Terraces that survive the salt.

The good backyards in Hallandale Beach face water. Canal lots in Golden Isles back onto docks and open toward the Intracoastal; houses near Layne Boulevard and Diana Drive look across lakes and waterways; and the properties closest to the beach trade yard space for salt spray. What owners build here is an outdoor room rather than a patio: a covered terrace off the living space, a summer kitchen that gets used year-round, a pool deck that handles wet feet, and a driveway that no longer announces the decade the house was built.

Exterior work brings in more agencies than interior work does. Structures, utilities and paving are permitted through the Hallandale Beach Building Division, with the Broward County Board of Rules and Appeals sitting behind that as the county's code authority. Anything at the water line is a separate track: docks, boat lifts and seawalls are licensed through Broward County's Aquatic and Wetland Resources Program alongside the city permit. Pergolas and covered structures need engineered connections, because this is the High-Velocity Hurricane Zone and shade structures fly.

Outdoor work at PGX is built to the same standard as the interior, which mostly means specifying for the environment instead of the photograph. Marine-grade stainless and coated hardware near the water, dense stone sealed correctly, grading and drains sized so a rainstorm ends up in the swale and not against the slab, and every gas, water and power run permitted and inspected. Fixed written scope, daily supervision, tidy sites, and 20-plus years of South Florida construction standing behind the estimate.