Tag: working with clients

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.

Celebrating ‘The Baddest Home Kansas Has Ever Seen’ at the 2025 HNA Awards

“We need the baddest home Kansas has ever seen. Understood?”

For Craig Hawkins, President of Green Lawn Inc., and his team, that client challenge would become the driving force behind a project that recently earned top honors in the Segmental Concrete Pavement – Residential – Size More than 3,000 sf category at the 2025 Hardscape North America Awards.

The award-winning project is a real-world lesson in execution, creativity, and what’s possible when ambition meets technical skills.

A Vision Takes Shape

From the very beginning, this project was about pushing boundaries. The home itself is boldly contemporary, designed in collaboration with high-end architects, and the exterior needed to match that level of sophistication.

Before a single paver was laid, Hawkins and his team invested months in careful preparation.

“There was probably a good couple months, off and on, of just reviewing plans, putting estimates together, talking to vendors, talking with architects, understanding what the intent was,” Hawkins said. “We already had the project in our mind and on paper.”

This groundwork proved essential when they finally arrived on-site.

“It’s hard when you’re looking at it on paper to really understand the scope, but it would have been impossible to walk in without all the prior homework,” he said.

The team needed to understand not just their own work, but how it interfaced with every other trade on the property, anticipating what was coming before them and what would follow after.

The design had to be a living, evolving process.

“It was a pretty unique customer,” Hawkins said. “They had a great design vision, but a lot of it was a work in progress as we went. There was a lot of collaboration that happened throughout the project trying to get everything in line with the customer’s vision.”

That vision was ultimately realized into a three-and-a-half-acre modern outdoor oasis.

The Scale of Ambition

The scope extended far beyond typical backyard hardscaping work. The team installed extensive drainage systems throughout the property, including sophisticated solutions for the artificial turf areas. They designed and implemented irrigation systems across the entire acreage, erected aluminum fencing around the perimeter, and tackled erosion control challenges on extreme slopes using geocells and ground cover systems.

The amenities list reads like a luxury resort: fire features positioned strategically from the driveway entrance through the outdoor living spaces, patio misters for cooling, custom COR-TEN steel accent panels that rust instantly for dramatic effect, and an elaborate lighting system with hundreds of fixtures illuminating the property from dusk to dawn.

The Green Lawn team even incorporated a sophisticated softscaping plan featuring multiple seasons of color and varying textures and heights to complement the hardscape elements.

“To find all those features in one project is pretty unusual, and to do it on that scale is pretty unusual, especially in a residential setting,” Hawkins said.

The project demanded roughly a year of continuous presence on site, with crew sizes fluctuating from two members during certain phases to 10 or 12 when the bulk of installation work ramped up.

“I’m very proud of our team. They truly executed it to perfection,” Hawkins said.

Hardscaping Highlights

While the comprehensive landscape transformation was impressive, the hardscape work itself presented unique technical challenges that pushed the team into uncharted territory.

The design centered on Unilock Arcana, a large-format slab paver that was relatively new to the market. The contemporary aesthetic demanded thousands of square feet of this material in two colors: Avorio, a sophisticated cream tone, and Vivanto, a rich charcoal shade. The expansive use of Arcana created an immediate logistical challenge.

“Those colors change from run to run when a producer makes them,” Hawkins explained.

To maintain color consistency across such massive areas, the team had to source all materials from the exact same production run. Any variation would be visible once the pavers were cleaned and installed.

“If something got mixed in, it had to get torn out and redone,” he said.

The Arcana product was also so new it didn’t yet have formalized coping options. This created a significant problem for a project featuring numerous stairs, steps, and pool edges. The team had to innovate solutions on the fly.

For stair copings, they integrated the COR-TEN steel accents, finding adhesives that would bond properly to create a cohesive design element. For the pool coping, they took an even more meticulous approach, hand-painting the edges of the stone to match the top surface and maintain visual continuity.

Perhaps the most unusual innovation involved the polymeric sand used to fill joints between pavers. The client’s exacting standards extended even to this typically overlooked detail. Rather than accepting any standard color option, the team experimented with mixing multiple polymeric sand colors to create a custom color blend.

“We had Polysweep come down, and their representatives were looking at what we’re doing, and they’re like, ‘We have no idea how this will work. Nobody’s done it,’” Hawkins said. “We got concrete blenders and we’re mixing poly sand to create a color.”

Corinna Fell Napolitan, who designed the project with Hawkins, echoed this commitment to the precision required.

“We had a lot of unforeseen issues and we worked through that,” she said.

High-end projects like this demand an obsessive level of detail, especially when working at scale. Small inconsistencies become glaring when repeated across expansive surfaces.

Lessons for Aspiring Hardscapers
For those entering the hardscaping field or working to advance their careers, this project offers valuable insights.

For Hawkins, the biggest takeaway is the process, not just the final product.

