Should you hire a landscaper, or do the yard yourself?

Hire a landscaper or do it yourself?

DIY makes sense for a handy owner with a flat lot, a simple plan, time before the HOA deadline and the willingness to rent a skid steer. It stops making sense on a slope, with a tight deadline, or when the plan includes a wall, a patio or lighting. Roots does not split a yard with the owner. The company installs complete yards under one contract, and an owner who wants to do part of the work is better served by renting the equipment or by a contractor who prices partial work.

Landscape contractor or lawn guy?

A lawn service mows, edges, fertilizes and sometimes aerates. Some will lay sod. Few are licensed contractors, few design irrigation, and almost none grade a lot or build a wall. For a yard that already exists, a lawn service is the right call and Roots does not compete with them. For a bare new construction lot, the work is construction: grading, drainage, trenching, concrete, and a licensed contractor is the right hire. The trust page explains how to check the licence.

Landscape designer, landscape contractor or general contractor?

A landscape designer draws plans and usually does not build them. A general contractor can build a yard but typically subs all of it out and prices accordingly. A landscape contractor like Roots designs to the HOA guidelines and builds the yard with its own crew and the same irrigation and sod subs on every job. The honest caveat: Roots does not do maintenance, repairs or older yards, and it does not sell prep only packages. A homeowner who wants only a sprinkler system or only grading is not the company's customer; Roots installs the whole yard, and everything built on it, under one contract.

Sod or seed, rock or grass, curbing or plastic edging

• Sod or seed. Sod, on a new build. It establishes in weeks, meets the HOA deadline and holds the grade. Hydroseed is cheaper in material and slower in every other way.
• Rock or grass. A mix. Rock beds with drip cost less to water and maintain and most HOAs allow them up to a limit. Lawn is still the right surface where kids and dogs play.
• Concrete curbing or plastic edging. Curbing costs more and lasts. Plastic edging heaves with Utah freeze and thaw and is replaced within a few years.
• Paver patio or concrete patio. Pavers cost more, can be lifted and relaid, and look better aging. Poured concrete is cheaper and cracks at the control joints over time, by design.
• Block wall or boulder wall. Block is engineered and uniform. Boulders fit the bench cities and hold a slope well. Height and soil decide which one a lot needs.

Landscape now or wait a year?

Waiting lets a homeowner see how the lot drains through a season and saves cash in the first year. It also means living in dirt and mud, missing the HOA deadline in most neighborhoods, and tracking that dirt into a new house. Front yard now and back yard later is the compromise most homeowners land on, and Roots prices it that way when asked.