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Hardscaping

Rock, gravel, drainage runs, retaining walls and rebuilt banks — the permanent, machine-scale half of a yard, across Jefferson and St. Louis County.

What this actually involves

Hardscaping, in plain terms

Hardscaping is the part of a yard that does not grow. Where softscape is plants and topsoil, hardscape is the stone, rock and shaped ground that holds everything else in position: a wall that keeps a slope where it is, a run of rip-rap that carries water instead of letting it cut, a gravel area that stays solid when a truck parks on it.

The reason it belongs with excavation rather than with landscaping is that almost all of it is decided below the surface. A retaining wall is only as good as the base it sits on and the drainage behind it — water trapped behind stone is what pushes walls over, not the weight of the soil. A gravel drive is only as good as the subgrade under it. The visible stone is the last ten per cent of the job.

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A finished drainage run of white rock cut along a wooded slope behind a black iron fence, with the regraded bank seeded beside it

What is included

The list

  • Rock and gravel placement
  • Drainage runs and rip-rap
  • Regraded and stabilised banks
  • Retaining and boulder walls
  • Gravel drives and parking areas
  • Erosion control on slopes

When people call about this

Reasons this ends up on the list

  • A bank or slope that is visibly moving, slumping or washing
  • Water cutting a channel across a yard or down a drive
  • A gravel area that has rutted, spread or sunk into the ground
  • An existing retaining wall leaning, bulging or shedding stone
  • Soil washing onto a patio, drive or road after heavy rain
  • A drop in level that needs holding back before anything can be built near it

How it goes

From the walk-through to the finished ground

STEP 01

Find where the water is going

Every hardscape decision on a slope is really a drainage decision. The walk-through starts with where the water comes from and where it is allowed to end up.

STEP 02

Cut and shape the ground

Banks get cut back to an angle that holds, bases get excavated and compacted. This is the stage that decides whether the finished thing stays put.

STEP 03

Set the stone

Rip-rap, boulders, wall stone or gravel placed to the shaped ground, with drainage behind anything that retains soil.

STEP 04

Stabilise and seed

Exposed cut left graded and seeded rather than raw. Bare slope is slope that washes into the work you just did.

Questions

Hardscaping: common questions

Is hardscaping the same as landscaping?
They overlap. Hardscaping is the permanent, heavy half — stone, rock, gravel, walls, shaped ground. Landscaping usually means what goes on top of it. Our Yelp listing carries Landscaping as a category, but the work described on this page is the machine half: rock placed, slopes rebuilt, water given somewhere to go.
Why does drainage keep coming up on a hardscaping page?
Because it is what makes hardscape fail. Water trapped behind a retaining wall pushes it over; water running across a gravel drive takes the gravel with it. Almost every hardscaping call that arrives here is a drainage problem wearing a different name, which is why the walk-through starts with where the water goes.
Can you build a retaining wall on a steep slope?
Sometimes, and sometimes the honest answer is that it needs an engineer rather than a contractor. Height, what the wall is holding back and what is above it all matter. If the walk-through says that, you get told that — you will not get sold a wall that should have been designed.
Do you do patios and pavers?
The scope here is the heavy, machine-side work: rock, gravel, rip-rap, boulder and retaining walls, regraded banks, gravel drives. Prep for a patio — excavation, base and drainage — is squarely in that. Tell us what you are picturing and you will get a straight answer about which parts of it are ours.
Ask Us Anything

The other five

Most jobs turn out to be two of these

Usually the thing you called about, plus the drainage problem underneath it. All five are run by the same owner with the same machines, so they happen in one visit rather than three.

Dirt Work & Grading

Cut and fill, yard regrading, driveway repair, drainage runs, swales, arena and pad footing, and trench digging.

See dirt work and grading

Drainage & Ditch Work

Surface regrading, swales and rock-lined runs, ditch cleaning and reshaping, French drains, downspout runs, culverts and trench digging.

See drainage and ditch work

Site Prep

Topsoil strip and stockpile, cut to grade, subgrade compaction, base rock, building and shed pads, driveway and parking bases.

See site prep

Demolition

Sheds, outbuildings and garages, decks, fences and porches, concrete slabs and old driveways, pool removal and backfill, interior tear-outs, haul-away and final grade.

See demolition

Land Clearing

Brush and scrub clearing, small timber and tree removal, fence line and property line clearing, overgrown lot reclamation, stump and root removal, debris hauled off site.

See land clearing

Where we work: Hillsboro · Arnold · Festus · Imperial · Fenton · De Soto · Pevely · High Ridge · Oakville · Mehlville · Sunset Hills · Kirkwood · Valley Park · Affton — and the rest of Jefferson County and St. Louis County. See the full service area.

Hardscaping in Jefferson or St. Louis County?

Tell us the address and what the ground is doing. Bryer comes out, walks it with you and gives you a number — free, and with nothing attached to it. Repeat customers get 10% off.

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