Working closely with your homeowner customer to create a landscape dream can be exciting and rewarding. Blending decorative retaining walls, patios, sidewalks, and flower beds with vibrant green shrubs, trees and seasonal color adds tremendous visual impact to a home.

"At Landscape Concepts, we use the terms softscape (plantings) and hardscape (construction) as terms kindred to the spirit of what we do," explained Michael C. Dickerson, President of Landscape Concepts in Carrollton, Texas. "These two components transform an ordinary landscape setting into a theme garden. Pavestone Co. hardscape products became one of our most important design effects in creating gardens of distinction. For example, Cobble-stone paving stones in charcoal create the look of a European auto court. Prefer a more formal Victorian look? Try using City Stone™ in Oaks Blend, capturing the shape of the home’s windows in a reflectively shaped patio. It is a simple but captivating experience. How about a Southwest design? Try using the Uni-Décor® pave stone in Old Town Blend to give you the shape and color variations that look incredible in a single color brick home. The variety of colors, shapes and textures, along with endless installation patterns, offers each and every project to prevail with your personal signature of excellence."

To achieve maximum customer satisfaction, there are two general rules to follow when planing the trees, shrubs, flowerbeds and grass. Allow for lots of variety in texture and height. The natural look is more popular than the style of linear hedges and rows of flowers. Then, as you contemplate the pathways, retaining walls and flower bed edging, there needs to be a consistent theme or system to bond them together.

Since customer satisfaction is of utmost importance, it is key to assure they understand what they’re trying to achieve. The first question to ask is, "what purpose will this landscape improvement serve?" For example, is the current patio too small to accommodate weekend barbecues? Is there a need for a larger area for tables and chairs?" By determining the purpose, you can plan a project that is not only beautiful, but one that will meet the customer needs as well.

Here are a few important items to discuss with your customer:

Access:

Convenient access to your paved areas from the door(s) of the home.

Drainage:

Diagram A Holland pave stones in the easy-to-install, popular parquet installation design.

Water drainage is critical. All pave stone projects should slope away from the home to allow easy drainage of rainwater. Installation of concrete pave stones can only encourage or discourage water flow. They can not solve a bad water problem. If water flow has been a problem, a drainage expert may need to be consulted.

Traffic:

Where will traffic patterns be established across the patio and walkway? Be sure to account for traffic to gates, storage buildings, water faucets, swimming pools, play areas, and other activity centers. Traffic lanes may cross the center of the project onto the grass. Some of these areas may require a sidewalk or steps. Take care not to accidentally encourage traffic through a flowerbed or over a wall.

Determining project size:

Diagram B Holland pave stones also in the parquet pattern; the shaded area represents the area to be cut in order to form a curved installation design.

All size recommendations are relative to your customers’ furniture pieces. The general rule is that "too small" is a mistake. For example, a 5-ft. table and four chairs may only appear to require a 10-ft. diameter patio for support. However, place four adults in those chairs and you see that the space needed is more than the original 10-ft. Now envision the host/hostess serving the table. Will they be forced to walk around the table with one foot on the patio with the other in the flowerbed? By factoring in how much space is actually needed for enjoyable outdoor living allows you create a patio design that will fully accommodate your customer’s desired goal.

Determing Patio Shape:

When determining patio size, it’s key to factor in the combination of traffic lanes, dining space, barbecue, and mixing areas.

"Many factors can enter into the choice of a shape for your paved area," explained Chris Stineman, Pavestone Contractor Sales, Cincinnati, Ohio. "Shape is an important consideration for two reasons, degree of installation difficulty and what works best with the proposed pave stone patio. Rectangular patios are generally easier to install. A widely used pave stone is the Holland. If these brick-shaped rectangular stones are placed in the Parquet pattern, you can form almost any size patio--square, rectangle, or right-angled shapes--without cutting any stones to make the outer form. Cutting the stones along the edge to form a curve" is commonly done with pave stones, but it involves a saw or splitting equipment, more time, and effort."

"If you are a new contractor, you may be surprised by how many rectangular-shaped patio options you have," Dave Pickens, Pavestone Contractor Sales, Sacramento, California, said. "You can build a square, L-Shaped, T-Shaped, Inset (or double) Square, and even Triple-Square. When you add in the options of softscape offerings, (round, conforming and free-formed planter beds) your patio creative options are almost limitless!"

One of the greatest things about concrete pave stone is the variety of stone shapes available today. Among the more popular shapes are the Holland, Uni-Décor® (a distinctive interlocking shape), Plaza (combination of square and rectangle stones) and City Stone (multiple shapes of squares and rectangles that all modulate or fit together). Each of these pave stone shapes is available in a variety of colors to match most home colors. They are also available in a standard and tumbled finish. It is easy to find a product that will greatly enhance your customer’s home and together you can help them create a look and feel that is uniquely their own.

A pave stone patio is just one of many exciting landscape enhancements. Your customer may wish to consider complementing the patio with decorative concrete edging, retaining walls, tree rings, walkways and even a driveway for a total landscape design. However, if budget is a concern, you can work with your customer to build the most important project enhancements now and add to the design next year. It is easy to help a customer see the "big picture" for their landscape. It is also an excellent business opportunity for increased profitability if you retain the customer for future projects. And don’t forget to ask for referrals! Once your customer begins entertaining on their beautiful new patio, their friends and family will be interested in knowing who expertly built such an attractive patio. And don’t forget to leave some business cards with them when you ask for referrals.

The concrete pave stone market sales growth is estimated to exceed 450 million in 2001. That represents a 459% increase in 7 years. You too can take advantage of this profitable industry while helping customers achieve their landscape dreams. LCM