I giggle occasionally when I think of myself first getting into the landscape business back in 1999. I recall going out on design consultations and speaking to clients about their project. I would talk about how their house lends itself to, say, a modular design. I would talk about softscaping and which types and sizes of plants we would use, the color of mulch, etc.
Then I would then say “now let’s talk about the hardscaping”. I would guess about 90% of the time I would be looked at as if I was from outer space. I would then respond with some contractor humor “you know, its the hard part of the job”. Being sort-of a landscape industry insiders joke, some prospects got it while others not so much. Being a proud father of 4 children (3 of them girls), I was reminded the other day of the “hard” nature of our daily work in this video and I could totally see my girls pulling this stunt…
Knowing that each one of those real pavers in that clip was approximately 15 pounds each, you can sympathize with the folks on the receiving end of this prank!
True, hardscaping is indeed hard work and deals with more than just boulders, pavers and retaining walls. It’s work that can be done by the above average DIY’er if they have the spare time, the right equipment, and choose to follow the proper steps along the way. Having the right equipment certainly helps make the project less “hard”, but not everyone has thousands of dollars to rent machinery.
We plan to have future blog posts relating to what kinds of things to look for when either choosing a contractor for your landscape and/or hardscape project, learning how to speak hardscape jargon, as well as how you can avoid common mistakes when installing your hardscape projects.
