Rating the Top 15 Outdoor Home Improvements (Part 2)

Making improvements to your back yard is a huge trend that just keeps growing among homeowners, with $6.2 billion yearly invested in outdoor additions and enhancements. But when it comes to adding fun and functional elements to your yard, is it always worth the time, money and aggravation?

In part one of this blog we listed the first seven renovations or projects for homeowners, along with a rating based on the pros, the cons, practicality, enjoyment of use, costs and return on value. Here are the final eight:

8. Outdoor bar

Backyard bars take the outdoor kitchen trend one step further, and can be a huge hit with friends and neighbors at functions. Like many popular outdoor improvements, there are a host of options from simple pop-up DIY kits that are little more than a counter to sit at, to fully functioning professional-grade bars with running water, sink(s), refrigeration, a beer tap, and music, and electrical for music and television. Since those more elaborate bars are a serious investment that may cost you ten thousand dollars or more, it’s important to plan and build do them right, like you would any indoor bar. Make sure the bar height and spacing, stool height, layout of appliances and access to serve drinks behind the bar, etc. are all correct. Likewise, you’ll want to make sure your new bar is protected from the elements, with a canopy or roof of some sort and allowances for rain and cold weather.

Rating: B

9. Swimming pool

Adding a swimming pool to your property isn’t a decision to be taken lightly, as there are huge costs, upkeep and even liability issues to be weighed. Consider the average cost of a swimming pool is well over $40,000 now, and could easily be double that for custom or more elaborate pools, and maintenance could easily cost $2-300 per month or more in chemicals, cleanings, utility costs, etc. Most pool liners need to be replaced every 15 or 20 years, and it could cost $500 each season just to open and close it. Additionally, there are liability issues that may reflect in your insurance premiums, and you’ll want to install a safety fence around your pool. However, that huge investment could all be worth it when your family has a place to slash, play, and keep cool all summer – which could really be three seasons in the Sacramento region. Pools don’t necessarily add value to a home (not near what they cost to install and upkeep, anyway), and some potential buyers might be not want a home with a pool. But if you plan to stay in the home long term, your family will never regret it.

Rating: C+

10. Outdoor kitchen

Outdoor kitchens and entertaining areas are a home improvement trend that keeps getting more popular among buyers and designers, with no signs of retracting. In fact, having a fully functioning cooking space, range, refrigerator, high-end grill (of course!) is more valued by homeowners than ever. Outdoor kitchens are getting bigger, with more features like sinks, garbage disposals, gas hook ups, and ovens. Likewise, the outdoor living experience is expanding with covered dining, lounge, and recreation areas for the family that offer three seasons or more of enjoying dinners and barbecues in the backyard. Simple outdoor kitchens may cost you around $3,000, with more intensive setups running $15,000 or more, but they still offer one of the highest ROIs of any outdoor improvement.

Rating: A

11. Sport court

Are you a family who really enjoys sports and is considering adding a court or playing surface to your yard? Tennis courts, basketball courts, sand volleyball courts, etc. are a great way to encourage athletics among your kids, and give them and their friends and the neighborhood kids a safe, fun place to play and hang out. But with the cost of adding a good quality court pretty high, including lighting, etc., it usually doesn’t make sense from an investment standpoint. It won’t add a lot of tangible value to your home, takes up land that might better used as lawn or garden area, and could even be seen as a liability issue for some potential future homebuyers. But if you have enough space and you know your kids will use it, try adding a universal sport court that allows you to play several sports or activities easily.

Rating: C

12. Hot tub

Did you know that there are about 6.6 million hot tubs in U.S.? Now what percentage of those would you guess get regular use and are maintained correctly? Probably not an encouraging number. Hot tubs take a huge commitment to maintain properly, with balancing PH and chemicals, monthly filter cleanings, and draining and refilling four times a year. That can add up quickly, as well as the bump to energy bills you’ll see. Considering their price tag of $5,000 - $20,000 to purchase a hot tub and get it professional installed, they rarely make sense as an addition that improves your home’s value. So for those homeowners that really do love hot tubs and use and maintain them conscientiously, consider getting a model that will be easy to transport to your next home when you move instead of being left with the buyer.

