We are building a house and want to have a covered patio built behind the Great Room during construction. Our first choice would be for the floor of the porch to be made with pavers. However, Because the lot is slightly sloped and the builder is bringing in fill from adjacent lots, he said we can not do a covered patio at the time of construction because it will sink due to settling of the ground.

However, if we want the roof to be integrated into the house roof system, we have to do it during initial construction and our only option is to use composite decking material for the floor - he uses TimberTech. We strongly prefer to have a paver patio rather than composite decking material for the floor.

We would be okay with waiting a year for the ground to settle in order to have a patio with pavers but the builder said it would be much more expensive to build a roof over the patio a year down the road.

1) Does anyone know if this is actually true that it would be more expensive to put a paver patio in with a roof in a year vs. putting on a deck with a roof now during the initial construction?

2) If our best option is to have composite material for the floor, what is a way to disguise the fact that it is a deck as far as the skirting material? Can we use stone and landscaping to give it more of a terrace feel rather than a deck?

3) Any other alternatives that we haven't thought of in order to create a covered porch type area that does not look like a deck?