Patios & Retaining Walls
Scenic Specialties prides ourselves in the beautiful design and creation of patios and hardscapes. Our confidence is backed by warranties placed on our hardscapes.
Scenic Specialties Landscape Professionals primarily uses interlocking paving stone pavers while installing driveways, patios, paths, and walkways. While we are able to manage a project using concrete or asphalt installation, pavers and natural stone are our preferred and recommended choice. Pavers or stone provide a custom and personal look to the project, and adding their strength and longevity make them a superior product to poured concrete or asphalt.
Applying sealer to pavers is another practice we recommend and provide to our clients. Sealers will enhance the color and character of pavers, as well as help protect against stains and increase the life of the paver.
Retention Walls
Block Walls
Scenic Specialties Landscaping prefers using segmented retaining wall blocks. Beyond the strength and value-added to the project, they also come in a variety of shapes and colors, allowing for a customized look of your preference. This makes blocks suitable for most projects.
Another bonus of using segmented block retaining walls is the ability to complement a nearby or abutting paver patio with similar style or color options.. We can accent paver patios with retaining walls or make an appealing, subtle contrast to natural stone patios with the use of retaining walls
The clean straight lines of block can really add to the look of a home, but what if you are looking for a more natural look?
Boulder Retaining Walls
If you aren’t going to use block, we highly recommend boulder walls. They add durability with a natural look to the yard. Where a block adds a uniformed look, boulder walls help make your landscape look more natural and integrated into nature. Boulder walls do not suffer from weathering or erosion, making them along lasting retaining wall choice.
Scenic Specialties uses boulder retaining walls to help terrace yards into different levels, provide erosion control, and create raised beds.
Are you looking for something between a boulder wall and a block retaining wall?
Modular Stone Retaining Walls
Modular stone retaining walls are a hybrid of the two. They are the best of both worlds offering both a uniform and natural look to any yard. These walls are environmentally friendly and easy to integrate into the look of various other landscape design styles.
Patios
Scenic Specialties Landscape Professionals prides themselves on their patios. As Central Minnesota’s (St. Cloud, Sartell, Saint Joseph, Avon, Albany, Cold Spring, ect) leading patio design and installation company, you will be hard-pressed to find a company better at creating your dream patio. Yes, we are bragging a bit but we also put our pride into providing you with the very best looking patios and a warranty to back our work. Whether you are looking for a paving stone patio, cobblestone patio, brick patio, or even stamped concrete patio, we can help.
Paving stone patios
Paver patios are what we consider to be the best mix of long-lasting, design element options, and the flexibility to complement other features of the patio. An example being, a paver patio with built-in sitting benches with congruent shapes, lines, and colors.
We can seamlessly transition your paver patio into walkways, pool decks, sitting walls, ect. Talk to us today and we will help your vision come true.
Sealing Patio Pavers
Applying sealer to pavers is another practice we recommend and provide to our clients. Sealers will enhance the color and character of pavers, as well as help, protect against stains and increase the life of the paver.
Cobblestone Patios
Cobblestone is a fairly ancient way of laying roads, to give you an idea of the durability, the roman empire created a road out of cobblestone and it is still in use today. If you are looking for a nearly indestructible driveway or patio that won’t deteriorate over time, cobblestone is the way to go. Besides being extremely long-lasting they compliment your house with an old-world, European charm!
Brick Patios
Clay brick patios may sometimes be harder to implement into a residential setting, due to their very distinct look. However, they do create an utterly stunning appearance if used in the proper application. Clay brick is thought to be some of the most durable products when it comes to pavers, and many people feel they last forever, with less maintenance over the course of its life.
Stamped concrete patios
Stamped concrete is another option for your patio. Stamped concrete offers the ability for many pattern and color choices but does have to be maintained. To be honest, we vastly prefer pavers to stamped concrete, and here is why.
These stamped concrete patios with retaining walls often times is very visually appealing because of the flexibility of the pattern and color availability with stamped concrete
Natural Stone Elegance
Natural stone such as Flagstone or New York Bluestone provide rich color and enhanced durability. Although installation of natural stone often-times is more difficult, when installed correctly it can last for centuries.
Using Retaining Walls Functionally with your Landscape
Retaining walls play a vital role in the functionality and character of many landscapes. Properties featuring slopes and hills may require a retaining wall to hold important elements such as driveways, landscape features, or even a foundation of the home in place. These same properties present the opportunity to use retaining walls as special features within the landscape to add additional character, provide balance, or allow unique landscape elements to be implemented within the design. Homes with hills and slopes often provide an opportunity to create elite landscapes.
Sitting Walls
Sitting walls are free-standing walls usually installed along with a patio or outdoor living space. These walls can be very functional, acting as secondary seating, a place to set cooking items while grilling and entertaining, even perhaps a place to set plates of hot dogs, marshmallows, or smores while having a campfire in your fire pit. These walls also act as a great way to give your entertainment area extra character and frame the space in to make it feel like a unique room. They can also add an additional dimension to an otherwise mediocre landscape.
Materials Used
Scenic Specialties uses a variety of materials to create retaining walls including modular concrete block, natural stone, boulders, limestone, wood timbers, and reinforced poured concrete. Our professional landscape installers use a combination of training and artistic touch to create beautiful retaining walls for an added appeal to a landscape project.
Careful Consideration
The type of block or stone, proper drainage rock and backfill material to use, base course installation, and type of soil the wall will be reinforcing are all very important topics to consider and plan for. Walls with certain circumstances or heights may need to be engineered to ensure proper support. Scenic Specialties will coordinate and plan for all of these elements while designing retaining walls to last a lifetime.
Scenic Specialties stands behind our confidence in building these walls with a warranty on all retaining walls we build.