Concrete Patios in Lake Bentley, Lakeland

Back yards behind Lake Bentley's mid-century houses

Most single-family homes around Lake Bentley went up in the 1950s and 1960s. Polk County Property Appraiser data counts 322 from the 1950s and 440 from the 1960s, on plats such as Southmoor (1954), College Heights (1955) and Sylvester Shores (1960). Bentley Pines (1977) and Kimberlea Seven (1995) came later. The median single-family lot is about 10,480 sq ft. That leaves room to pick between a small patio slab off the back door, a patio extension that doubles an old one, or a covered patio slab under a new roof.

Our concrete patio service page covers the job citywide, and the Lakeland patio cost guide multiplies out common sizes. For the lake and its shoreline, read the Lake Bentley neighborhood page. Doing the front slab too? See concrete driveways in Lake Bentley.

A lake the protected-lakeshore list leaves out

Lakeland's Land Development Code, Sec. 6.4, names eleven protected lakeshores, with Lake Hollingsworth and Lake Morton among them. Lake Bentley isn't one of the eleven, so the 50 foot structure setback in Sec. 6.4.3.2(a) doesn't name it. That's good news for a waterfront patio, with two limits.

First, the City's lakeshore permit rule and its wetland jurisdiction under Sec. 6.4.2.2 can still reach a lot here. On top of the open water, the National Wetlands Inventory maps small freshwater forested and shrub wetlands (about 0.8 percent of the neighborhood) and ponds (about 0.6 percent). Second, about 131 parcels touch Lake Bentley within roughly 15 meters, and 48 of them are coded residential lakefront. Own one of those? Ask the City about your parcel before you settle the patio's water-side edge.

Bring a sketch that shows the slab's distance to the shoreline and which way its runoff goes.

What It Costs

These are our Lakeland patio ranges, used for Lake Bentley back yards. Where a patio lands inside them depends on size, distance from the street, a vapor sheet for a future enclosure and any soft ground.

You get a free written estimate after we see the site, within 48 hours of the visit. Soft ground, a vapor sheet and a long carry to the back yard each show up as their own line.

Base flood elevation 118.8 and the low end of the lawn

FEMA's flood hazard layer maps about 12.65 percent of the Lake Bentley neighborhood as Zone AE, with a base flood elevation of 118.8 feet (panel 12105C0320G). Next door, Lake Somerset's figure is 111.7 feet, about 7 feet lower, so a neighbor's number from the other lake doesn't carry over. Hold your own survey's elevations up against 118.8 and the FEMA map for your parcel.

Two things follow from that. If any part of your lot touches a flood hazard area, as 117 of the 1,119 single-family parcels here do, the HB 803 permit exemption for small non-structural work under $7,500 is off the table. And the low end of the yard decides which way the patio slab can shed water.

The soil is mostly Tavares sand, moderately well drained. Smaller mapped pieces are wetter. Ona fine sand is poorly drained flatwoods, and about 1.5 percent of the neighborhood is Samsula muck. The residential code wants fill under a slab free of vegetation and compacted for uniform support (R506.2.1), so any soft or organic ground found in the patio footprint comes out and gets replaced with compacted fill. That shows up on the quote as its own line.

Screen room later or open sky forever: what goes under the slab

The Florida residential code, Section R506.2.3, asks for a 6-mil polyethylene vapor retarder lapped 6 inches under slabs. Patios and other flatwork not likely to be enclosed and heated later are exempt, so an open patio slab sits right on compacted sand. If you might enclose it as a heated room someday, the sheet goes in now. Nobody can slide one under cured concrete.

That sheet has a cost in summer. NRMCA's hot-weather guide says slabs placed directly on a vapor retarder need special finishing and curing care to avoid cracking, which is one more reason to pour them outside the hottest part of the day.

Where the patio meets the house, the termite rules in FBC R318 apply when soil treatment is used: treated soil under exterior concrete within 1 foot of the walls. For a screen room, the enclosure itself sets the permit, per the City's building forms page. Tell us the plan before we set forms.

How Your Job Goes

1. Decide open or enclosed

   We settle up front whether the slab will ever be screened in and cooled, because that decides what goes underneath.

2. Probe and measure

   We check the footprint for soft ground, measure to the shoreline on lake lots and note the low side of the yard.

3. Written quote

   Size, thickness, joints, finish and any prep lines, in writing within 48 hours.

4. Paperwork

   Permit questions get settled with the City, and the Notice of Commencement gets recorded when the contract is over $2,500.

5. Morning pour and cure

   Base compacted, concrete placed and finished early in the day in summer, curing started right away, and the yard left clean.

Low tree cover, hot concrete and the hours we pour

Tree canopy data (NLCD 2021) puts Lake Bentley's average cover at about 14.4 percent, and only 3.8 percent of the map cells reach half shade or more. Plan the layout for full sun:

• If the yard allows it, set the main seating area on the side of the house that throws afternoon shade.
• Leave room and a flat edge for a future pergola, roof or screen frame. Shade is the simplest cooling you can add later.
• For footing when wet, pick a broom or light texture over a smooth trowel finish.

Sun shapes pour day too. The National Weather Service puts the West Central Florida rainy season at May 25 to October 10, with highs in the upper 80s to mid 90s and frequent storms. NRMCA counts high heat, low humidity, wind and strong sun as hot-weather conditions that hurt fresh concrete, and says to avoid the hottest part of the day and start curing as soon as finishing is done. On a Lake Bentley summer day that points to a morning pour.

Condos, townhomes and lakefront units around the water

For a Lakeland neighborhood, Lake Bentley has a lot of condominium and attached housing. The Polk County Property Appraiser parcel layer shows 352 condominium parcels and 152 attached-housing parcels, with 108 townhomes counted among the homes. Recorded condominiums include Lake Bentley Shores, Kimberlea Condominium Nos. 1 to 6 and Bentley Cove, and 35 condominium parcels touch the lake.

Own one of those units? Find out who owns the ground behind it before you price a patio. Your recorded documents and the parcel lines on the Property Appraiser map will tell you. Bring what you find to the estimate, plus any written approval you've received.

For a detached house, bring your survey and a rough sketch. On a contract over $2,500, Florida law has the owner (or the owner's authorized agent) record a Notice of Commencement with the Clerk before work starts. A patio in our $2,500 to $6,500 range sits at or over that line, so plan on it.