Tag: Careers in Hardscaping

Seeing the Possibility: Turning a Complex Backyard Project into an HNA Award Winner

When Absolute Landscapes took on the project now known as The Quarry, they were transforming an entire property, navigating a logistically complex build, and creating something truly award-worthy.

The Quarry project took home the Segmental Concrete Pavement – Residential – Less than 3,000 sq ft award at the 2025 Hardscape North America Awards. The story behind this project is a lesson in the kind of vision, craftsmanship, and project management that can turn a space into an opportunity and a client into a long-term partner.

A Backyard Renovation with No Room for Error

The homeowners came to Absolute Landscapes with just two major constraints. The existing pool would stay and the final project had to be completed by a May graduation party. Everything else was fair game.

The goal was a complete aesthetic overhaul, modernizing the property while creating distinct, multi-season spaces that were functional and beautiful.

For Matt Sabine, President of Absolute Landscapes, the first design question wasn’t about materials or layout. It was about what already existed. Sitting just beyond the property line was a natural quarry, a body of water that gave the project its name and quietly shaped every design decision that followed.

“How do we preserve the views that extend past their property?” Sabine said.

The quarry became an asset to design toward. Getting that framing right early set the tone for everything else.

The result is a multi-level backyard that creates accessible, functional spaces visible and enjoyable from multiple vantage points.

Intentional Contrast

Large-format interlocking concrete pavers wrap the entire pool deck, creating the project’s foundational surface. But rather than carry that material throughout, the team made a deliberate shift at the covered fireplace area near the pool, choosing irregular flagstone instead.

“We went with a different product, not an interlocking concrete paver, but we did go with an irregular shaped stone,” Sabine said. “There was going to be a high amount of contrast that went with the pool deck. And because the pool deck had so much square footage, we wanted it to be unique.”

From there, a natural stone staircase descends to a lower level where a wood-burning fireplace is anchored by boulders. Paver patterns shift and alternate throughout the space, creating movement and visual interest that reads well whether you’re standing at pool level or looking down from the second-story deck overhead.

Interlocking pavers harmonize with composite decking, natural stone boulders, and stone steps, creating seamless transitions between surfaces. The thoughtful material selection unifies the backyard rather than fragmenting it.

“We used multiple different types of material intentionally,” Sabine said, “but we were able to bring everything together harmoniously and just try to pull different textures, different styles, where they could all fit together versus having one specific material used throughout the entire property.”

Managing the Complex Build

If the design was a creative challenge, the build was a logistical one. The property had a single access point. The project required extensive demolition with all existing concrete around the pool deck removed. Multiple contractors had to share the space and carefully sequence their work. And there was that firm deadline.

Sabine’s team started in November.

“We positioned the customer with the benefit of starting in the late fall, after the pool was closed down, to give us the maximum amount of opportunity and working days,” he said. Starting in the off-season bought them the cushion they needed to absorb winter delays without sacrificing the spring deadline.

While Absolute Landscapes was working on the hardscaping, a carpentry contractor was simultaneously building a new deck and overhead structure above the patio space, meaning the two scopes had to be designed and executed in concert.

Coordination between contractors was managed through relentless communication and a clearly articulated plan. For a project of this complexity, there was no room for ambiguity about sequencing or scope.

“We drove the process to give an understanding of here’s how we perceive the project to go, and here are the critical points on why we need to do certain aspects now,” Sabine said.

Sabine said Absolute Landscape’s ability to execute on complex logistical projects like The Quarry are what set the company apart.

“We’re able to bring everything together and we were able to work flawlessly with another company that they had already chosen to do the carpentry work,” he said. “We work well with others. We are very solution oriented. And we are a trusted partner for the client vs. someone that they have to manage. We manage the project for them.”

Designing Through Construction

But even the best-planned project will encounter the unexpected. On The Quarry, the lower-level wood-burning fire pit area wasn’t in the original design at all. It emerged mid-construction, when excavation revealed an opportunity the client hadn’t initially imagined.

Rather than defer it to a future project, Absolute Landscapes listened to the client, created a new design, executed a change order, and built it, all while the rest of the project was actively underway.

“You need to have your designer involved more than you think you need to after the project has started,” Sabine said, “because there will be things that will change.”

They also realized during construction that there was a need to upgrade the outdoor stereo system and the landscape lighting. Each addition required underground wiring and conduit to be run at precisely the right moment in the construction sequence.

“You have to think well beyond the project that you’re in,” Sabine said. “Conduit lines underneath a major hardscape is critical for any future access.”

Advice for Aspiring Hardscapers

Sabine wants the next generation of hardscapers to understand that the client relationship matters as much as the craftsmanship.

When The Quarry won at the 2025 HNA Awards, Sabine reflected not on the technical achievement but on the human one. He remembered walking the property with the clients during the photo shoot of the final and seeing their excitement.

“It was heartwarming that we were able to share in this experience together from start to finish,” he said. “They made every single bit of this, every late night, early morning, every weekend well worth it.”

What started as a backyard renovation has also become a lasting partnership. Absolute Landscapes still maintains the property today and has continued working with the same homeowners on new projects.

“It’s never about a transaction for us,” Sabine said. “It’s always about how can we be a long-term partner with the client.”

Sabine hopes aspiring and early-career hardscapers can learn from an award-winning project like The Quarry.

“I hope that it’s going to inspire someone to see beyond what they can look at today,” he said. “You can look at any property and see the opportunity past what you see today. Every property, no matter how old or new it is, has a tremendous amount of opportunity.”

That kind of vision is cultivated over time. Aspiring hardscapers should gain an understanding of what a backyard can become and learn that the constraints of a project are often what make designs interesting rather than what hold them back.

“When you see different projects like this, then you can actually see that for the next property that you might visit,” Sabine said. “Hopefully you can be inspired to see beyond what’s there today and see the possibility that you can share with a homeowner and change their whole outdoor experience.”

Project Photos curtesy of Peak Visuals.

Precision at Scale: Inside the Award-Winning Porcelain Paver Installation at Hyatt Scottsdale

When the pool complex at Hyatt Regency Scottsdale Resort & Spa at Gainey Ranch reopened after renovation, it didn’t just look refreshed. It felt redefined. What had once been, “tired,” emerged as the crown jewel of the property.

This expansive, precisely executed porcelain paver installation from European Pavers Southwest Inc. would go on to win the Porcelain Paver Pavement – Commercial category at the 2025 Hardscape North America Awards, offering many lessons for aspiring and early-career hardscapers along the way.

Reimagining 2.5 Acres of Pool Deck

The heart of the Hyatt Scottsdale resort spans 2.5 acres and includes six pools set among raised decks, sunken lounge areas, grottos, gathering spaces, and 14 newly constructed sets of steps.

Ownership wanted a complete transformation. They wanted something cooler underfoot, visually modern, and proportionate to the grand scale of the site.

The design team selected a light-toned 24-inch by 24-inch porcelain paver laid in a stack bond pattern. The large format reinforced the openness of the space, while the clean grid avoided visual clutter. In the Arizona climate, the lighter color also reflects sunlight, helping maintain comfort around the water.

But the defining characteristic of the project was not the material alone. It was the mandate for precision.

“They wanted all the lines,” said Rex Mann, General Manager of European Pavers Southwest Inc. “It was a stack pattern, stack bond. They wanted all the lines to line up from one side of the project all the way to the other side.”

From end to end, the deck stretches roughly 125 yards. Across that distance—and over five elevation changes—every bond line had to align. Through stairs. Across transitions. Around drains.

“It took us about a week to lay it out,” Mann said.

A Compressed Timeline

Although the result feels like new construction, the project was technically a remodel. The resort intended to close in the fall and reopen in time for Arizona’s spring training season.

