From first call to final walkthrough

We come out and look at the actual site. We walk the grade. We find out where the water goes now, and where it'll go once we change the surface. We check what we can get equipment through. And we look for anything buried that will make the digging harder.

You talk to the person who runs the job. Not a salesperson on commission. If what you want isn't a good fit, you'll hear it on the visit. Sometimes it's the wrong season. Sometimes the scope is too big for the budget, or the work really belongs to a different trade. We'd rather tell you that day than after you've put down a deposit.

You get a written scope. It names the actual materials. It lays out the phases and gives you a realistic schedule. The cost comes as a range. Pull a number too tight and you end up walking it back later.

There's no separate design fee. If you want to see options before you commit to anything, use the yard visualizer on this site. It generates them instantly, off the same material catalog we build from.

A retaining wall over 4 feet of exposed height needs engineering and a permit. That's true in essentially every Western Washington jurisdiction. Several cities trigger lower than that for tiered walls, or walls carrying a surcharge. Bigger additions of impervious surface can trigger drainage review too.

We confirm what your city wants before anyone digs, and we handle the submission. It adds time. Usually two to four weeks. That goes into the schedule at the start, not halfway through the job.

Our own people do the hardscape. Excavation, base preparation, compaction in lifts, drainage, the finish work. We bring in a specialty trade only where the law says we have to, like a licensed electrician for anything beyond low-voltage.

The unglamorous parts get the most attention. They're what decides how the job holds up. A patio is only as flat in year ten as its base was compacted in week one.

We walk the finished job with you. Anything that isn't right, we fix it before we leave. Then we show you what maintenance it actually needs. For most hardscape that's very little. For irrigation it's one blowout every fall.

You get the paperwork too. The scope as built, any permit sign-offs, and on irrigation work the backflow assembly test certificate. Your city will ask for that one every year.