Built structure
Hardscapes
Fire pits, built in barbecues and outdoor kitchens, stone stairs, seat walls and structures. The built half of an outdoor room, detailed where the materials meet.
Chapter 01
Structure, not decoration
Hardscape is the part of a garden that is built rather than planted. Fire pits and outdoor fireplaces, built in barbecues and outdoor kitchens, stone stairs between levels, seat walls, piers and structures. On most properties it is the part that decides whether the garden gets used after work or only looked at from the kitchen window.
It is also the part that has to last without being replanted. A shrub that fails gets swapped in a morning. A stone counter set at the wrong height is there until somebody takes it apart.
Stone clad outdoor kitchen island with granite counters and a built in grill
The craft is in the joins
Anyone can stack stone. What separates built from assembled is what happens where two materials meet. Stone to counter, counter to an appliance cut out, wall cap to seat height, tread to riser, cap overhang held consistent the whole way round a curve.
Coursing is the other tell. Joints that line through where they should and stagger where they should, corners that return properly instead of being closed with a thin cut, and cap stones sized so the run does not end on a sliver.
Chapter 03
Working with the grade instead of fighting it
Stairs and terraces get set to the fall the property already has. Importing a lot of fill to flatten a slope is expensive, it settles, and it usually moves the drainage problem somewhere else. Stepping the structure down the existing grade is cheaper, more stable, and looks like it belongs there.
That is the same reason hardscape and retaining walls tend to get designed together. The wall that holds the drop is often the same wall that gives the patio its edge and the seating its back.
Living with it
Natural stone and concrete products both weather, and they weather differently. Caps take the weather first. Joints in a fire feature see heat cycling that the rest of the structure does not. Knowing which parts move and which do not is what keeps a maintenance conversation short.
Anything we build we can come back to, because the same company is usually already on the property for the lawn.
Natural stone, Unilock pavers and segmental concrete block systems. ICPI Certified Installer.
Built structure
Most of this gets designed alongside the wall and the paving
Outdoor kitchens, fire features and stairs sit on and against the structure around them, so they are worked out as part of one drawing rather than added afterwards.
Call the Auburn office on (785) 256-7300, or request a consultation and someone will come and walk the property with you.