“We were supposed to start in October, which would have given us plenty of time,” Mann said.

Instead, the start date slipped to December. But the completion date did not move.

“So now we have to add two or three crews at a time,” he said. “It’s like trying to have two people start wallpapering a room and go opposite directions and then come together. You have to put a seam or it’s not going to line up perfectly.”

Complicating matters further were code requirements. Certain areas, particularly around food and bar spaces, required mortar-set and grouted installation per county specifications, while the majority of the project was sand-set. The team had to preserve visual continuity while shifting installation methodologies.

Drainage added another layer of complexity.

“It’s hard to tilt and manipulate 24-by-24-inch pieces of porcelain to get to the drain,” Mann said. “We had to change some other things up that we normally do.”

Yet when the project was complete, the transformation was undeniable.

“I actually read a review after the pool reopened where somebody said they give the renovated amenity area, pool decks, and pools a 10 out of 10. They recommended that people come just for the pool,” Mann said. “That was a compliment to us.”

The achievement was also lauded at the national level at the 2025 HNA Awards where it took home the top prize in the Porcelain Paver Pavement – Commercial category.

“It feels good,” Mann said. “Porcelain is an up-and-comer, surging in the market. I would say it is the fastest growing segment of hardscaping material…A lot of our workforce is older, a lot of guys have been with us 45 years. It was nice to see us take on this new material. We’re not an old dog that’s getting left behind. We’re keeping up with the times.”

Lessons for Aspiring Hardscapers

For aspiring hardscapers and crews looking to move into commercial porcelain paver work, Mann encourages them to embrace new materials instead of resisting them.

He also advises investing in the right tools and training. Large-format porcelain pavers demand precision, especially when cutting around drains, pipes, and curved elements.

“Spend the money for good tools,” Mann said. “Use the right blade. Use the right tool.”

He emphasizes building relationships with knowledgeable vendors who can guide crews through best practices.

“Align yourself with the right vendors that will help show you how to use the right tools and help you be successful,” he said. “Sometimes the right products aren’t always cheap. You may have to reach deeper to buy the right thing that’s going to make the job not only easier, but aesthetically more pleasing.”

Finally, think beyond the immediate obstacle. Large commercial jobs will test layout strategy, scheduling, and coordination. When problems arise, creativity matters.

“Anytime you’re looking at obstacles, think outside the box,” Mann said.

Across 2.5 acres of porcelain paver pavement, with six pools and multiple elevations, the Hyatt Scottsdale project demonstrates what commercial hardscaping at its highest level looks like.

The HNA award recognition validates the effort. But the real achievement lies in the discipline behind the scenes: a week of layout before the first paver was set, crews coordinating across vast distances and elevations, and a company willing to evolve with the market.

All in the Family: How Multi-Generation Leaders Are Shaping the Future of Hardscaping

It’s powerful to inherit a legacy. Not just a family-owned company, but a philosophy, a way of doing things that was built from nothing, often at great personal sacrifice.

In the hardscape industry, that legacy and inheritance is playing out across family businesses up and down the supply chain, from manufacturers to commercial installers. And the next generation is finding ways to honoring the past while building the future.

Born Into It

For second- and third-generation hardscaping professionals, hardscaping is something they are born into. The smell of a concrete plant. The geometry of a paver yard. Weekends spent doing whatever needed doing, whether that meant sweeping floors, sorting product, or just staying out of the way. By the time they were old enough to make a real decision about their careers, the industry had already seeped into their bones.

Charles Jr. and Christopher Gamarekian’s father, Charles Sr., founded Cambridge Pavingstones in 1994, when they were 11 years old. Now Charles Jr. and Christopher are both Vice Presidents at Cambridge.

“We were the first employees that worked for free,” Christopher recalled with a laugh.

Saturdays as kids and teens meant walking eighteen acres of property, picking up garbage, sweeping plant floors, repacking cubes, and sorting broken pieces.

“He started us at the bottom,” Charles said. “From the beginning.”

Christopher remembers the moment quality control became his responsibility. His father asked him to inspect every product before it left the facility.

“Seeing that as a 12- and 13-year-old, and looking at each piece before it went out to our customers, and being responsible for that,” that was when the industry really started to mean something to him.

Nino Nicolia, who runs day-to-day operations at Nicolock Paving Stones, jokes that he’s technically “Generation 2.5.” He’s a third generation in the family business, but it was his father, Roberto Nicolia, who started the family’s foray into hardscaping.

Nino’s grandfather, Sante Nicolia, came to America in 1954, at age 19. He worked hard as a laborer and driver for a concrete foundation contractor, saving his money to open his own business. At age 26, he started Nicolia Ready Mix, and brought his wife and their two children to America. They went on to have five more children and currently have 26 grandchildren. Members of these generations of Nicolias now lead and guide the range of companies under Nicolia Concrete Products Inc., including Nicolock.

Nino and his brothers have held every position from sweeping the plant floors to working in the yards to creating new products. They know every aspect of this business; it is part of their DNA.

Choosing the Business

Perhaps counterintuitively, the first-generation hardscaping professionals actively encouraged their children to explore and learn from other businesses.

Charles Sr. was explicit about it: “You cannot work here in college. You guys got to go try other things, get other jobs, to make sure that if one day you do want to come back, you put your hands in other stuff, so this decision was a full force if you wanted to come in.”

Christopher went to Northeastern University, majored in finance, and completed co-ops at John Hancock and Manulife. He was good at it and genuinely enjoyed it. But for his final co-op, he chose Cambridge and spent the last month and a half of his education sitting at his father’s conference table, watching and learning.

“In any given day, he could be talking about a TV commercial we’re going to shoot at 7 a.m., and at 8 a.m. he’d be dealing with the top customer. At 10 a.m., he’d be sitting in an inventory purchasing meeting, and then at 1 p.m., he could be buying a new machine,” Christopher said.

That’s when he knew this was the future path for him.

Charles Jr., meanwhile, always knew he wanted to work at Cambridge.

“I knew I wanted to be at Cambridge. I had no other want. I didn’t even want to go to college,” he said. With his father’s encouragement, he did go to Seton Hall University, graduated on a Friday, and was working full-time at Cambridge the following Monday.

For Derek Schneider, incoming president of LPS Pavement Company, the path back was less linear. He spent years working multiple jobs in Michigan, eventually needing more stability for his growing family. His father offered him a job. He moved back to Illinois, joined the company, and has been there ever since.

“Outside of the life it’s given me, both as a child, and that it’s given to my family, and now to my grandkids, I’m carrying on my dad’s legacy,” he said. “He put so much into this and its big shoes that I’m never going to be able to fill.”

Nino earned a degree in finance and economics and explored those industries before coming back to Nicolock. But he has never looked back, a mentality he said he saw his father model.

“All or nothing. Don’t dip your toe. If you’re going to do something, just do it,” Nino described.

That willingness to go all in, rather than hedging or testing the waters with half-measures, shaped how Nino thinks about his own decisions as a leader.

A next-generation leader who has genuinely chosen the business for themselves is worth far more than one who defaulted into it.

Dividing and Conquering

One of the structural challenges of any family business is figuring out how roles get assigned without it feeling arbitrary or political.

Nino runs the day-to-day at Nicolock while working alongside two brothers and navigating a broader family structure that includes his father’s brothers as partners and cousins spread across different business units.

“There’s a personal level that makes things sometimes easier to get done, and that can also sometimes make it more of a challenge,” he said.

The key, he said, is understanding each other’s strengths and weaknesses and building around them rather than pretending the dynamics aren’t there.

Charles Jr. and Christopher follow a similar philosophy at Cambridge.

Charles Jr. oversees all manufacturing, such as product design, plant operations, QC, new molds, acquisitions, and new facility builds. Christopher handles everything outside the plants, like operations, yard personnel, trucking, sales, and finance. Major decisions belong to all of them together.