“Never stop learning,” he said. “There was stuff we learned throughout this project. If we had walked away thinking it was too hard or too complex, we would have left with a lot less knowledge.”

He also emphasizes the importance of leaning on your team and your vendors, and not being afraid to take on projects that stretch your current skill set.

“Don’t be afraid to take on something challenging,” Hawkins said. “That’s how you grow as a professional in this industry.”

“Don’t be afraid to think outside of the box,” Fell Napolitan added.

Winning with Attitude

Receiving national recognition at the HNA Awards brought a deep sense of validation for the entire Green Lawn Inc. team.

“It was really rewarding and gratifying,” Hawkins said. “I felt a big sense of accomplishment for my team. To be on a national platform and be recognized is a great feeling.”

But Hawkins said their greatest achievement was the satisfaction of meeting a “very discerning” client’s expectations flawlessly.

“My team did exactly what they had to do to make that client happy,” Hawkins said. “That’s probably what I’m most proud of, that the client was happy, satisfied, never regretted any step of the process.”

When the project was submitted for the HNA Awards, it carried the same name the client gave it from day one: The Baddest Home Kansas Has Ever Seen.

“When they handed me the award, they said, ‘That’s winning with attitude,’” Hawkins said. “And I wanted to tell him it wasn’t mine—it was the customer’s.”

The Baddest Home Kansas Has Ever Seen stands as a testament to what’s possible when vision meets skill, when preparation combines with adaptability, and when teams commit fully to excellence.

Whether you’re just starting your career or looking to take on more complex projects, remember that today’s impossible challenge becomes tomorrow’s award-winning achievement when approached with the right mindset and dedication.

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.

Commercial vs. Residential Hardscaping: Which Path is Right for You?

For those considering a career in hardscaping, one of the decisions you may face is whether to focus on residential projects or commercial installations.

While the fundamental techniques may be similar, these two paths offer different experiences, challenges, and rewards. As an aspiring or early career hardscaper, it is worth exploring both to see which might be the right fit for you.

Understanding the Two Paths

At its core, hardscaping involves the same materials and installation techniques whether you’re working on a backyard patio or a shopping center plaza. The primary differences lie in the scale, design process, client relationships, and business operations.

Residential projects commonly are referred to as Design-Build. This is because the contractor provides both the design and build services to the homeowner. Most commercial projects are Design Specification where the owner provides details, developed by a third party, of the methods and materials needed to achieve the wanted outcome. In commercial projects the hardscape contractor is usually a subcontractor, typically working for the general contractor who in turn has a contract with the owner.

Residential hardscaping typically involves working directly with homeowners on custom projects for their personal property. These jobs might include backyard patios, walkways, outdoor kitchens, fire pits, and retaining walls—all designed to enhance a family’s outdoor living experience. The work is highly personalized, often creative, and involves significant client interaction.

Commercial hardscaping usually involves larger-scale projects for businesses, developers, or government entities. These might include parking lots, plazas, walkways for shopping centers, or hardscaped areas for apartment complexes. The work tends to follow pre-established plans created by landscape architects or engineers, with less room for on-site creativity but greater emphasis on efficiency and adherence to specifications.

Understanding Payment Terms
For most residential projects payment terms favor the contractor. Usually there is a large, up front payment and final payment is due within days of completion.

For commercial projects payment terms generally favor the owner and/or general contractor. Payment terms are defined by the contract. Payments often don’t start until there is materials on site and they are typically due in 30 or 60 days after invoicing. Depending on the contract, there may be progress payments. Payment for completion of the project may take even longer and it isn’t uncommon to have 120 days. Also there is typically a 10% retainage/holdback which is kept to address issues that may appear well after the completion date. Retainage/Holdbacks may take a year or more to be released. Subcontractors don’t get their retainage/holdback until the owner releases the GC’s retainage/holdback and this may not even happen due to issues related to other subcontractor’s work, over which you have no control over.

Residential projects are typically smaller in scale, so you can do more in a year, lower total cost, but they earn higher margins.

Commercial projects are typically larger in scale, so you will only do a few a year, they have a higher total cost, but lower margins. Focusing your company on a specific market and optimizing your company based on these general principles can make your company very profitable.

The Residential Experience: Creativity and Connection

Harrison Woytko, President of Boulder Landscape, LLC, primarily focuses on residential projects. He was drawn to this sector for its creative possibilities and the opportunity to provide excellent customer service.

“From a creativity and expanding your knowledge perspective, I think the residential market offers much more,” Woytko said. “If you’re someone with creative skills or if you want to see different projects at different houses in different neighborhoods and meet different homeowners, there’s lots of opportunity and freedom there.”

This variety extends beyond just creative expression. Residential hardscapers often build meaningful relationships with their clients.

“We’re pretty good at the back-and-forth with a residential customer. We’re good at having a kitchen table talk. We can listen to somebody and we can pivot and come up with a better solution or something that’s more tailored for them,” Woytko said.

These personal connections often make the work more rewarding.