Rating: C-

13.  Fire pit

When you envision your family enjoying your yard, what do you see? For many people, it will be visions of the whole family sitting around a crackling fire in the backyard on a cool night, mom and dad sipping wine while the kids roast marshmallows, as everyone watches the stars. There is no doubt that fire pits and fireplaces are one of the best ways to enjoy the great outdoors at home. The good news is that there are plenty of options to install them, including portable fire pits for only about $100, DIY models that can be buried or set in your yard, and more decorative models, built with stonework and seating can be had for 1-2 thousand dollars. Larger fireplaces integrate cooking into the outdoor experience, with a larger price tag to match. No matter how much you spend and how elaborate the fire pit design, it will probably be a good investment, considering that fire pits and fireplaces ranked third as the most popular outdoor living features on the landscape architecture survey, and surveys of buyers and homeowners reveal that they add value to a home.

Rating: A-

14. Outdoor audio system

Nothing adds ambience and fun to a barbecue, party or event than great music, and homeowners have plenty of audio options outdoors. While some choose just to place their portable music player outside for the event, the sound quality and reach just isn’t there, and it may even require unsightly and impractical extension cords. Instead, homeowners who want to invest in their entertainment – and improve their home’s value – are setting up specially designed outdoor music systems. From DIY outdoor audio kits for a couple hundred dollars to advanced systems that could run a few thousand dollars, there are plenty of options. There are even good quality speakers that are designed to look like rocks or blend in with the landscape, and can project clearly for up to 30 feet. The key to any system is running the wiring correctly, and protecting the system from the elements. To ensure that your investment pays dividends when it’s time to sell the house, make sure that all wiring and hook ups are universal or easily converted to other sound systems, so the technology won’t become outdated.

Rating: B-

15. Shade trees

This may seem like an after-thought on a list of such grand (and sometimes expensive) outdoor home improvements, but in fact, plating shade trees can significantly increase the value of a property. Shade trees aren’t only beautiful to look at, adding color in the fall and blossoms in the spring, but most importantly, they shield your home from the strongest of rays in the sizzling summer months, protecting that side of the house, making it enjoyable again outdoors, and lowering the temperature of rooms in the midday sun’s path. Even better, shade trees are very cheap and easy to plant yourself when they’re young, or if you wanted a more mature tree that will provide instant relief, some SMUD and other agencies often will plant free shade trees for you to help with energy bills! 

Rating: A+

Rating the top 15 outdoor home improvements

Warm weather and summer time in Northern California are here, and that means we’re enjoying spending time in our yards again. Whether it be a backyard barbecue on a Sunday afternoon, sitting out at night with a glass of wine to watch the stars or just watching the kids run around on the lawn to their heart’s content, the outdoor areas of our homes enrich our lives at least three seasons a year.

In fact, homeowners invest $6.2 billion yearly in outdoor improvements, but when it comes to adding fun and functional elements to our yards, is it always worth the time, money and aggravation? 

We’ll list the top 15 outdoor renovations or projects for homeowners and give them a rating based on the pros, the cons, practicality, enjoyment of use, costs and return on value.

1. Deck

Decks add huge value to a home with a 77% reported Return On Investment, and that’s probably because they offer a natural transition to a comfortable and functional outdoor living space. But they can also be expensive, as the cost of good wood is usually surprisingly high, and the alternative of Trex or some synthetic decking material can be twice or three times as much as wood (but never will need painting, collect mold, or rot.) Some intrepid homeowners try building decks by themselves, but even if you don’t hire a professional contractor you’ll probably need a building permit. Remember that wood decks also need maintenance of cleaning and re-staining or painting every few years.