What makes the arrangement particularly effective is that it has eliminated siloes.

“A lot of companies, a huge issue is there’s usually a lot of tension between sales and manufacturing,” Charles Jr. said.

Because he and Christopher manage those two sides of the business and, as twins, can be direct with each other in ways that colleagues rarely can, that tension doesn’t get a chance to calcify. Their teams have followed their lead.

Learning from the Previous Generation

Each new chapter of a family-run business begins with the lessons left by the generation before.

For the Gamarekian brothers, one of the most important lessons from their father was about the relationship between how you treat people and how far a company can go.

“Put the customer first, because if you’re doing things right for the customer, then everybody else will flourish,” Charles Sr. has always said.

But the flip side of that, taking care of the people who take care of the customers, has been equally foundational. Cambridge’s average employee has been with the company for 18 years. Some have been there since the first day, 32 years ago. That didn’t happen by accident.

Christopher describes mutual respect as a non-negotiable.

“Whether it’s someone who is sweeping the floor here, or someone in an office, everyone’s treated the same,” he said. “If someone does not treat someone that way, they will not last here.”

That value came directly from watching their father live it, not from being told about it.

Schneider’s education from his father was similarly rooted in how you treat the people around you. Schneider said his father occasionally co-signed on employees’ mortgages and covered dental work for people who couldn’t afford it themselves. He put the company and his employees first, even when it cost him personally.

“You’re only as good as the people that work for you and how you teach them and how you bring them up,” Schneider said. “You really need to grow that culture of pride in what you do with all your employees, at every level. It makes the company better, and as long as the company’s doing well, everybody should be doing well.”

The reciprocal nature of that relationship is something he’s worked to replicate in his own leadership.

Nicolock also wants every employee to feel like family. Nino’s father would walk the plants and yards every morning to check the products and quality being produced and to say hello to all the employees. Now, Nino does it every day just like his dad.

That personal touch also applies to clients.

“One of the benefits of a family business is you can meet with somebody, look at them, shake their hand, look them in the eye, and tell them, this is what we’re going to do,” Nino said.

Nino recalls that one time Roberto sent him to Pittsburgh to speak with a dealer. He asked why he had to drive nearly seven hours when he could have a 10-minute phone call. Roberto said it had to be done in person. It couldn’t be done via email, text, or phone because some parts of doing business do not translate through a screen or a call. It’s not about efficiency, it’s about effectiveness. Going there in person shows commitment and that you value their partnership.

Balancing Tradition and Innovation

Beyond the lessons and values they’ve taken from previous generations, second- and third-generation hardscaping professionals often have to balance respect for “how it’s always been done” with the need to modernize.

“The best part about this company [Cambridge] is my father hates to hear people say ‘that’s how it’s always been done,’” Christopher said.

That philosophy shows up in small, operational ways — the team once cut customer loading times from over an hour down to 25 minutes simply by asking how to do it better — and in larger strategic ones, like Cambridge’s decades-long commitment to face-mix production at a time when the rest of the industry considered it unnecessary.

“We completely changed this industry,” Charles Jr. said, “and now everyone is doing face-mix.”

For Nino and Nicolock, the balance between inherited knowledge and modernization is more nuanced.

“Their knowledge comes from experience,” he said. “That core knowledge has existed and stuck around for a reason.”

The skill, as he sees it, is being able to “finesse it into today’s world,” understanding where tradition applies and where the market, the technology, or the customer base has shifted enough to demand something different.

If the demand is there, Nino describes, the Nicolia family will build it themselves. Once they needed special packaging for a high-end outdoor living item and couldn’t find something that worked, so they built a mold, engineered a tool to fill it, and laser cut it to create something custom that fit and protected the item perfectly. They always aim to make sure their customers are satisfied from the best materials to the best experience.

Schneider sees the hardscaping industry’s future tied to this question of balance between modernization and tradition.

LPS’s history is a case study in that kind of ongoing reinvention. The company was the first to do mechanical installation of pavers, the first to do mechanical installation of permeable pavers, the first to do permeable paving at commercial scale. Schneider watched Nashville go from having no permeable paver market to being arguably the largest market for them in North America.

“We’ve got a lot of firsts here,” he said.

Innovation, in his experience, happens because someone decided to try something that hadn’t been tried before, and then did it right.

Legacies Built to Last

These family businesses are still defining their legacies, balancing the preservation of hard-earned values and craftsmanship with carrying the company forward.

Christopher and Charles each have four kids. Christopher’s oldest has started coming in on Saturdays, working the way his father once did.

“Maybe one day he’ll want to do it. Maybe he won’t,” Christopher said. He won’t push it. What he wants for his kids, first and foremost, is that they find work they’re genuinely passionate about, the same way he did.

Nino’s children are younger, but the lessons he’s already thinking about passing down have less to do with the business than with the character required to succeed in it.

“As the owner’s son, you have to work more and work harder than other people just to get the same recognition,” Nino said.

He figures that lesson and spirit will serve them whether they end up at Nicolock or somewhere else entirely.

Schneider’s sons have already made an impact on the family business and taking their place in its generational legacy. His oldest son worked for him for five years before moving into the mechanical design field. His youngest son, the namesake of Schneider’s father and LPS founder Bill Schneider, has started a career with LPS with an eye toward running the company in the future.

Schneider also sees his family’s legacy showcased in their hardscaping installations around the country. The residential neighborhood his father’s company paved in 1979, one of their first big projects, is still fully functional today.

“If it was concrete or asphalt, by now it would have been replaced five, 10 times,” he said.

That durability might be the best metaphor for these family-owned hardscaping businesses. They are built to last for generations to come.

The “Tough Guy” Myth: Why Communication is an Underrated Hardscaping Skill

Physical and technical skill matters in hardscaping. The ability to set a clean paver edge or build a retaining wall that holds for decades, these are critical for contractors. But if you study the careers of the people who move up the career ladder or who work across a variety of disciplines within the hardscaping industry, you’ll find that their top skill is that they know how to communicate.

Communication is the skill that almost nobody brags about on a jobsite, and yet it determines almost everything from whether a project gets built to spec to whether a client comes back or a crew trusts you with more responsibility, to whether your name becomes one people recommend or one people avoid.

If you’re early in your hardscaping career, you don’t want to miss out on strengthening your communications skills alongside your physical and technical capabilities.

Tip #1: Strong Installers Execute the Work. Strong Communicators Make Sure It’s the Right Work.

“While physical skill is definitely part of the hardscaping success equation, it is communication that ensures that skill is applied correctly, safely, and profitably,” said Kathy Granger, VP of Marketing at Outdoor Living Supply. “A crew can be incredibly talented, but if they misunderstand the scope, the timeline, or the client’s expectations, that can lead to rework or dissatisfied customers. Hardscaping is about bringing ideas to life — from a homeowner’s vision to design creation to installation. That translation requires clear communication at every step.”

Think about what that translation actually involves. A homeowner comes to a contractor with a vague idea. Maybe it’s a backyard they want to enjoy, a wall they need built, a patio they’ve been dreaming about. That idea has to travel through a conversation into a design, from the design into a plan, from the plan to the crew on the ground, and from the crew’s work back to a finished product the client recognizes as their vision.

Every single handoff in that chain is a communication event. Every one of those handoffs is a place where something can break down. The strongest installer on the crew can’t fix a project that was built to the wrong dimensions because someone nodded along instead of asking a clarifying question.

Craig Finch, Architectural Representative at RCP Block & Brick, has watched this dynamic play out from a different angle.

“Many contractors are good at the physical side of things,” he said. “They’re good at laying down products, building walls, doing those types of things, but sometimes the communication skill is not quite there. I would even say sometimes the more successful contractors are guys that don’t even lay the product. They’re marketing people.”

