Located in the soft hemlock groves of western Massachusetts is an expansive golfer's playground that features a plethora of outdoor living amenities, all installed (with the exception of the pool) by Brian Campedelli and his team at Pioneer Landscapes.

Having been subsequently pleased by Campedelli's terrific job constructing a pool house, the client reapproached him with inquiries regarding the installation of an artificial turf putting green. Campedelli was ripe for the job; as having over 35 years of experience in the industry made him an expert in this sector.

"We worked with this client ultimately on a long term plan," relates Campedelli. "First, the pool went in so we constructed a pool house. Then we expanded on that with the patio area, and lastly we added the golfer's paradise part."

But the grass was not greener on the other side, so to speak, because the team encountered several problems during the installation process of the putting greens.

The first problem was that there were several trees obstructing the site and needed to be removed. Once these were taken care of, the team began to excavate the sites to install the greens. The excavation process however was difficult because there were subterranian sewage, gas and electrical lines in this area. Campedelli stated that in order to prevent any damage, "a good amount of discovery digging was done."

Laying the Greens
To begin installing the putting and chipping greens, Campedelli and his team first excavated the site to about two feet down and then hand dug trenches to place perforated piping for drainage. The crushed limestone bunker was given its own separate drain, and then all the pipes were connected and run underground to a hillside, where they have a "daylight opening." In order to conceal the drain pipe sticking out of the hillside, riprap and natural stone were placed around it.

Once the perforated pipes were laid in the trenches and all connected, 18" of recycled hardpack, or a permeable, processed gravel, was added on top. This was tamped down three times with a plate compactor on a 6" lift, which allowed for a hardy compaction.

Next, 2" of stone dust was placed above the compacted hardpack and also tamped down twice. Because the stone dust was slightly rocky, a fine, washed masonry sand was placed on top of it to limit any dimpling or bumpiness that might jeopardize the greens. Lastly, the masonry sand was graded and smoothed with hand tools.

After the base was completed, it was time to roll out the green carpet. In the end, the work paid off because the stimp readings on the greens, for all you golf aficionados, are a near perfect 10 out of 11.

Installation of the Patio
The process for installing the 3,000 square feet of Belgard pavers was relatively the same as the process for the greens. The team began by excavating and luckily did not encounter any clay.

"Anywhere you run into clay in New England freezing areas, you have to get rid of all of it - or at least down to four feet. But luckily we didn't have any of that, we just had sandy material underneath," states Campedelli. After excavating down about 13", a 12" sub-base of hardpack was laid down and compacted. Next, a permeable, soil-separating cloth was laid down on top of the hardpack to limit the masonry sand from slipping into the hardpack. Roughly 3/4" of masonry sand was placed above the cloth and then the regular sized 2-3/8" pavers were installed. After placing the pavers, they were softly tamped down, which resulted in the masonry sand also being pressed down to about 1/2" and rising up to fill the spaces between the pavers. Finally, some additional dry joint sand was spread over the pavers in accordance with the Interlocking Concrete Pavement Institute's general guidelines, which Campedelli complies with.

Additional Touches
An added touch that was taken was incorporating three Sonos music stations at different locations on the property, each with their own individual controls. This allowed someone to be listening to one type of music and playing basketball in the front, while simultaneously another person could be listening to different music out near the greens. To make this possible, 5 miles of audio cabling was hand buried in shallow conduits. To illuminate the outdoor living elements, 160 low voltage lights were installed on the property, with most of the wiring being placed in low-lying hand dug conduits or hidden under the mulch. A large halogen lamp was installed high up in one of the hemlock trees to provide light for the expansive greens.

A total of 3 transformers were installed, one for the 300' long driveway, one for the pool house and one for the golfer's paradise. The customer is able to control the lighting with a control box and has the option to turn on photocells for automatic lighting in the evening.

A basketball half-court was implemented in the front of the property using part of the driveway. A professional 72" Goalrilla backboard was permanently mounted.

Conclusion
Although Campedelli has been installing outdoor living amenities for over 15 years, it was a slow start. He states that these types of outdoor amenities are hard to market in western Mass. simply due to the seasonal weather, making people hesitant to invest in these types of projects.

However, at the end of the interview, Campedelli says, "every client that I have ever done this for reaches back out to me and says 'even though it is a short season, Brian, I can't imagine having my yard any other way.'"