FAQs

Five things: lawn care and maintenance, retaining walls and stonework, fall clean ups, fences and gates, and snow and ice removal. The same crew does all of it, which is the point. You are not handing your property to a different company every season.

Yes. Paver patios, walkways, stone steps and seating walls are most of what you will see in the gallery, all of it work we did ourselves around the county.

Yes, and they are the part of the job most worth getting right. A wall holds back wet ground, so the base and the drainage behind it decide whether it is still straight in ten years. See the permit questions below, because height changes what the county requires.

No. Those need a separate pesticide applicator certification and we do not offer them. We will happily work alongside whoever does yours.

No. Wood and composite, gates included. For chain link you want a fencing specialist.

Yes. Fall clean ups run to the end of the season, then snow and ice removal takes over, for homes and for commercial properties.

Yes. Homes, commercial grounds, HOA and community property, and rentals for the people who manage them.

We haul it away as part of the job. If you would rather keep some of it, say so before we start. Plenty of people want the stone kept for another project, or the wood left for a fire pit, and that is entirely your call.

Yes, and none of it is stock photography. The gallery is all real jobs on real properties around the county, including before and after pairs of the same spot.

However suits you. Cash, check, card, and the usual payment apps are all fine.

Yes. We stand behind what we build. If something fails because of the way we built it, we come back and put it right. Ask us on the day and we will tell you exactly what the guarantee covers on your particular job, since a patio and a fall clean up are not the same promise.

Yes, on every job.

In Montgomery County, a residential retaining wall needs a building permit when the retained height is over 3 feet (36 inches), or when it supports a surcharge load, crosses a lot line, sits in problem soils, or forms part of a tiered wall system. A surcharge means weight sitting on the soil the wall holds back, such as sloping ground above it, a driveway, or a building footing nearby.

The county also caps a wall at 6 feet 6 inches measured from the lowest grade beside it, and anything designed over 7 feet has to meet the county's special inspection requirements. The current rules are on the county's own page for residential retaining wall permits.

Yes, in most cases. Montgomery County requires a permit to install any type of fence. The exception is replacing an existing fence that was itself permitted, with the same kind of fence, in the same place, at the same height. Fences are capped at 6 feet 6 inches, and on a corner lot anything within 15 feet of where the front and side street lines meet is limited to 3 feet above curb level so drivers can see. The county says fence permits are usually issued within three days. Their page on residential fence permits has the detail.

The permit is taken out in the property owner's name. We will tell you what we believe your job needs before we start, so nothing comes as a surprise halfway through. If your property sits inside a town with its own permitting office, Rockville and Gaithersburg among them, check with the town rather than the county.

An HOA approval is a separate thing from a county permit, and plenty of jobs need both. Most associations want to see what the finished work will look like, where it sits on the lot, and what it is made of. Get that approval before we order material, because changing a stone colour on paper costs nothing and changing it on the ground costs real money.