Landscaping & Design Ideas

2009 marked a record year for repairs for our company. Some of these repairs were performed on patios and retaining walls installed over ten years ago.  We were able to address the problem areas and correct them, leaving the project looking the way they did when they were installed.

Unfortunately, some repairs were performed on projects completed in the last five years.  With the boom in new home construction at that time, also came a rise in the number of companies performing hardscape work.  It was hard for us to see projects recently completed already in a state of disrepair.  For some, the only solution was to take it apart and start over.

At this point we were able to see the root cause of many of the problems.  Some retaining walls and patios were built with insufficient base.  Some walls were not backfilled with stone, nor was there any drainage.  There was no quick fix, and the homeowner was left with no choice but to pay to have the wall or patio built anew.

In many cases, we were told the company who originally installed the project was not returning their phone calls, or sometimes were out of business.  The customer had no other recourse but to sue to try to recoup some of their loss.  As unfortunate as this is, it happens all too often with many contractors in various trades.

It’s one reason I urge customers to carefully review proposals from different contractors.  In many cases they are not “apples to apples” comparisons.  It may be that one proposal calls for half the base material of the other.  By using less than the minimum amount of required base for a specific project, it is doomed from the start.  It may be a retaining wall that requires both drainage and geogrid to anchor it into the hillside.  Not putting either in will drive down the installation cost, but will also cause premature failure, leading to a collapsing wall after only a few years.

In some cases, the contractor may be well intentioned, but may not possess the knowledge or experience to complete the project properly.  Don’t allow your project to be their training ground!

Seek references, ask what kind of guarantee they provide, but be sure they will be around if something does go wrong in a few years.  Retaining walls and patios are expensive undertakings for a reason.  One contractor may be substantially higher than another for good reason.  The best price is not always the best value, this is true for anything we purchase.

When properly installed, a patio or retaining wall in the Cleveland area should provide years of hassle free enjoyment for you and your family.

Living in the Greater Cleveland Ohio area, we are subjected to some pretty severe winter months.  In fact, Forbes Magazine just ranked Cleveland as America’s worst winter city!  While that may be debatable, winters in Cleveland do take their toll, on both our state of mind and our homes & landscaping.

Our company meets with many people who ask us if we do both pavers & stamped concrete.  Or we often hear that the person will probably decide on stamped concrete because they think it will be cheaper.  While the initial installation cost of stamped concrete is often cheaper than pavers, there are some long-term drawbacks to saving a few dollars up front.

This brings us back to the climate here in Northeast Ohio.  The winter freeze-thaw cycles wreak havoc on our roads, both concrete and asphalt, our homes exterior as well as our sidewalks and driveways.  Anyone who drives around Cleveland and its suburbs in spring knows this well.  We cringe every time we hit a large pothole.

The same freeze-thaw cycles that destroy our streets annually are working against our driveways,  sidewalks, and patios at home.  Whether they be asphalt, concrete, stamped concrete, or pavers, our pavements are subjected to these forces throughout the winter.

With concrete or stamped concrete, flaking will occur.  The subgrade may settle, resulting in cracks in the concrete.  And de-icing salts will speed up the deterioration process.  With stamped concrete, the colors will begin to fade and lose their luster after only a few short years.  The only viable option at that point is to wait until it is in such disrepair that it needs to be replaced.  In the mean time, you are left dealing with an eyesore. There is no option to repair.

This is one of the distinct advantages of pavers, and one reason the long term value of pavers far outweighs any initial price difference.  When those same forces work against your paver surface, three types of interlock are at work to keep them in place.  Vertical, horizontal, and rotational interlock insure that the pavers are locked into place.  The inherent joint lines in pavers contribute to the pavement’s strength.

This is not to say that Cleveland winters will not eventually take their toll on a paver surface.  But the good new is that the paver itself will not be damaged.  This allows for repairs to the base by simply lifting out the pavers in the problem area, correcting the base, and laying the pavers back into the pattern.  Sometimes the problem occurs with the edge restraints lifting or cracking, which is also a relatively quick and inexpensive fix.

One great example as to the durability and longevity of pavers comes from Holland.  Living on land that was once ocean that is now protected by dikes, the ground settles 6″-12″ every five to ten years.  The settling is caused by the removal of water in the soil that slowly seeps in from the sea.  The pavers are removed and set aside, while the base is brought back up to grade.  The pavers are then put back in place.  The need for this type of paving system has led to a 1,000 year tradition of using pavers.

On the contrary, we would be lucky if a street or driveway in the Cleveland area lasted just 20 years!  But the beauty of a paver system is that it is repairable, rather than needing replaced.  Keep this in mind when trying to decide between concrete or pavers.