The phone rang early one morning and it was customer (and friend) Pat Kennedy. ?EUR??,,????'??A friend of mine just built a new home and he is looking for somebody to install a lawn at the property. I gave him your name. It would be worthwhile for you to give him a call.?EUR??,,????'?? In this business there is no better advertising than word of mouth. For 18 years we have built our business by providing good value, quality work and by treating our customers like we ourselves would hope to be treated. I was glad to get Pat's referral. With this referral in hand, I followed up. After telephoning the homeowner, set a time and date to get together to discuss his new lawn.

Wow, what an amazing new home! I pulled into the driveway of a beautiful three-level custom built home overlooking Chautauqua Lake in Mayville, N.Y. While discussing the 1 1/2-acre new lawn installation the homeowner asked if we also installed hardscaping. Final grade was all that had been completed on this property. We needed to tie the different levels of the property into two proposed treated wooden decks and the in-ground pool area. Original building plans included railroad tie retaining walls. The homeowners, however, were not convinced that this was the right finishing touch for their home. We discussed alternatives to the railroad tie retaining wall system and I left a brochure for their inspection.

 
Listening to the homeowner's ideas and drawing from my experiences in the field brought this project together. It is critical to keep the customer involved as much as possible so that their needs are met and they feel as though they have a role in the project as well. Sometimes customer's ideas will not work given the setting and/or conditions. It is important to explain ?EUR??,,????'??why?EUR??,,????'?? certain things may not work. Keep an open line of communication between you and the customer so that they are comfortable expressing their thoughts and/or concerns. Our goal is to provide top quality work coupled with unmatched customer service. We do not want to be known as just another landscape company. We want to be known as the contractor who does what they say they will do, and at the finest quality possible. After tossing alternative plans around, we settled on what we hoped to accomplish. Samples of various retaining wall stones and pavers were considered and color choices were made. Products from Uni-Lock, Inc. were chosen for both the retaining walls and the paver patio and sidewalk that were to be constructed. Natural colored Pisa II was the choice for the retaining walls and the 12- by 12-inch Series 3000, peppered sand color, became the paver choice. We had three different areas of the home to concentrate on ?EUR??,,????'??+ the front, the rear entrance, and the in-ground pool area. We started at the front of the property because of its complexity. We needed to create a patio outside the front entrance. At the same time, we also needed to contain seven feet of earth on each side of the patio while transitioning to two raised treated decks. On the left side of the patio we built a two-tier retaining wall with an 8- by 12-foot bed between the two levels. We also designed a stairway and landing to tie into the massive treated deck.



The first tier was three feet tall with a set of Siena Stone steps extending twelve feet out from the house. After determining the required elevations, trench depth, gravel base height, and the proposed finished heights, I reviewed the details a second time. People often do not realize the preplanning necessary to pull off a complex project. It is very disheartening to get halfway through a wall and realize it is not going to end where you had hoped. Take the time and re-confirm your figures before you start digging. The extra few minutes of prep time is nothing compared to a wasted day tearing down and starting over (more field experience)! When building stairways or perpendicular walls, always start at the corners and work your way out from the corner stones. This allows for uniform corners and leaves the cutting at the end of the walls. After completing the two-tier system we moved to the wall on the right of the proposed patio. We needed to construct a 7-foot wall that would run 40 feet while stepping down to 2 feet tall. With a wall this size it is imperative that you have adequate drainage and always be sure to use geo-grid. Geo-grid will ensure the stability of a wall taller than 3 feet. We always back-fill, at least a foot wide, with a crushed #2 gravel directly behind the entire wall. If water can get out from behind the wall, there is no reason the wall should ever move as long as the base is properly prepared. A properly prepared base for a wall this size should have at least 8 inches of compacted crushed gravel. If you do not have a solid base (foundation), sooner or later you will have an ugly wall.



Once both walls were in place we began construction of the paver patio. The site was excavated and graveled prior to the walls being built. Here again, the preplanning on the elevations of both walls and the finished height of the patio were critical. The patio obviously needed to slope away from the house, but at the same time we needed to be sure that the depth of the bottom wall stone was below the paver height at the lowest point of the patio. Here is an important reminder: always double check your calculations before you start to dig. The 14- by 25-foot patio was constructed on a base consisting of six inches of crushed gravel and 1 inch of bedding sand. The completion of this patio wrapped up the hardscaping at the front of the property. Next, we moved out back to construct an 18- by 5-foot looping paver walkway from the driveway to the back porch. After marking off the area to be excavated we dug in thinking this was going to be the easiest part of the overall project. Wrong! After digging in we discovered a clay base which was holding water. Not good! We now needed to insure that the water in this area would have a way out in the future. As a result of the poor sub-base, we dug the walkway an extra 4 inches deep, installed geo-textile fabric (for stability) on the compacted clay, and channeled gravel into the adjoining proposed bedding area. In our geographic region you never know what kind of sub-base you are going to run into so it is very important to be prepared and adjust the site requirements accordingly. The sidewalk was and continues to be solid.



Once the front and back hardscaping was completed, it was time to move to the pool area. The pool was inviting as temperatures reached the upper 80s during this phase of construction. The in-ground pool area was 4 feet below the level of the treated deck so it was important to transition from the treated deck to the pool deck. We decided to slope the sidewalk 1 foot from the base of the treated stairs down to the top of the proposed Siena Stone stairs. This meant that we needed to construct a 3-foot high retaining wall with stairs leading to the pool level. The entire length of this retaining wall was 60 feet. We again started at the corners of the stairway area and worked our way out both directions with the wall. Knowing that the Siena Stone steps were 47 1/2 inches wide we left ourselves a 48-inch opening between the sidewalls for the stairs. Here the preplanning was very important again. We knew that we needed a 48-inch opening to set the steps within, but we also had to make sure that both walls and the side walls were square to the proposed sidewalk. We also had to calculate the height desired at the top step so the sidewalk that was to join the stairway at the top would be at grade with the step. Again, always double check your calculations before you set the first step. Each step weighed 540 pounds so taking the stairs apart in the event of a miscue was not an option. Once they are set and glued, they are permanent.



The construction of the retaining wall at the pool concluded the hardscaping portion of our work. The lawn was installed using a 50/50 mixture of Kentucky Blue Grass and Perennial Rye Grass. The planting beds were then constructed and various shrubbery, perennial plants and grasses were planted to complete our project. The entire project including the hardscaping, the landscaping, and the new lawn installation took place over a three-week period. Steve Beattie would like to recognize all his employees who contributed to this project in one fashion or another. They include Randy, Bill, James, Tadd, Tom, & Todd. And of course, Jud (my brother) and Annette who took care of things at the office. Without these employees' dedication, hard work, and teamwork we would not be designing and constructing projects of this magnitude.