The contractors who grow their businesses, who land the bigger jobs, who build lasting client relationships, are often the ones who are exceptional at talking with people, understanding what they want, setting clear expectations, and following through on what they say they’ll do.

Tip #2 – Communicate Consistently and Clearly

One of the most concrete examples of this plays out in something as simple as responsiveness.

“If you’re responding to people and you give them the answers that they need, or if you don’t know the answer, you tell them you’re going to get it for them and you do — that’s huge,” Finch said. “Getting back to people quickly and making sure you’re helping them one way or another sets you apart from a lot of other people out there.”

This applies to internal teams as well as to clients.

“Clear communication creates confidence. When expectations are laid out clearly — timelines, budgets, responsibilities — people feel secure. Crew leaders know what success looks like. Clients understand what they’re paying for. Coworkers know how their roles connect,” Granger said.

“When communication is unclear, frustration and confusion can quickly build. Assumptions replace clarity. Mistakes happen. On the other hand, when someone communicates clearly and consistently, people respond with trust, respect, and accountability.”

Tip #3 – Don’t Make Assumptions or Guesses. Ask Clarifying Questions.

In hardscaping, an assumption that goes unchecked costs real money. It costs time. It costs the reputation you’ve been building.

“One common mistake is assuming instead of confirming,” Granger said. “Early in their careers, people may hesitate to ask questions because they don’t want to appear inexperienced or foolish. In reality, asking clarifying questions demonstrates a willingness to learn and reduces mistakes. Don’t be afraid to speak up and ask questions.”

Finch has a related warning for newer professionals navigating the tension between what they know and what they don’t.

“If you don’t know the answer to something and you just give an answer to give it, that’s not good either, because that drops the trust factor,” he said. “It’s okay to not know something. Just tell that person you’ll get back to them with the answers that they need.”

Trust, once lost, is difficult to rebuild. Admitting you don’t know something and committing to find out is actually one of the most trustworthy things a person can do.

Tip #4 – Don’t Forget to Listen.

When it comes to communication, most people focus on talking. But the other half of good communication is active listening, and it may be the more underestimated skill of the two.

Granger points to a quote from author Stephen Covey that she finds particularly accurate: “Most people do not listen with the intent to understand; they listen with the intent to reply.”

For someone new to the industry, listening is one of the most strategic things you can do.

“Be a good listener and absorb information multiple times. You’re going to have to hear it a couple of times for it to really settle in,” Finch said. “Open up, spread it out, get other people’s opinions, because people have different knowledge and skills.”

Finch’s advice for building communication skills: go talk to people. Go to industry events. Cold call. Give quotes. Join organizations like CMHA and show up to the gatherings where experienced people are present.

“You gain a lot of knowledge just from hanging out and talking to people,” he said.

Every conversation with an experienced installer, project manager, or supplier rep is a chance to absorb knowledge that would take years to accumulate otherwise.

Tip #5 – Build Good Communication Habits.

“Professionals who communicate clearly prevent costly mistakes, manage expectations effectively, and keep projects moving smoothly. That reliability makes them valuable — and valuable people earn more,” Granger said. “Leadership is largely communication. While technical skill may build the project, communication builds the team and the client relationship. Those who can confidently explain a plan, navigate difficult conversations, and motivate others naturally rise into higher-responsibility roles.”

From the very start of your career there are practical habits that can make communication stronger on a daily basis.

Granger recommends documenting progress and changes on every project. Taking photos, logging updates in real time rather than relying on memory later removes the fog of assumption from project records.

Practicing active listening means making eye contact, not interrupting, and paraphrasing what you heard to confirm you understood correctly.

When something is genuinely important, picking up the phone or having a face-to-face conversation matters, because tone and nuance get lost in text. Following a phone conversation with a written confirmation creates a record that protects everyone. And establishing consistent times to check messages, review change orders, and send updates turns communication from something reactive into something reliable.

These habits require consistency, intention, and the understanding that communication is a craft. And it’s one you develop the same way you develop any other skill, through practice.

The “tough guy” myth has its place; physical skills matter in this work. But the reputation that carries a hardscaping career forward is built job by job, conversation by conversation. It’s built on showing up, doing good work, and being the kind of person that clients, crew leaders, and colleagues know they can count on to say what they mean and mean what they say.

When Challenges Become Features: The Story Behind an Award-Winning Amphitheater

Nestled in the woods along a creek at Camp Lutherlyn in Butler, Pennsylvania, an amphitheater that has hosted generations of campers since 1980 recently underwent a remarkable hardscaping transformation.

The project, completed by Gargiulo Landscape, won the Combination of Hardscape Products– Commercial category at the 2025 Hardscape North America Awards. It was honored not just for the beauty of the final result, but for the thoughtful craftsmanship and problem-solving that brought it to life.

Honoring the Past While Building for the Future

From classes to worship services to weddings, Camp Lutherlyn’s amphitheater holds decades of memories. The donors funding the renovation had one clear directive: preserve the feeling of the place they loved.

“They wanted to keep that same feel that they had when they were there,” said Joe Gargiulo, owner of Gargiulo Landscape. “They didn’t want to make it all new and revised. They actually wanted to keep that vibe from the camp.”

This meant working with the site’s character. The team carefully removed, cleaned, and re-laid original barnstone from the patio, preserving the rustic character while improving functionality. Even boulders were stored and reinstalled.

“This is at a summer camp and they use this area as an outdoor classroom. If it’s an outdoor classroom, it’s intended to teach kids about nature. What better way to do that to say we’re using the natural stone that was already here,” Garcia said.

But when it came to creating the tiered amphitheater seating, Gargiulo sought out innovative hardscaping options.

“We couldn’t use wood, it would go bad,” Gargiulo said. “And they didn’t want to do metal because it gets hot, it gets cold, it gets slippery.”

Instead, they needed to thoughtfully combine different materials that could help achieve both aesthetic and functional goals.

The team used R.I. Lampus Grand Ledge wetcast seating units for the tiered amphitheater seating in order to meet the site’s competing needs.

“Grand Ledge really fit that rustic feel of the campground. It’s just much easier to use in this setting because you’re married to that very consistent height and grid placement,” said Andrew Kufen, Contractor Development at R.I. Lampus.

The wetcast material also resists moss growth which was necessary for the shady, wet area.

Between the seating tiers, the team installed perkEpave, a permeable surface made from recycled rubber and gravel with adhesive binders. This allowed water to drain through rather than pooling, addressing the site’s chronic drainage issues while maintaining a natural appearance.

For the patio itself, they used resin-based jointing sand to stabilize the historic barnstone, and applied a porous binder behind each tier to create permeable surfaces throughout.

This project succeeded in part because multiple parties brought their expertise to the table. The partnership between Gargiulo, Lampus, Rosetta, and dealer Harmony Hardscape meant the contractor could try out new products, brainstorm creative ideas, and have technical support throughout the process.

“This is a very attractive project because of the setting and what you’ve built,” Kufen said. “You know that what you’ve built is going to get used and be there for a very, very long time.”

When Nature Throws a Curveball

While the project overall went pretty smoothly, the excavation process was a bit of a challenge. But Gargiulo’s team saw this as an opportunity to demonstrate their problem-solving skills.

“Before we tore it all down, we had to keep the original material, so we had to store everything. All the flagstone was picked up by hand. Every boulder, nook, and cranny—we had to store that, clean it,” Gargiulo said.

“When we opened up that hillside a little bit, we just opened up a ton of water, so we had to focus on getting the water out and building up our foundation with a bunch of drains. It’s definitely labor intensive when you’re pulling up flagstones—they’re pretty big, you got to put them on pallets, move them, dig out the area, and then go back and relay everything. We had to redo all the bedding. We were saving as much plant material as we could. One of the biggest things was the pond. There were frogs, so we had to save all the frogs and get them out. And then of course they always came back, so we had to keep saving more frogs.”

