Landscaping in Cedar Bluff, AL

The ground in Cedar Bluff

Upper Weiss Lake, where the Chattooga River comes in. The banks are steeper here than around Centre, and the drop from the house down to the water is often the whole design problem rather than one part of it — thirty vertical feet is not unusual between a back door and a dock.

What that means for the build

Steep water access means steps, landings and terracing rather than one graded slope, and every one of those has to drain. Done properly a lake lot gains usable ground at three levels; done as a single long run it becomes a gully after the first big storm.

The properties

Waterfront and lake-view homes, a good number of them second homes, where the work has to be finished and left rather than fussed over weekly.

What usually leads in Cedar Bluff

Every trade is available across the whole service area. These are the ones that tend to carry a Cedar Bluff project:

• Retaining Walls & GradingSegmental block walls, cut-and-fill grading and the drainage behind both. Georgia clay holds water and moves; a wall that was not drained is a wall that leans.
• Masonry & ConcreteAll applications of brick, block and stone, plus concrete work — laid by the same crew that runs the hardscape. Steps, veneer, columns, walls and the flatwork between them, built to match the house instead of fighting it.
• Lighting & IrrigationLow-voltage lighting laid out for the walk up to the door and the view back at the house, plus zoned irrigation that keeps new sod and new plant material alive through a Georgia August.

All ten trades run in-house, so one crew and one schedule covers the whole job.

See the work

The featured jobs are documented before and after, from the same camera position. They are the honest version of what a finished project looks like.