Some landscape designs and projects are enormous undertakings that may require the use of heavy equipment to create the look and feel you want for your home or business. But hiring a company that uses huge, potentially dangerous equipment can be intimidating, so what do you look for in an excellent landscape excavation company?
There is no substitute for practical work experience operating heavy equipment and completing high-quality, eye-catching landscape designs and renovations. Experienced backhoe, skid-steer, and mini excavators know how to perform the work needed by operating this equipment efficiently and right the first time. They know how to estimate the work involved in a project, know the local codes and regulations for any excavation, and how to avoid common problems. This company should also provide you with many examples of their completed work and references from past clients.
An excellent landscape excavation company has the proper licenses and certifications for doing business in the state of Utah. These companies have licenses such as the Excavation and Grading Contractor and Landscaping Contractor licenses to take on landscape design and excavation projects.
At a minimum, the landscape contractor you select should have General Liability Insurance with a minimum of $300,000 in total coverage. They may have additional insurance as well.
The landscape excavating company you select must have the right equipment to move the dirt, rocks, and other materials in an excavation. They should have equipment to grade landscape, transport soil and stone, and handle other landscape design tasks. They should also have experienced heavy equipment operators behind the wheel of this equipment.
There is no substitute for helpful and courteous customer service. It doesn’t cost the company anything to provide for you. When you are making this type of investment in your landscaping design, the employees, everyone from the person who answers the phone to the person running the backhoe for the project, should answer your questions and provide you with essential information about the project at any time.
Look no further than Aeroscape. We have been providing award-winning landscape designs for businesses all around the Salt Lake City area for over 15 years. Whether you need someone to maintain your commercial landscaping, install a new water feature, or build a series of tiered flower beds for your home or business, Aeroscape is your go-to landscape designer. Learn more about our landscaping design services by giving us a call at 801.569.2383 or click on the green Contact an Expert arrow to fill out a simple online form, and an Aeroscape account manager will get in touch with you.
A boulder wall is what it sounds like, a wall composed of large rocks and boulders. These walls are primarily constructed to serve as retaining walls to raise planting areas above grade due to high water tables or poor soil quality. The boulder wall provides a place where top-soil that has been purchased for these raised planting areas won’t erode as part of your overall landscape design.
Luckily boulders are easy to find in Salt Lake City and the surrounding areas, so building material will not be a problem. You can find boulders at local stone yards and will have many choices of size, shapes, and colors. The biggest need you’ll have to construct a boulder wall is the heavy equipment you will need to move the boulders and set them into place. You will need to have access to a skid-steer and a mini excavator to help move the boulders where you want them.
The most important thing is to select a good location for a boulder wall, sloped surfaces work best, but any site will work. After you have selected a location for your wall, you may want to prepare the area a bit. This is not essential when constructing a boulder wall, but might make the process go smoother—especially if you are using smaller boulders to build the wall.
Excavate the location where you want to build the wall digging a trench that is two-feet wide and about a foot deep where you want it to go—especially if you are looking to have the boulder wall serve as a retaining wall. Level the ground as much as you can and compact the soil in the trench. This will provide a good base for your wall. You can also spread gravel evenly in the trench to improve drainage underneath the wall. Now you are ready to build the wall.
This is where it helps if you are an experienced heavy-equipment operator to help manipulate and place the boulders, so they fit together a bit like a jigsaw puzzle. If you do not know how to run heavy equipment, you might want to hire a good landscape construction company to put the boulder wall in place.
Once you have the boulders all in place, you’ll need to install backfill behind the wall so that it drains properly. Next, lay down some landscape fabric behind (and possibly on top of) the wall. Then, to ensure proper drainage, it is a good idea to backfill the area immediately behind the wall with coarse gravel up to about a foot from the top of the wall and then finish backfilling the wall with soil.
Let us help you. Our experienced landscape construction team can help you put together a fantastic boulder wall for your landscape design. For more information, give us a call at 801.569.2383 or click on the green Contact an Expert arrow on any page of our website, and an Aeroscape account manager will get in touch with you.
