A concrete or masonry alternative to a wooden deck Can be made of concrete with a plain, exposed aggregate or shell finish Can feature brick borders, brick dividers or covered with special decorative concrete coatings
A patio is an area of flat blocks or concrete next to a house, where people can sit and relax or eat. patios a flat hard area near a house, where people sit outside. In Spanish and Latin American architecture, a courtyard open to the sky within a building. A Spanish development of the Roman atrium, it is comparable to the Italian cortile but provides more seclusion, possibly due to Moorish custom. The patio of the contemporary U.S. house is a paved outdoor area adjoining or partially enclosed by the building and often used for outdoor dining
or Mexican process Method of isolating silver from its ore, apparently dating from pre-Columbian times. The ore was crushed and ground by mule power in arrastras, reducing it to a fine mud. This was then spread over a courtyard or patio, sprinkled with mercury, salt, and copper sulfate, and mixed by driving mules over it. Chemical reactions caused the silver to dissolve in the mercury. When the amalgamation was complete, the material was agitated with water in large tubs and the mud run off. The amalgam at the bottom was collected and heated to drive off the mercury. Used for much of the world's silver production for 350 years, the process was replaced by the cyanide process early in the 20th century