“Homeowners might have saved their money for 10 years to build a patio so they’re invested,” said Frank Gandora, President of Creative Hardscape Company. “You have great interaction with these people. They’re grateful that you’re doing it, and it’s a very positive situation.”

Woytko said that customer service piece also plays a role when hiring for his team.

“From a hiring perspective, we’re looking for someone with a positive attitude along with good customer service skills. It doesn’t mean that every employee has to have a one-on-one conversation with the homeowner when they come home every day or that they have to make the sale and engage them, but it’s important that they’re respectful, have a good attitude, and have social intelligence when it comes to interacting with others,” he said.

The Commercial Landscape: Scale and Structure

Commercial hardscaping offers its own set of advantages and challenges. These projects are typically larger in scale, more structured in their execution, and often involve working with other construction trades as part of a larger development project.

“In commercial work, you have engineers, you have architects, a landscape architect. They designed the plans. They create the elevations. They create all the data you need to do a commercial job. There are plans, specifications. They tell you the methodologies and how to install it in most of the cases,” Gandora said. “What’s being used on a commercial job is your labor.”

These projects present the opportunity to hone in on a particular skill—such as laying pavers across expansive plazas or courtyards—and execute it with precision. They also highlight how strong teamwork and coordination are essential to bringing large-scale visions to life. With multiple teams working in tandem under tight deadlines and strict specifications, commercial hardscaping becomes a lesson in efficiency, communication, and collaboration.

Finding Your Path Forward

Ultimately, the choice between commercial and residential hardscaping isn’t necessarily permanent. Many professionals start in one sector and transition to the other as they gain experience, move locations, or as market conditions change.

“I don’t know if you have to pick an avenue. I just think it’s how you can cater to your customer, whether that customer is a large general contractor or production home builder or Mr. and Mrs. Jones with a residential project on their home,” Woytko said. “For someone just getting into the business or maybe starting to work for a company, I think it’s really dependent on your market and where you see your vision going.”

Inspiring Artistry and Creativity in Hardscaping: Lessons from JPave’s Award-Winning Project

Breaking into the hardscape industry can feel like a big leap, but the recent 2024 Hardscape North America (HNA) Awards was a reminder that great things come from creativity, passion, and a willingness to push boundaries. With a remarkable 215 project submissions across 19 categories submitted in 2024, the competition highlighted the creativity and expertise within the field.

Among the standout projects was one that should especially inspire newcomers to the field: JPave’s “Grown Expectations,” a residential patio that redefines what’s possible in small spaces.

Jason and Jennifer Stewart, owners of JPave in Smithville, MO, took home top honors in the Segmental Concrete Pavement – Residential (less than 3,000 square feet) category. Their award-winning patio design used a combination of brickwork and pavers to create the impression of a vine weaving through the space, connecting a pergola, firepit, water feature, and dining area.

For Jason Stewart, this design was a long time in the making.

“I actually designed a variation of that idea for two prior customers, but nobody ever wanted it until this customer. I think with this particular project, the space that was allowed, the things they already had in place, and what they wanted and requested, it just flows so beautifully,” he explained.

For those new to the industry, Jason’s experience highlights the importance of finding a balance between artistic vision and customer needs. It’s all about understanding your clients’ preferences and finding creative ways to bring those ideas to life. This project, for instance, stayed true to the home’s overall aesthetic.

“It was a traditional design. The home is a traditional home. The front is all red brick, so it definitely matched the style of the home,” Jason shared. “I did present two other ideas that were more modern and contemporary designs to the same customer, and this is what they chose.”

For anyone starting out, one of the most inspiring aspects of “Grown Expectations” is the way it combines so many skills, including hardscaping, carpentry, boulder coring, lighting, wall building, staining, and even some coppersmithing. Jason’s advice? Don’t shy away from challenges.

“Since I was the installer and the designer, I knew my capabilities,” he noted. “Don’t be afraid to design and install. We did have to do a lot of stuff here. That wasn’t all interlocking pavement. There were water features, electrical pumps. There’s a curved pergola in it where there’s actually carpentry and woodwork. There are walls in there.”

Jennifer added, “Don’t be afraid to try the hard stuff. He knew it was going to be difficult, and that execution was going to be different and one of a kind, and he was not afraid of it. He went in full force and just knocked it out of the park.”

The Stewarts hope this recognition will open doors for new design opportunities and inspire others in the hardscaping community to explore their creativity.

“I’m hoping to gain more design work off of it,” Jason said. “We definitely wanted to show what you can do with a small space and it doesn’t look crowded at the same time… You could scoot the table and chairs out of the way, and it could be a dance floor for sure.”

Whether you’re just starting in the hardscaping field or looking to push your designs further, remember that every project is an opportunity to learn, innovate, and inspire. JPave’s “Grown Expectations” is proof that with a clear vision and a fearless approach, you can create spaces that not only stand out but also resonate with your clients and bring their dreams to life.

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