The spring in the hillside wasn’t originally anticipated. The solution required extensive drainage work—two feet of drainstone beneath the patio, strategic piping, and a comprehensive water management system that worked with the site’s natural hydrology rather than against it.

It became a defining feature of the project. The team created a pond that naturally manages spring overflow, feeding the creek while serving as habitat for frogs and red-spotted newts. They even built steps down to the creek for campers to access the continuously running spring water.

“Being able to take and listen to what the client is seeking and being able to deliver that really goes a long way,” said Gerry Garcia, Business Consultant at Rosetta Hardscapes. “They really wanted something natural, and the Gargiulo team was able to take that request and really keep that natural feel of the environment, even though they were scared that this was a big renovation.”

Lessons for Aspiring Hardscapers

There are many lessons to be learned from an award-winning project like the Amphitheater at Camp Lutherlyn, especially for aspiring hardscapers.

Listen deeply to what your clients value. Sometimes the most important work is about understanding the emotional connection people have to a space and honoring it.

Expect the unexpected. The best hardscapers turn challenges into features that enhance the overall project. Your ability to adapt and innovate on-site can be just as valuable as your technical skills.

Material selection is about more than aesthetics. Consider durability, maintenance, functionality, and how materials work together as a system. Don’t be afraid to mix modern engineered products with natural materials when it serves the project’s goals.

Build relationships with manufacturers, suppliers, and other industry professionals. These partnerships give you access to expertise, support, and solutions you might not have on your own. Don’t try to figure everything out alone.

But Gargiulo’s most important message for aspiring hardscapers is to recognize the artistry in what you do.

” Every job is a little different, and you get new challenges, and there’s new products. You have to look at it like you’re an artist,” he says. “We go out and we rip out a whole property and we redevelop it. It’s like a blank canvas and we make a beautiful picture. We’re artists because you have to have the right eye. You’re dealing with different types of soils, and you’re dealing with water, and you’re dealing with what you’re working around. There’s a lot of components, a lot of moving things. You have to look at least five years down the road because that is what you are working for. You’re working for that longevity.”

Hardscaping requires understanding drainage, soils, elevations, utilities, materials, and how they all interact. It demands both technical knowledge and creative vision. And when done well, like at the award-winning Camp Lutherlyn, it creates spaces that will serve communities for decades.

The Math Every Hardscaper Actually Uses (and Why It Matters)

You don’t need to be a mathematician to build a career in hardscaping, but math might show up on the jobsite more than you think.

Luckily, the math fundamentals you need are probably ones you already learned somewhere between middle school and a trip to the grocery store. The trick is knowing which ones matter and getting fast enough with them that they become second nature on the job site.

“Math is everywhere if you’re looking. If you are grocery shopping, you get the price per unit to decide if this package is better or the other one? When you’re checking how many miles you’re getting per gallon,” said Gabriela Padilla, P.E., Division Engineer, SRW at the Concrete Masonry & Hardscapes Association (CMHA). “We are always doing some math, even if it is small.”

Here’s a breakdown of the math skills that show up on nearly every hardscaping job and why getting comfortable with them now can make all the difference later.

Calculating Lengths and Areas

The simplest math on a job site is knowing how much linear or square footage you’re working with.

Perimeter calculations come into play when you’re installing edge restraints around a paver patio, running silt fences along a property line, or laying drainage pipe.

Area calculations are the bread and butter of hardscaping estimates. When a homeowner wants a new patio, the first thing you need to know is how many square feet or square meters you’re covering because that drives everything else, from the number of pavers you order to the depth of base material you’ll need.

Padilla notes that irregular shapes can be broken down into smaller, manageable squares, triangles, and circles and then added together.

“It doesn’t need to be exact to the second decimal,” she said. “It’s just a good approximation.”

The math itself isn’t complicated, but getting it right means you have the information you need to order the right amount of material and avoid the costly headache of running short mid-project. You also can use it to set client expectations.

“Most homeowners have no scale of the size,” she said.

For instance, if a client wants to fit a table for 12 people on their new hardscaped patio, you need to make sure the square footage actually supports that and discuss what that would entail with the client.

Another thing to keep in mind is that hardscapers work in decimals, not fractions. Architects might hand you a drawing that reads “5 3/8 inches,” but the moment you take that measurement into the field, you’re converting it.

“You do not use architectural units,” Padilla said. “When you do the math for this kind of work, you are working with decimals—4.3, 5.6—because you need to do the math fast. If you are dealing with fractions that takes too much time.”

Common inch-to-decimal conversions come up constantly on the job, so it pays to have them memorized or written on a laminated card in your truck or in a note on your phone for easy reference.

Volume and Converting to Cubic Yards

Area gets you to square footage. Volume gets you to materials. It’s also where a key unit shift happens.

While lengths and areas are measured in feet, volumes in hardscaping are almost always discussed in cubic yards. That means when you’re ordering crushed stone, gravel, sand, or topsoil, you’ll be converting your measurements before you can place an order.

“When you talk volume, you do not talk cubic feet,” Padilla says. “Everything we measure—areas and perimeters—is usually done in feet. When you do volumes, you go cubic yards.”

When it comes time to place your order, you round up.

“If you’re buying 4.3 cubic yards, you are not buying 4.3 cubic yards. You’re buying 5,” Padilla said.

Doublecheck with your provider but it is very common that for small projects you will usually be able to buy by cubic yards and for big ones you will need to order by weight.

Aggregate and sand swell when moved and consolidate as they sit or are compacted. These materials don’t behave the same way before and after you work with them.

For instance, when you excavate soil, it expands. A cubic yard of soil in the ground can grow 20 to 30 percent once it’s been dug up. Excavated asphalt grows even more, about 50 percent. That matters when you’re figuring out how many truckloads it will take to haul material away.

The reverse happens when you bring material in. Compacting gravel or base material reduces its volume, so you always need to buy a little more than your raw calculations suggest.

Ordering bulk material by volume can be inaccurate. It’s most reliable to order by ordering by final compacted weight, so the level of consolidation doesn’t matter.

You also have to account for waste throughout the process, Padilla said, and recommended buying about 5 percent extra.

Weight and Truck Capacity

One area that surprises a lot of people new to hardscaping is the math around hauling materials. It’s not just about volume, but weight. Every truck has a payload limit and exceeding it is both unsafe and potentially illegal.

A standard half-ton pickup can handle far less than most people assume, and heavy materials like gravel will hit that limit fast.

Planning your hauls and knowing when to bring in a larger truck or hire a dump delivery is part of doing the job efficiently and protecting your equipment.

Determining Slope

Of all the math in hardscaping, slope might be the one with the highest stakes. Water is “the biggest enemy of hardscaping,” Padilla said.

If water can’t drain away from a hardscaped area, it can pool, freeze, or otherwise damage whatever has been built.

Paver patios are required to slope 1.5% to 2% away from the building, coming out to 1/8 inch to ¼ inch drop for every foot of distance from the house. On a 20-foot-wide patio, that works out to a 2.5 to 5-inch total drop from one end to the other (20 ft x 0.125 in/ft = 2.5 in.). The recommended slope for drainage pipes in segmental retaining walls is 2% to ensure any water that makes it into the pipe is evacuated right away.

“It is not very obvious. Most people walking would not be able to tell that there is that pitch,” Padilla said. “But what that ensures, if water falls, it is not sitting on top of your patio. It’s going to drain.”

A slope of 5 percent or more would be noticeable and should be avoided.

The 3-4-5 Method

Getting a perfect corner on a paver installation requires remembering some basic geometry.

