Our Building Process.
We offer a highly hands-on approach to designing your dream deck.
From the initial drafting phase, working with you to select the styles and materials that best suit your project, to the actual build process itself – we are focused on ensuring your satisfaction at every turn. All of our in-house designers have extensive knowledge in the outdoor living industry. We will leave no stone unturned when it comes to making your dream a reality.
Landscape Design Process.
There are five key elements in landscape design: line, form, texture, colour, and scale.
Our designers will work with you to create a space that not only meets your needs and budget, but also looks spectacular. Here is a breakdown of each of the five key elements and how they affect your design.
Landscape Design: Line.
Lines are used to control movement and the direction of traffic.
But lines can also be used to highlight design features like a pool or firepit. When you picture lines, you might be immediately thinking of straight lines, but they come in various shapes – straight, curved, horizontal, diagonal etc.
We look at your existing architecture and backyard elements and then design a deck or structure that blends in naturally and enhances the existing feel.
Landscape Design: Form.
Form refers to the shape of the hardscape features.
Hardscape forms can come in various heights and shapes: e.g., from a stone path leading to a 2-storey deck over a curved retaining wall.
Form is important to maintaining the integrity of the design – a formal backyard would have more structured and clean forms and a wildflower-based yard might have softer shapes with different height elements.
Landscape Design: Texture.
Texture applies to both hardscape and softscape elements in your yard.
Having different textures in your plants is just as important as having different textures in the wood and stone structures. Hard, soft, course, heavy, light, rough, smooth, and other textures all add depth and dimension to the design of your custom deck or outdoor structures.
Landscape Design: Colour.
Colour captures the eye. Colour is a key element in landscape design.
Colour can be used subtly or intensely to great effect. Not only can we select colours in the materials we use to build your structure or deck, but we also want to consider how those colors will affect the final look. A black railing might make your flower beds pop or form the background for a flowering bush. Our designers take the time to plan how your custom deck will affect the rest of your landscape design.
For some additional ideas on how to take your outdoor space to the next level, take a look at our deck accessories!
Landscape Design: Scale.
Like form, scale involves using elements of varying heights and widths to enhance the overall look and feel of your yard.
Varying form can be as simple as using thin aluminum railings between thicker posts, or as subtle as varying deck board widths to create interesting patterns. Each element you place in your yard needs to be planned carefully. If you have a large pergola, with a large sofa and large TV and you want to add a firepit, you will want that firepit to be low to the ground, so the eye is drawn to the pergola.
Drawing Up a Functional Diagram.
Our designers now take all the information we’ve gathered about your site and then apply your needs and wish list to your space.
Varying form can be as simple as using thin aluminum railings between thicker posts, or as subtle as varying deck board widths to create interesting patterns. Each element you place in your yard needs to be planned carefully. If you have a large pergola, with a large sofa and large TV and you want to add a firepit, you will want that firepit to be low to the ground, so the eye is drawn to the pergola.
Functional design takes into consideration even more factors such as convenience, location of utilities, etc. – e.g., if you want an outdoor kitchen, it makes sense to put the kitchen as close to your indoor kitchen as possible.
Or perhaps your BBQ or firepit needs to be placed as close as possible to the natural gas line hookup.
Here are some more examples:
- Considering plant materials being used and the layout of the planting beds for drainage and sun exposure.
- Overall layout of all hardscape surfaces (deck, patio, walkway, shed, cabana, gazebo etc.) to be compatible with natural and efficient traffic flow.
- Planning retaining walls with gardens to create height, but also planning for access to maintain those gardens: e.g., planting, weeding, watering.
Coming Up with a Conceptual Design keeping Budget in Mind.
Now our designers take all your requirements – site limitations, needs and wants, functional limitations and apply your budget requirements.
We work very hard to give you as much as possible within your custom deck budget, but sometimes the list of wants exceeds your budget.
If that is the case, we will sit down with you and try to see which wants can be removed to stay within your budget.
Our goal is to design and build the best custom deck, outdoor kitchen, and/or outdoor structure we possibly can within your budget so that you can enjoy it with your family for years to come.
Finally, we come up with drawings for the project. It’s usually around this time that we also receive your deposit and start ordering materials for your build. Depending on the size and complexity of the project we might start with a design concept, computer-generated renderings, and/or 3D illustrations as well as technical construction and permit drawings.
Testimonials.
Real stories and honest feedback from clients who trusted our work.
Our Service Areas.
We proudly serve communities across Ontario, delivering reliable, high-quality service you can count on.
- Brantford
- Cambridge
- Elmira
- Fergus
- Georgetown
- Guelph
- Hamilton
- Kitchener
- London
- Milton
- Stratford
- Waterloo
- Woodstock