Walls, steps, walks and terracing — the elements that hold a property together and determine how it is moved through.
Hardscape is the part of a landscape that cannot be adjusted later. Planting can be replaced in a weekend; a retaining wall in the wrong place is a demolition. It is also the element most exposed to what Colorado does to built work — freeze-thaw cycling, expansive clay soils, and snowmelt that has to go somewhere.
So it gets resolved first. Where the grade breaks, where water wants to run, how someone carries groceries from the drive to the door in February. Everything decorative sits on top of those decisions.
Retaining walls and terracing
On a sloped property the wall is the design. Terracing turns unusable grade into level ground and gives planting somewhere to sit at eye height rather than below it. Walls are engineered for the load and the soil behind them, with drainage detailed so that hydrostatic pressure has somewhere to go instead of into the face of the wall.
Steps and treads
Stair geometry is where hardscape is most often got wrong, and it is the thing a body notices immediately. Riser height held consistent across a run, treads deep enough to take a full stride, and a surface that does not become a hazard under frost. Where the run is long enough to warrant it, we break it with landings.
Walks and drives
Circulation sets how the property is read on approach. Width, radius and material change the pace of the walk to the door. Drives carry real load and need base preparation matched to it — the failures that show up in year three are almost always base, not surface.
Drainage and grading
The least visible work and the most consequential. Positive fall away from the house, swales and subsurface lines where the volume warrants them, and outfalls that do not simply move the problem onto a neighbour. Most hardscape failures are drainage failures that took a few winters to appear.
What’s included
Scope of work
- Engineered retaining and seat walls
- Natural stone and dimensional stone treads
- Walks, paths and driveways
- Terracing on sloped ground
- Drainage, swales and subsurface lines
- Grading and soil preparation