The 3-4-5 method, which is the Pythagorean theorem put to practical use, is essential when you’re working on an open job site with no existing structures to reference.

You plant a stake, measure out in two directions, then check the diagonal. If the numbers match up with the 3-4-5 method, you have a perfect 90-degree corner.

On larger projects, you can scale it up – 6-8-10 or 9-12-15. The math is the same, you’re just working with bigger numbers for more precision across a wider area.

The Bottom Line

None of this math requires anything beyond the calculator on your phone. What it requires is the ability to move through calculations quickly and confidently while you’re standing in someone’s backyard with a tape measure in hand.

“It is definitely mostly arithmetic and geometry. It’s not crazy math,” Padilla said, “but by the time you get to working in the field, this has to be natural.”

If you’re just getting started and some of this feels overwhelming, Padilla’s advice is to be patient with yourself.

“The very first projects are going to feel hard. But it’s just until you get used to it,” she said.

Start with simple rectangular spaces, practice your conversions, and build from there. CMHA’s training and certification courses cover all of these math concepts in the context of real construction processes, so you’re not just learning formulas in a vacuum but understanding exactly where and why they apply on the job.

And if you genuinely love the numbers side of this work, there’s are many career paths waiting for you in the hardscaping industry. From estimating to being a plant operator, you can find the right one for you.

Hardscaping Math Cheat Sheet

US Customary Dimensions

1 ft. = 12 in.
1 yd. = 3 ft.
1 sq. yd. = 9 sq. ft.
1 cu. yd = 27 cu. ft.
1 ton = 2,000 lbs.

SI Metric Dimensions

1 m = 100 cm = 1,000 mm
1 tonne = 1,000 kg

Common Equations – Rectangle

Perimeter of a rectangle
= 2 x (Length + Width)
Area of a rectangle
= Length x Width
Volume of a rectangular prism
= Length x Width x Height
Weight of a rectangular prism
= Length x Width x Height x Density

Common Equations – Triangle

Perimeter of a triangle
= L₍₁₎ + L₍₂₎+ L₍₃₎
Area of a triangle
= 1/2 x Length x Width
Volume of a triangular prism
= 1/2 x Length x Width x Height
Weight of a triangular prism
= 1/2 x Length x Width x Height x Density

Common Equations – Circle

Perimeter of a circle
= 3.1415 x 2 x Radius
Area of a circle
= 3.1415 x Radius²
Volume of a circular prism
= 3.1415 x Radius² x Height
Weight of a circular prism
= 3.1415 x Radius² x Height x Density

Volume Formula (in cubic yards)

Length (ft) × Width (ft) × Depth (ft) ÷ 27 = cubic yards

Volume Adjustment Factors

Excavated soil expands 20–30% once removed

Excavated asphalt expands ~50%.

Excavated concrete expands ~50–100%

Compacted fill material shrinks.

Add waste factor (5%) to all material orders.

Slope/Drainage

Required slope away from house: 1.5 to 2% (maximum)
That equals: 1/8 (0.125) to ¼ (0.25) inch drop per foot of distance
Example: 20 ft x 0.25 in/ft = 5 inches of total drop

The 3-4-5 Rule (Square Corners)

From a center stake, measure 3 ft in one direction and 4 ft in another. The diagonal between those two points must equal exactly 5 ft for a true 90-degree corner.

Ultimate Backyard Lancaster: A ‘Once-in-a-Career’ Hardscaping Project

Jeremy Martin, owner of Willow Gates Home & Landscape, first received a call from his client about the “Ultimate Backyard Lancaster” project in summer of 2023. Martin was on vacation at the time, but he was so intrigued by his client’s description of their dream project that he felt compelled to respond immediately.

“It was the kind of project that comes along maybe every 10 years, maybe once in a career,” Martin said.

Ultimate Backyard Lancaster would eventually go on to win the Segmental Concrete Pavement – Permeable category and earn an Honorable Mention in Outdoor Living Features category at the 2025 Hardscape North America Awards.

But the Ultimate Backyard Lancaster isn’t just an award-winning project. It’s proof that even the most ambitious visions can become reality when every detail is treated with care.

Building a Dream

Martin’s client had been planning this project since 2015, when he first built his home. By the time he reached out to Martin, the architectural drawings for the entertainment barn the project included were mostly complete, but the real work was just beginning.

Martin thinks and designs in 2-D. For this project, he started with the two largest features: the barn footprint and the pool dimensions. From there, he built outward, carefully considering how each element would flow together.

In addition to the barn and pool, the client also initially requested a full half-court basketball court. Once Martin showed him what that would require, they scaled back to free throw lines and other basketball court elements so the final look would still be impressive, but not overwhelming.

Finding the Right Materials

“One of the guiding principles was this had to look like it’s built at the same time as the home, despite being 10 years later,” Martin said.

That guiding principle would shape every design decision for Martin.

The property also already featured outdoor living space built in 2017, complete with a bocce court and outdoor kitchen. Rather than forcing a perfect match with the older materials, Martin took a thoughtful approach.

All retaining walls and the barn used a natural stone veneer that matched the outdoor kitchen and closely coordinated with the house. This created cohesion instead of contrast.

“I really hated the idea of adding in yet another color, another texture,” Martin said. “I didn’t want it to be a complete fruit salad of everything thrown in there.”

For the pool patio, the client fell in love with the texture of Techo-Bloc’s Everest paver and wanted it in a diamond pattern using three colors: very dark gray, light gray, and medium tan.

When the client initially requested mixing all three colors in three different sizes throughout the large patio in addition to the pool, Martin pushed back.

“I said, ‘That’s just way too busy. We need to dial it back,’” Martin said.

Instead, Martin used the same color palette in much more muted tones—very light gray, very light cream, and very light tan—for the main patio. The result was visual interest without overwhelming the massive space.

“I love it. I think that really brought it all together. Those colors came together perfectly,” Martin said.

Sweating the Details

The curves in this project stand out as the most challenging and rewarding elements for Martin.

Martin wanted the semicircle at the shallow end of the pool, a curved walkway, and a circular fire pit seating area to flow together perfectly. He spent hours during the design phase ensuring these curves aligned, then duplicated that precision in the field.

“Those are the little details that I really sweated,” he said. “They were really important to me, and you’re like, ‘is it really worth it?’ You look at a picture at the end, and, yes, it was worth it. Those curves all are pretty much perfect.”

The same attention to detail extended to the diamond pattern around the pool. Martin designed the borders and everything to work with full and half diamonds—no slivers anywhere. All four sides were laid out meticulously to avoid any partial cuts.

The Permeable Challenge

Adding nearly a quarter acre of impervious surface in Pennsylvania’s Chesapeake Bay watershed meant serious stormwater management requirements. The project needed a 100-year stormwater plan capable of storing 7.5 inches of rainfall.

The solution required making the entire patio and all artificial turf areas permeable with a 20-inch base.

“It’s kind of crazy. We didn’t need that much base, it’s simply a patio, but we had to store 7.5 inches, and that’s what it came out to be,” Martin said.

The team also constructed a massive infiltration bed measuring 30 feet wide by 90 feet long and 30 inches deep for the barn, driveway, and other improvements.

“Permeable truly does make sense. It’s good stewardship. It’s good management, and given you’re building a patio anyway, we’re already putting a base in. To make it deeper and put stormwater management underneath it just makes sense in a lot of cases,” Martin said.

A Year in the Making

From initial contact with the client to getting permits in hand took a full year. Stormwater planning alone consumed over half that time.

Installation continued right up until winter arrived, with the team working as snow was flying and temperatures dropped into the teens.

But the most rewarding moment came during installation. Martin arrived one Saturday to find his client playing basketball with his granddaughter on the not-quite-finished court.

