L-06.MS · Masonry & Concrete
All 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.
See it built
Most landscape contractors in this market sub out masonry. BDS carries it in-house, in all applications of brick, block and stone, plus concrete flatwork, and that is scope confirmed directly by Brandon rather than inferred from a directory listing.
It matters more than it sounds. On a property where the terrace, the steps, the columns, the veneer on the retaining wall and the flatwork at the drive are all part of one job, having them run by the same crew that built the hardscape is the difference between details that line up and details that nearly do. Coursing that carries across a step, a veneer that matches the house rather than approximating it, a joint width that stays the same from one element to the next.
The Georgia clay problem applies here as much as anywhere. Masonry is heavy, rigid and unforgiving of movement, so every one of these structures lives or dies on its footing and on where the water goes.
Footings first, below frost depth and sized for the mass they are carrying. A masonry structure cannot flex, so any movement underneath it shows up as a crack in the most visible place.
Stone veneer is set to a proper substrate with the drainage plane and flashing details right, not buttered onto a wall and hoped for. Veneer that traps water behind it fails from the back where nobody can see it starting.
Steps and stoops are laid to consistent riser heights, which is both a code question and the thing people feel underfoot without being able to name. Uneven risers are the single most common complaint about masonry steps.
Columns and garden walls are built to match the coursing and joint profile of whatever they are relating to, usually the house.
Concrete flatwork gets a compacted base like any other surface, with control joints cut at spacings that decide where it cracks rather than leaving that to chance. Driveways are thickened and reinforced where vehicles turn.
Quoted by the square foot, with structures priced individually.
Material is the obvious lever. Natural stone, particularly anything hand-selected or coursed, is a different budget from manufactured veneer or standard block, and the labour follows the material rather than being constant across it.
Then the footing, which is invisible and can be a large share of a masonry line when the structure is heavy or the ground is poor. Access for material, because brick and stone arrive by the pallet and someone has to move them. And matching, which is real work: tying new masonry into existing brick or stone so the joint does not read means selection, colour matching and often a slower pace.
For concrete: area, thickness, reinforcement, and finish. A broom-finished pad and an exposed-aggregate or stamped surface are meaningfully different jobs.
Stair-step cracking through the joints, which is almost always a footing that moved. On clay that usually means it was not deep enough or the drainage around it was never handled.
Veneer that spalls or comes away in sheets, from water getting behind it with nowhere to drain.
Efflorescence, the white bloom on the face, which is water moving through the masonry and depositing salts. Cosmetic in itself, and a signal that water is going somewhere it should not.
On concrete: random cracking, because control joints were not cut or were cut too shallow or too far apart. Concrete will crack; the only question is whether you chose where.
Where this work leads
Quoted by the sq ft, line by line, after a site walk. Across 21 counties from the shop in Floyd County.