Landscaping Construction Process
Learn the order of a large landscape project and how long it typically takes to complete.
A video transcript featuring Scott Cohen, The Green Scene
This backyard has just about everything. We call it the hacienda la fiesta, or the "party house." It's got a bell tower that's got a rope that hangs down from it, and swingers are actually going to be able to go up a set of stairs here and jump and swing from that down into the pool, replicating something that the client saw when they were on vacation in Hawaii, but in our hacienda theme. This tower's actually going to be 16 feet tall, and this whole back raised bond beam has an entrance for a 40-foot-long slide that comes down the slope and into the pool. The spa is raised 3 feet over the pool and has a spillway that splashes down 1-inch by 1-inch mosaic tiles.
Sequence of events
It takes five to eight months to build a project of this size. What you start with is just initial grading, and then we do the excavation of the pool. Once that pool shell's excavated, we install our steel cage and then we do our plumbing. Once plumbing is completed, we have it inspected and then the pool shell is gunited, or shotcreted. Once the concrete has had a chance to cure, we install the drainage system in the yard, and then we begin our hardscape work in retaining walls, and our cast concrete countertops, and then patio covers. Then we do our sprinkler systems, get our planters ready, mend our soils, plant our plantings, do our coping, install our tile, and then finally deliver sod and water into the pool. And then, time to party!
