Hardscaping
One yard, one plan, one set of levels
Most of the bad hardscaping we get called out to look at was not built badly. It was built in pieces. A patio one year, a wall two years later, steps after that, each by a different crew working off whatever was already there. The paving ends up an inch proud of the step, the wall cap does not line through with anything, and water that used to drain across the lawn now runs at the back door.
Doing it as one job fixes all of that at once, because the levels are set before a single stone is laid. We shoot the grades across the whole area first, work out where water has to go, then set the top of the patio, the height of each step, the cap height of every wall and the fall on every surface off that one plan. If most of your yard is paving, start with how we install pavers.
Exterior Designs is family owned and operated in San Carlos, and we only work in interlocking pavers and natural stone. Ask us to price the whole yard in one go and we will come out, shoot the levels and give you one number.
What does hardscaping actually include?
Everything in the yard that is not planted. Driveway, patio, walkways, steps, retaining walls, seat walls, a fire pit, a kitchen platform, the edging and the drainage that ties it all together. Softscape is the lawn, the beds and the trees. The hard part is what carries weight, holds a level and decides where water ends up, so it is the part that has to be built first and built right.
On a typical Peninsula lot that means a front drive and entry walk, a back patio, a step or two between levels because almost nothing here is truly flat, and a low wall holding one side of it. We build all of it in pavers and natural stone only, and it sits alongside the rest of the landscaping work we do with the paving.
Why do separate jobs leave mismatched levels?
Because each crew builds to what is in front of them instead of to a plan. The patio crew sets its surface to the back door. The wall crew, a year later, sets its footing to the ground as it is then, not as it will be once the steps go in. The step builder splits the difference. Nobody is wrong on their own piece, but the pieces do not meet.
Steps are where it shows worst. Rise and run have to be even the whole way up or people trip, and the only way to keep them even is to know the finished height at the top and the bottom before you start. That number comes from the paving, so when the paving is somebody else's job, the step builder is guessing. We set the paving and the steps that get you up past it together.
Price the whole yard as one job
Paving, walls and steps set off one plan, in San Carlos and across the Peninsula. Free estimates, 20 year warranty.
Call (650) 705-0628How do the materials stay consistent across a yard?
By buying them together. Pavers are made in batches, and two orders of the same product placed a year apart can come out of different runs with a visible difference in tone. Order the whole yard at once and the color is consistent, the pattern can carry through from the drive to the patio, and the borders and the wall caps can be picked to work with each other instead of against. We lay the Belgard range, Calstone and McNear, and we mix from several pallets as we go so any natural variation is spread across the field rather than pooling in one corner.
The same thinking runs past the stone. On a job with a lot of veneer we buy that together too, and where seating, fire and lighting are part of the plan we pick those alongside the stone rather than months after it. It is the same reason we set out the whole outdoor living space in one go, so the finishes agree and the sleeves are already under the paving waiting for the cable.
Why choose Exterior Designs for a whole yard?
Because our own crews build the lot of it. We are family owned and operated in San Carlos, we only lay interlocking pavers and natural stone, and the same people who set the base for the patio set the footing for the wall and cut the steps. There is nobody to hand the problem to, so the problems get solved on the day.
We are an ICPI Certified Paver Installer, a Belgard Master Craftsman shop and an Allan Block Certified Installer. Every installation is built to ICPI specification and carries a 20 year warranty, and estimates are always free. We work all over the Peninsula, including jobs around Redwood City.
Ask a paver installer
Straight answers about paver installation on the Peninsula
Can you do the hardscaping in phases?
Yes, and a lot of people do. What matters is that we plan the levels for the whole yard up front, even if we only build part of it this year. Then phase two lands exactly where it was always meant to.
Do you do the planting too?
No. We build the hard surfaces: paving, walls, steps and stone. Plenty of our customers bring in a gardener for the planting once we are finished, and we leave the beds shaped and the edging set so that work is straightforward.
Do you pour concrete as part of a hardscape?
No. We only work in interlocking pavers and natural stone. No concrete, no stamped concrete and no asphalt. If a job really needs one of those, we will tell you straight rather than take it on.
How long does a full hardscape take?
It depends how much of the yard is moving and how much is excavation. A patio and a walk is usually days. A whole yard with walls, steps and a drive is longer, and we give you a stage by stage schedule first.
What happens to the water once the yard is paved?
We plan for it first. Every surface gets a fall, usually enough to move water without you noticing it underfoot, and it runs to somewhere that can take it: a drain, a swale, a planted area or an open graded stone reservoir.
Which towns do you cover?
San Mateo County, Santa Clara County and parts of the East Bay. San Carlos is home, and we work regularly in Belmont, Redwood City, San Mateo, Burlingame, Hillsborough, Menlo Park and Atherton, with jobs in Foster City, Los Altos and Pacifica as well.