“This really kind of encapsulated why he wanted to build this. It’s for his family and his friends. It’s not a public space, he’s not renting it out, this is just a place for him to hang out with his friends and family,” Martin said.

“It’s easy to lose sight of that when you’re building something this over the top, but at the end of the day, that’s what it’s for. He’s hosting people there constantly, family, friends, board meetings. He built this place to be used. It’s not just something to show off with. This is a place he wanted to use, and he is. He’s using it all the time.”

Details Over Scale

The scale of this project is staggering. More than 4,500 square feet of pavers isn’t something you see often.

“Everyone who’s seen this project is kind of mind-boggled by the sheer scope,” Martin said. “I do view it as very much a privilege and an honor to be able to build this for the client.”

Winning in two categories at the 2025 HNA awards validated all the hard work Martin and his team put into the project. For aspiring hardscapers who want to one day work on their own award-winning projects, Martin encourages them to focus on the details, not just the scale.

“Details matter,” Martin said. “Just the sheer scope of a project or sheer scale isn’t really the most important thing. So yes, this is an amazing project, a once-in-a-lifetime project that I never even would have dreamed of. But it’s really the little details that matter, whether it’s a big project or a small project.”

He points to the clean diamond pattern around the pool, the perfectly flowing curves, the muted and coordinating color palettes. These are the elements that elevate good work to exceptional work.

“If you lay a 5,000-square-foot patio and there’s no character to it, the joint lines aren’t straight—you missed the point, you know?” Martin said. “I don’t want to do that kind of work. To me, it’s not the sheer size. I care about the details.”

His client’s decade-long dream is now a showcase of what’s possible when scale meets meticulous hardscaping craftsmanship.

AI in Hardscaping: Blending Innovation with Education

As AI tools become increasingly accessible, hardscapers look to harness these powerful new tools without sacrificing the foundational knowledge that separates professionals from hobbyists.

AI as a Workflow Enhancer

For many in the industry, AI has already moved from experimental to essential.

Weston Zimmerman, founder of SynkedUp, calls AI “an accelerant to the things that you need to do already anyway.”

For instance, contractors writing proposals at 10 PM, exhausted from a long day, can now “give AI your rough and polish proposal description, let it clean it up for you, tweak a little bit and use that,” Zimmerman said.

“They’re using AI to help them come across as more polished, more well presented in their written communications with their customers.”

Eric Hammer, Partner at WestBlock Systems, echoes this workflow enhancement approach.

“I use AI on the daily,” Hammer said, “because it actually really helps me be more efficient in my workflow or in providing clarity in documents that I’m writing.”

As the founder of SynkedUP, a business management software company focused on the hardscaping and landscaping industry, Zimmerman believes the impacts of AI will go beyond convenience.

“Documentation of processes is the very thing that keeps owner-operators prisoner in their own businesses. Until that happens, you are forever the only person that can do whatever task,” Zimmerman said. “With AI that is so much easier because you can literally shoot a video of you doing XYZ task, whether it’s out in the field or in the office or whatever, and feed that video to AI and it’ll shoot out a nice document with a list of steps that you need to take to do the task and do it well.”

Zimmerman also notes that most hardscaping businesses are sitting on “data goldmines.”

“A lot of operators are failing to document their own data,” he said. “They estimate a job—it’s going to take 250 hours and X dollars’ worth of materials to go out and do it—but they never document how many hours it actually took them. Every job that gets finished without tracking the resources and the hours and materials that went into it is a lost opportunity to build your own archive of data.”

Even without AI, this data helps you avoid repeating mistakes. But as AI becomes more integrated into industry tools, that data will help you get more accurate results for business processes and estimating.

“Take the time and track your hours and resources per work area in a job. Even if you’re not feeding that to AI yet, that data will become super valuable as AI becomes more prevalent, since you will have way more history to feed into your AI tool,” Zimmerman said.

“…My hope is that some of these problems that exist in the industry, with AI, the bar will be lowered on how easy it is to solve them.”

AI for Visualization and Manufacturing

There are additional applications of AI that show particular promise.

Hammer describes a workflow that’s already transforming his client presentations.

“I will draw out a full layout in SketchUp, then I’ll take a screenshot of that, and I’ll upload it into ChatGPT and say, ‘Make this look photoreal,’” Hammer said. “Conveying the final vision or the possibilities that can be done is huge.”

Looking ahead, Hammer believes that manufacturing could be revolutionized by the combination of AI with Internet of Things (IoT), a network of physical devices, vehicles, appliances, and other physical objects that are embedded with sensors, software, and network connectivity, allowing them to collect and share data.

“I think that that’s going to be a huge thing where maybe you don’t actually need a full-time machine operator,” Hammer said.

But Hammer is quick to point out AI’s current limitations. When he tried using AI to solve a specific engineering problem, “it just was not able to comprehend, so there’s still that human aspect to it.”

This distinction matters. AI excels at augmenting human expertise, not replacing it. The professionals who will thrive aren’t those who hand everything over to AI, but those who understand where AI adds value and where human judgment remains irreplaceable.

Why Education Matters More Than Ever

AI’s power and potential can create significant risks, especially in an industry where engineering precision can be the difference between a structure that lasts decades and one that fails.

“While it’s very cool, it’s also very dangerous in some ways,” Hammer said. “You have to put in very strong restrictions on what it’s able to provide, and what its source of truth is.”

Richard Ansley, Professor and Landscape Design & Management Program Coordinator at Columbus State Community College, frames the challenge even more directly. As AI becomes integrated with Building Information Modeling (BIM) and design software, “AI is going to walk you through it so much faster. And if it doesn’t know on their website, it will reach out to another server that’ll bring it to you.”

But speed without discernment creates problems.

“Students or new professionals can watch a video on Facebook and think that’s the way we do it,” Ansley said. “We don’t want students thinking that everything they see on the Internet is gospel.”

The same applies to AI-generated information.

“AI will give us everything we want. But do we want all of it?” Ansley said. “What do you want from it that you can be a professional about?”

What Aspiring Hardscapers Should Know

For aspiring hardscapers, the willingness to explore AI and new technologies can be a competitive advantage, but only when paired with solid fundamentals.

If you’re looking to enter the hardscaping industry in the age of AI, here’s what you should consider:

Develop prompt engineering skills. Being able to write effective AI prompts requires deep understanding of what you’re trying to achieve. You need to know enough to ask the right questions.
Pursue formal education. Whether it’s a college degree, trade school, or CMHA certification, structured learning gives you the foundational knowledge to use AI critically rather than blindly.
Learn to verify, not just trust. Can you tell when AI gives you information that’s technically unsound?
Develop data discipline. Start tracking time and resources by work area from your first job and look for other areas where you can collect information and data that might one day inform useful AI outputs.
Embrace the innovation mindset. Those willing to thoughtfully integrate new tools while respecting proven principles will stand out.
Understand the limits. AI should be a tool, not a substitute for expertise.

AI in hardscaping isn’t about replacing human expertise; it’s about amplifying it.

The professionals who will thrive are those who build strong foundations first, then leverage AI to work smarter, visualize better, and stay ahead of competition still stuck in old patterns.

The 5 Cs: Hardscaping Skills You Can Hone Before You Get Started

If you’re thinking about breaking into the hardscaping industry, you might be wondering if you have what it takes to succeed.

The good news is that many of the most critical skills aren’t about knowing how to lay pavers, they’re transferable skills you may already possess or can develop right now.

Let’s call them “the 5 Cs.”

1. Curiosity

Andrew Letersky, Founder of Ultimate Landscape Academy, was the kid with endless questions, taking apart household items, tagging along on handiwork, and always building contraptions. His insatiable curiosity became one of his greatest business assets.

