part You Can’t See Is the Part That Holds the Value

Two patios might look identical the day they’re finished but have different value three years later. The difference is what’s under the pavers, and it’s the biggest reason an investment in a backyard gives back the value it added.

We build on an open-graded base, and that means the stones are all one size, so there are air gaps between the pieces and water can go right through instead of standing in the base. Ours is 4 inches of #57 stone, clean crushed stone that’s about the size of a golf ball, with 2 inches of #789 chip stone on top, which is smaller and compacts tight to make a flat, true surface to set pavers on. There’s no sand anywhere in the assembly.

The normal assembly in this area puts pavers on a sand bed over a compacted mix that holds fines, the powdered material that goes in the gaps between the stones. That will work okay in dry ground, but in our wet ground it’s a trap. Water gets in, can’t get out, and stays against the underside of the patio. Sand moves when water moves through it. The sand travels toward the low spot, and the pavers follow it down. You will get a dip in front of the back door, joints opening at the corners, and a lip that you can catch your toe on. Nobody sees a base fail, but they see the surface show it three to five years after they pay for the patio.

For a homeowner who’s thinking about resale, that timing is the whole problem. A patio that settles does not show it on the day you pay for it. It shows up right about the time you put your house up for sale, and by then it isn’t an asset when someone walks through. It’s a question the buyer will ask. Our standard is this: if we never have to go back to that house, we did our job right. That is also what keeps the value in the property instead of in a repair.

What Drives the Number on a Backyard Like Mine?

Nobody can give you a price for your backyard from just a phone call, and anyone who does is guessing. Here is what actually gives you a number, and we want all of it on the table before we talk about a dollar figure.

• Square footage. This is the biggest lever there is. A patio sized for a grill and two chairs and a patio sized for a dining table, a seating area, and a walking path around it are different projects.
• What is back there now. If you have old concrete, a failing patio, or a deck that has to come out, that means demolition and haul-off before we build anything.
• Grade and drainage. Grade is the slope of the ground. The grade from your house out to the property line, and where the water goes today, will determine how much dirt work has to happen before the stones can be put down.
• Access. Whether a machine can get into the backyard, or whether every ton of stone has to go through the gate in a wheelbarrow, changes the cost of labor for the job.
• Material. A standard concrete paver, a premium paver line, natural stone, and porcelain tile all have different prices per square foot and different amounts of labor to install.
• Pattern and cuts. Straight runs move fast, but curves, borders, and inlays have to be hand cut, and that takes hours.
• Add-ons. Seat walls, which are low walls built at bench height around the edge of a patio, plus fire pits, pergolas, and lighting, each add to the cost.
• The base. The stone that’s under everything doesn’t show up in a photo of a finished patio, and it’s the first thing a cheap bid takes out.

Two backyards on the same street with the same square footage can be a long way apart on these eight things. That’s why the honest answer on cost has to start with somebody walking your property.

What Does It Take to Buy Something That Holds Its Value Here?

Backyard work in this area goes from a few hundred dollars of mulch and sod on a Saturday to a six-figure outdoor living area with a pool in it. Where a project lands within that range comes down to those eight points above, not to which company is doing the job.

Here is our own number, as one example and not as the market standard. For the kind of work we do, $15,000 is an easy base price. On Wilmington Island or in Savannah Quarters, in those big gated communities, the same job could run $25,000, $30,000, or $40,000, because those projects cover more square footage and more add-ons.

And here is the standard we hold the work to. If you invest $60,000 in your backyard with us, we don’t stop until that backyard is worth $100,000 in resale value. We are not appraisers, and we are not going to quote you a percentage that comes from somebody else’s report. That’s the goal we work toward, and it’s why we would rather talk a homeowner out of a project than sell them on one that doesn’t fit their needs.

When Is a Patio the Wrong Move for Your Backyard?

Plenty of times. We would rather say it here than take a deposit and find out on site.

• If the house itself needs work first. A roof, a system, or a kitchen comes before the backyard. A beautiful patio doesn’t cover up a roof that needs replacing.
• If you’re listing your house in the next month. A real build has a schedule and a sequence. Pressure washing, fresh mulch, trimmed beds, and paint will do more for your listing photos than anything we could set a base for.
• If your budget today is too low. Wait for a while and build it right. The worst outcome in this whole thing is buying a patio that’s priced low by taking out the part that keeps it flat. That isn’t equity. That’s a future line item on somebody’s inspection report.
• If your back door sits well above the ground. There’s a point where the fill and the wall it takes to bring the ground up to the door stops making sense, and a deck or a raised structure is the best answer. We will tell you that on the walk.
• If the backyard is the only green space you have. Kids and dogs need grass. The right patio takes the part of the yard you actually sit in and leaves the rest as yard.

None of that changes the ranking, but it might change the timing. When the house is ready and the budget is real, permanent usable square footage is still the part of a backyard that pays you back.