The Transcendent Backyard
By: David Smith, ICPI Technical Director
Residential projects consume about 75 percent of the concrete paving units made in the U.S. and Canada. The residential market is bread-and-butter to concrete paver producers, dealers and contractors. ICPI manufacturer members continually invent and promote new shapes/sizes, textures, patterns and colors that communicate a widening range of moods that fit with the house and yard.
Photo Courtesy of Lindgren Landscape
Backyard living spaces with concrete pavers and segmental retaining walls are where most residential sales land. These products have helped expand other industries such as outdoor kitchens, countertops, lighting, grills, fire pits, fireplaces, furniture, trellises, fountains, pizza ovens, ponds and hot tubs. From the homeowner perspective, the return on investment into this backyard leisure-topia is 100 percent or close to it when selling the home. So 100 percent enjoyment with 100 percent return resonates as a worthwhile deal for homeowners. Demographics advance this investment trend with a growing volume of homeowners falling into the category of 55+ years old with no kids in the house.
Photo Courtesy of Keystone Hardscapes
The stars aligned in the market in the late 1990s and was given an extra push by the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Homeowners invested in making their residences more secure and comfortable than take risks traveling on vacations. With the recent recession in the rearview mirror, backyard living space has reemerged as its own industry. You can see a full gamut of its components at Hardscape North America held in Louisville, KY, annually in October.
Photo Courtesy of Holloway Company, Inc.
This post touches on some trends in backyard environments and the reasons for them from the owner, designer and contractor perspectives. My particular take on this growth market is its creation of unique residential spaces and places as a result of combining indoor functions with the outdoors.
Photo Courtesy GoldGlo Landscapes
An outdoor kitchen is not one space, but several. The space certainly has some key things normal to a most kitchens, but users feel the sun, shade from trees, a cool breeze, hear birds, the wind, and maybe water running through a fountain or nearby pond. The experience of a kitchen is transformed by integration with the natural environment.
The integration of tangible and intangible experiences from such outdoor living spaces fuels this market. It is magical. And backyard living spaces seem to be the only residential space perceived and received this way. The intersection of indoor functions with the outdoors transcends expectations and creates a new, refreshing reality for families and friends to relax and recharge, and segmental concrete pavements are vital to that transcendence.