“If you have that curiosity, that burning desire to figure things out,” Letersky said. “That really leads you into an investigation mode.”

When you’re curious, you naturally ask the important questions when things don’t work the way you planned. How can I make this better? How can I tweak this? How can I make the customer experience better? How can I get more leads? How can I do this faster? How can I be more efficient?

“If you tell your potential employer, ‘Listen, I’m teachable, and I will learn fast. I just need someone to show it to me and answer my questions,’ every employer wants to hear that,” said Frank Bourque, Landscape and Hardscape Business Consultant.

This mindset of constant questioning and refinement is what drives career and business growth.

2. Character

“If I had one piece of advice to any human on the planet who wanted to become a stronger, a more dedicated, a more present, a more successful version of themselves, it would be simply: do what you say you’re going to do when you say you’re going to do it,” Letersky said.

It sounds basic, but think about how rarely people actually follow through, especially on promises they make to themselves.

“It’s easy to keep promises to other people, but it’s super hard to do it for yourself because typically the repercussions are not as present,” Letersky said.

When we break promises to ourselves, something deeper happens.

“You lose self-trust, and the self-trust translates into self-love, and self-love is what you need for true confidence,” Letersky said. “Because if we aren’t confident, then sales are difficult. Communication is difficult. Showing up is difficult.”

3. Consistency

Consistency is closely tied to character. It’s an active choice to keep showing up and to showcase what is a priority to you.

“When we try something new, we’re going to go through that uncomfortable phase. It’s the people that try something and push through that difficult phase and get to the other side of it that are the ones that really succeed,” said Vanessa McQuade, VP of Sales & Marketing and Co-Owner of Intrigue Media. “Look at yourself as a person that’s adding value. Lead with confidence.”

Letersky frames it as “discipline,” the ability to do the work day after day, even when motivation fades.

“If it was easy, every single person would be doing it. Starting’s the easy part, but the hard part is what separates people,” Letersky said. “The hard part is what leads to the freedom. It’s what leads to the financial rewards, the success on the other side.”

An employee who shows up consistently, communicates absences well in advance, and can be counted on becomes invaluable, whether you are working directly on a hardscaping crew or in the office.

“If you want your value to go up, focus on reliability,” Bourque said.

4. Communication

Strong communication skills impact every aspect of your career and business.

“If you’re not able to communicate the services you offer, or the way that you can help them, or the emotional benefits to them—the certainty that they get or the removal of fear or things like that—if you can’t communicate those things with a customer, then your sales process takes a big hit,” Letersky said.

“Communication is as much about being able to speak as it is to be able to listen…It’s not about the answers you give, but it’s about the quality of the questions that you ask that you’re judged on. Instead of giving them what’s important to you, being able to ask a simple question of, ‘Before I tell you about our company, what is it that you’re looking for from a landscaper?’ That shift changes the whole conversation because then they’ll tell you what’s important for them and you can relay now why you’re the best choice based on the things that they said were important.”

The same advice goes for a job interview in hardscaping.

“I think you should be asking more questions than talking about yourself—about the company, about the process, about the company culture, about the management,” said David Huber, National Hardscape Sales Manager for Alpha Professional Tools.

5. Commitment (to Self-Reflection)

The final C might be the most transformative: the commitment to honestly evaluate yourself.

“The ability to self-reflect—if you’re the kind of person who can look themselves in the mirror and say, ‘Hey, listen, let’s think about the last day, week, month. What did we say we were going to do and then we didn’t do it? Where do we need to focus some more time and energy over the next month?’” Letersky said.

“Being able to self-reflect on your own performance to see where the gaps are in your own skill sets or your own mindset or your own habits, that sets you in the top 1 percent or even .1 percent of the people in the industry.”

Getting Started

You don’t have to wait until you have mastered “the 5 Cs” to get started. Work toward developing these foundational traits and trust that the technical skills will grow alongside them.

“I was probably the most inadequate individual when it came to starting my business,” Letersky said. “I had no business experience. I had no idea how to get customers. I had no idea how to win. I did one patio in my entire life prior to starting my landscape business. Through my inquisitive nature and curiosity and the desire to not quit and go work somewhere else, I pushed ahead.”

If you’re unsure whether you belong in hardscaping, start by honestly assessing these qualities in yourself. Which ones do you already have? Which ones need work? The beauty of these skills and traits is that they’re all improvable and you can start today.

“You don’t have to be the smartest. You don’t have to be the quickest. You don’t have to be the best at getting the stuff that you need,” Letersky said. “You just have to have that vision and that belief that you’re going to get what you want and you’re going to go after it no matter what happens.”

Beyond the Classroom: Why One Professor Takes His Students to Compete at Hardscape North America

Brigham Young University’s landscaping program works to shape the next generation of outdoor design professionals. These students have the opportunity to not just learn in the classroom, but to also gain experience on a national stage.

Greg V. Jolley, PLA, ASLA, Professor of Plant and Landscape Systems, often brings a team of students to the annual National Competition at Hardscape North America, where they test their skills against some of the best in the country.

But for Jolley, the competition isn’t just about trophies. It’s about giving students real-world confidence, hands-on experience, and the chance to see themselves as future leaders in the industry.

From Theory to Practice

Jolley’s own path to teaching started after five years of professional practice at a landscape architecture firm in Jackson, Wyoming. When an opening came up at his alma mater in 2003, he jumped at the chance to return. For him, this was a return not just to BYU, but to the same campus where his father had been a professor.

“To be able to go back and have the opportunity to teach in the same place he did, and to be able to teach the topic I loved, it was a no-brainer,” Jolley said.

That real-world experience has proven invaluable in the classroom. Four-year universities excel at teaching theory, Jolley noted, but hands-on skills can be harder to incorporate into the curriculum.

That’s where competitions like Hardscape North America come in.

Hands-On Learning, Real-World Results

BYU has been involved in landscape competitions since the late 1990s, and Jolley has been part of that effort since he arrived back on campus. To bridge the gap between classroom learning and practical skills, he formalized a partnership with BYU’s grounds department in 2003, requiring all students to work there for at least one semester.

“Most students would end up working for more than just one semester,” Jolley said. “They may end up working for two years, three years. If they get into that program early enough, sometimes even gain four years of experience.”

Competitions build on that hands-on foundation by offering a deep dive into specific skills.

“In the case of hardscape installation, just in the preparation leading up to a competition, they can gain hours upon hours of experience,” Jolley said. “It gives them a little bit more depth in the subject than we could otherwise provide as professors or in an academic setting.”

When Jolley asks students about their competition experience, one word comes up repeatedly: invaluable.

“Just to be able to observe professionals doing the work and being able to talk with them and get feedback from them. You have such skilled laborers installing these hardscapes, and just being able to watch them for a couple of rounds of the competition is invaluable,” he said. “I think it generates more ideas in their mind of ways that they can go about their work.”

More Than Just Hard Skills

Jolley also emphasizes that competitions teach soft skills, critical skills that every professional needs.

“We oftentimes think of the install as being just hard skills and that’s it,” he said. “But the soft skills of communication—how do you communicate with one another? How do you problem solve? You might be in the middle of the competition and you have to pivot or adjust what your original strategy was.”

Jolley also encourages his students to stay connected with professional associations, to educate others, and to support their fellow practitioners.

“We want our students to have as they go out into the world a desire to continue to learn and continue to serve in whatever communities that they’re in,” he said.

It’s a philosophy reflected in BYU’s motto: “Enter to learn, go forth to serve.”

“We try and emphasize that to our students that go out into the industry,” Jolley said. And it’s a principle he embodied in his own career trajectory from student to practitioner to educator.

Whether students end up installing patios, designing outdoor spaces, or another industry entirely, the skills and connections they gain at competitions like Hardscape North America become part of a foundation that lasts a lifetime.

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