Rating: B+

2. Outdoor lighting

One of the most economical ways to highlight and enhance your home and yard, outdoor and landscaping lighting is a great addition for any home. Of course there are plenty of options for landscaping lighting and lights along paths and driveways, but homeowners are getting more creative as lanterns, fixtures, globes, lamps, and even chandeliers are now made for outdoor use.  LED lights even allow you to rotate colors for interesting effects. Outdoor lighting not only adds to your curb appeal but improves safety and security, and therefore increases value with an approximate 50% ROI. But you may have to rework some electrical, trench to lay wires, and maintain landscaping lighting that goes out or needs new bulbs. Your energy bill might take a small hit but there are also more options for solar lighting than ever before.

Rating: A

3. Koi pond

Koi ponds, natural ponds, and fountains are one of the most enjoyable and beautiful enhancements you can make to your yard. Just sitting by a serene koi pond will lower your stress level after work or on weekends, and children love them especially. However, koi ponds should only be considered if you plan on staying in the home long term because they are not a great financial investment. There are basic DIY koi pond kits you can install yourself with a good deal of labor and patience, but custom professionally installed ponds could run $5,000 all the way to $50,000 or more for huge projects. Maintenance is an ongoing task with filter pads that need changing, fish food, chemicals or additives to balance the water, and other items. And of course you’ll need to purchase some koi, but for many homeowners all this will be well worth it as they are some of the most beautiful creatures in nature, growing as big as their environment allows and sometimes living up to 200 years in extreme cases!

Rating: C

4. Gazebo

Well-planned and aesthetically pleasing sitting and communal areas are always a good investment, and gazebos are starting to see resurgence with homeowners who want to spend more family times outdoors. They can be as big as 30 feet diameter or as small as only 6-foot diameter and made from natural weather resistant wood or synthetic Trex material. Depending on if you have a gazebo custom built, built to standard plans, or even buy a DIY kit and try it yourself, gazebos can run $2,000 all the way to $10,000 or more. You might want to add lighting, speakers, mosquito netting etc. to make it a more useful, but gazebos will offer a high ROI if you ever choose to show your home and sell – but many gazebos can be deconstructed and move to your next house!

Rating: B-

5. Putting green

As eccentric as it may seem, adding a putting green to your backyard may be a sound investment in some neighborhoods and for some homes. If you live in a high-end community or area that may have some avid golfers, it could attract potential buyers in the future, whose excitement to buy a 1-hole golf course with a house attached will translate in a solid offer. But putting greens are also efficient to install, as you can either lay out a round green area or contour it to just about any space or corner of your yard that is free. You can easily set up and install a putting green in one weekend yourself or purchase some of the DIY kits that are not available, with synthetic grass you’ll never need to maintain. Fore!

Rating: C+

6. Awning

If you have a house that faces directly west, you probably get blasted with full sun every day and know just how much it can heat up rooms, living areas, and make the outdoor spaces unusable until nightfall. In fact, up to 40% of heat and UV rays that enter your home come through windows. So an awning or shade cover may be a great remedy to that. They range from simple canvas awnings that you can affix yourself to motorized retractable awnings and even ornate wooden trellises with vines. Over time, you’ll recover any cost of installation and maintenance in lower AC bills and being able to use your entire home and yard again.

Rating: A

7. Trampoline

These days, it’s easier than ever to add a trampoline to your backyard, offering countless hours of enjoyment for your kids and their friends (and even bouncy adults when no one else is looking!) The vast majority of homeowners choose to purchase an above ground trampoline for only a few hundred dollars at places like Costco or Sam’s club. They’re not fun to put together but should last a long time – and can be moved when you decide to sell your house and live elsewhere. However, injuries are not uncommon on trampolines so make sure it as safety netting and padding on any exposed metal or hard areas, and check with your insurance agent if it will affect your homeowner’s policy or increase your liability. Trampolines that are set into the ground used to be in vogue but are rare these days, and only recommended if the homeowner knows they will stay there a long time.

Rating: C+

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Here is part two of this blog, with ratings for the next 8 outdoor home improvements.