Paver Patios in Aldie, VA

Kirkpatrick Farms

Kirkpatrick Farms describes itself as a community about 30 miles west of Washington, D.C., in Aldie. Its association lists patios and walkways among the exterior modifications that require an architectural application, along with decks, fences and additions. For a patio, the application asks for plans or scale drawings with elevations, dimensions and the patio’s relationship to existing structures; the materials, with a color photo of each; a copy of the property plat showing the patio’s location; and photos of the lot showing the project beside the adjoining properties. Grading plans go in as well when the grade or drainage of the lot will change.

Every application must carry the signatures of the four most affected neighbors, and the submission deadline is the Tuesday before the committee’s meeting. The approval follows the house: before a sale, every improvement outside the home needs an approved architectural application signed by the Architectural Committee, the association checks the lot file to confirm it, and the resale documents given to the purchasers note what needs attention.

The Village of Aldie Historic District

Loudoun County set up the Aldie Historic District to keep the character of the Village of Aldie, which took shape in the early nineteenth century as a line of buildings along the Little River Turnpike, today’s Route 50, around the historic Aldie Mill. The county’s guidelines describe village buildings often sited near the road, with minimal front yards and large trees at the rear of the lots. The district overlay applies only to the properties on its parcel maps, which the guidelines contain and the county posts online, not to every house with an Aldie address.

The guidelines are adopted, not a draft: the Historic District Review Committee weighs each application against the guidelines the Board of Supervisors adopted, and the county’s zoning ordinance incorporates them. One document covers Aldie together with Bluemont, Oatlands and Taylorstown. Most exterior changes in the district need the committee’s review and approval before the project begins, and the Planning Department’s certificate of appropriateness comes before any permit; repair or replacement of material in kind is outside the committee’s review.

A Patio in the Village

The guidelines’ chapter on site elements treats patios as outdoor living spaces. A patio does not belong in the front yard of a village dwelling, the contour of the lot should not change radically to make room for one, and materials out of character with the district, such as vinyl, composites or unpainted pressure-treated wood, are named as inappropriate. The guidelines ask for historically appropriate materials and colors, placed where they least affect the historic look of the property and related to the materials of the buildings already on the lot or on neighboring lots of a similar age; fences and plantings can screen the patio from view.

For paving in Aldie, the same chapter calls brick the most appropriate and most common walkway material in the district, and native fieldstone, like that in the foundations, an appropriate material for site paving; its photo of an Aldie patio shows natural stone. It warns against large expanses of bright white or gray concrete or asphalt in visible areas. The guidelines’ green advice adds fewer paved surfaces and porous paving, such as paving bricks, that lets water drain. For walls, they call low stone walls common and appropriate in the districts and rule out concrete block. Walkways and paths sit outside the committee’s review under the guidelines, but patios are not on that list.

Asking the County First

For a patio in the village, the county’s first step is a pre-application meeting with its staff to find out whether approval is required. Staff can also say whether a project meets the criteria for an administrative review; otherwise the certificate goes to the committee at its next monthly meeting, held on the second Monday at 6 p.m.

Who Permits the Work

Building permits for Aldie come from Loudoun County’s Department of Building and Development; the county’s rules are on our Loudoun County page.

Paver Patios and the Rest of the Yard

How we lay one is on our paver patio page. In Aldie we also take on flagstone patios, seating walls, concrete driveways and flagstone walkways.