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Custom hardscape

Bespoke exterior stone, cut to a drawing.

Pavers, copings, steps, pool surrounds, flagstone. Every piece sourced at the quarry, cut to format, finished for the outside, and crated for the order it installs in. Not catalogue tile pulled from a stock list. The worked stone, made to your scope, delivered install-ready.

We do not pour the base or set the stone. We deliver the right stone, at the right format, ready to lay.

What we mean by custom hardscape

The whole landscape outside the house, in one stone, drawn and made.

Hardscape is the stone you walk on and live around: the ground plane and the elements that frame it. Custom means cut to your format and finish, not picked off a tile chart. We produce the full vocabulary in a single material, so the run reads as one language from the first tread to the last border.

Ground plane

Pavers & flagstone

Driveways, walkways, terraces and pool decks. Cut to format or laid as flagstone and puzzle patterns, in the thickness the load asks for.

Edges & verticals

Copings & steps

Pool copings, wall caps, steps and treads with engineered nosings, drips and a single unified profile so the edges read coherent across the whole site.

Water & feature

Pool surrounds

The full perimeter system around water: surround, coping and border, matched in tone and finish to the deck they meet.

Built elements

Fountains, planters & balustrades

The designed pieces: fountain cladding, monolithic planters, balustrades and the one-off geometry a drawing calls for, cut to size and dry-laid before it ships.

What we deliver, what we don't

We supply the stone. The site package is yours.

The clearest way to be trusted on hardscape is to draw the line and not blur it. We carry the stone from the quarry to a crate at your port. The ground it sits on, and the hands that set it, are the contractor's. That honesty is the credibility.

Layer 01

Quarry to crate

Quarry sourcing, cut to format, the finish the zone needs, and export crates engineered for install. The worked stone, made to your drawing.

Alimonta
Layer 02

Ocean & inland

Freight, customs clearance and inland haul. Ours as a separate line if you want it carried, never aggregated into a hidden rate.

Your scope, or ours as a line
Layer 03

Base & install

Compacted base, setting bed, jointing sand, sealing and the install itself. The general contractor's package, on site.

GC / client

We do not pour the base, supply the bedding sand, or set a single piece. We deliver the right stone at the right format and finish, QC'd and crated by zone. One accountable partner for the material, a clean handoff to your crew.

Built for the outside

Outdoors, the wrong stone fails quietly. We choose for survival first.

A floor inside forgives a lot. A driveway in a freezing climate does not. Exterior stone is a durability decision before it is an aesthetic one, and the method to make it well is standardized. We read a candidate material against the tests that decide whether it lives thirty years or comes back as a claim.

ASTM C97

Density & absorption

Water the stone does not absorb cannot freeze inside it. Low absorption is the first number we read: a dense stone with very low absorption clears most exterior risk before any other test. A porous stone has to prove itself.

EN 12371 ยท ASTM C666 method

Freeze-thaw

Where it freezes, water trapped in the pores expands and fractures. The honest read is not pass or fail, it is how much flexural strength the stone keeps after the cycles. We ask for the data before we promise a cold climate.

ASTM C241 / C1353

Slip & abrasion

Trafficked and wet zones need grip and wear resistance. The finish is chosen for that: flamed, split, sanded, tumbled or brushed, so the surface holds underfoot and does not polish out in a lobby or a pool deck.

Thickness by load

Walkway vs vehicular

A walkway and a driveway are different problems. Thickness follows the load: lighter for foot traffic, heavier for vehicular, on a base sized to match. Thickness also drives weight, which drives the containers, which drives the freight.

This is also why, outdoors, a uniform crystalline grey often outperforms a soft veined marble. A calcitic marble can bow and lose strength under repeated sun and wet cycling, while a dense, low-absorption stone holds its shape and its color across a very large run. We say what the method supports, never a number we cannot stand behind.

Details we cut

The hard geometry, solved on the drawing before the saw.

Hardscape lives or dies on its edges. The section through a paver, the profile of a coping, the drip under a nosing, the texture of a finish: these are the details that read as quality, or read as a problem. We draw them, agree them, and prove them before production starts.

Section drawing through a stone paver on a compacted base and setting bed, with thickness dimension and open joint
Section / paver on base

The stone paver is ours, cut to format and finish at 30 to 50 mm. The compacted base and setting bed below it are by others. We draw the interface so the boundary is unmistakable.

Pool coping bullnose profile and a step tread nosing with a drip kerf detail and dimension lines
Profile / coping + nosing

A bullnose pool coping and a step nosing with a drip kerf, so water sheds off the edge instead of tracking back under the tread. Dimensioned and unified across the site.

Row of stone finish swatches, flamed split sanded tumbled and brushed, drawn as distinct line-hatch textures
Finish / surface texture

Flamed, split, sanded, tumbled, brushed. The finish is selected for the zone, grip and wear where it is wet and walked, and matched to a sealed master sample so every shipment reads the same.

Isometric export crate mapped by install zone A1 and A2 with a gross weight tag and install-ready labeling
Crate / mapped by zone

Crates are tagged to the install zone, not the piece type. Zone A1 lands first, A2 next, with gross weight planned per 40HQ so the crew stages by area and sets stone.

Engineered crating

Crates built for the install sequence, not for filling a truck.

On a large hardscape package the real risk is a quiet logistics error: a mixed crate, a heavy piece in the wrong order, a count that drifts between the cut list and the crate. We organize crates by installation area, with traceability from cut ticket to crate to container, and a packing list audited before each load.

Numbered stone crates staged and labeled for phased export
Numbered crates · staged for phased export
  1. 01

    Mapped by zone.

    Crates carry the pieces for one install area, in the order the crew needs them, so nobody sorts heavy stone across a yard.

  2. 02

    Weight planned.

    Gross weight is planned per 40HQ container, because a heavy paver is volume and weight bound at once. The math is built in, not discovered at the dock.

  3. 03

    Phased to the build.

    Shipments follow the construction sequence, not truck-filling convenience, so the right pieces reach the right area at the right time.

Crated stone loaded into a container, weight planned for export
Load-out · weight planned per container

How a hardscape scope is taken off

From net area to a number you can actually ship.

A paver job is weight-bound, not just area-bound. Thickness drives the tonnage, the tonnage drives the containers, and the containers drive the freight, which is the heaviest line after the material. So the take-off runs in one chain, and the price is a lump sum with the lines kept apart.

Step 01

Net area by zone

Square footage per zone from the drawings or BOM: driveway versus walkway, with formats. Each figure flagged certain or to-confirm.

Step 02

Weight

Net area times thickness times density gives the tonnage. At 50 mm a stone weighs more than twice a 20 mm one, so thickness rules the number.

Step 03

40HQ containers

Gross weight, with packing, divided by the container payload gives the count. Whole containers, not an abstract rate.

Step 04

Freight, split

Ocean freight separated East coast versus West, then customs and inland. The destination port changes the number before anything else.

The price comes back as a lump sum with the lines separated: material and fabrication FOB, ocean freight East or West, customs, inland. Never a flat dollar-per-square-foot that hides the freight and the duty, because on heavy stone the freight alone can outweigh the material.

On commodity targets

A very low commodity target, the kind set by domestic or far-East production, generally cannot be met from European sourcing on heavy exterior stone. The ocean freight by itself can sit above that target before the stone costs a cent. So when a number looks too good, we do not chase it: we say honestly where our range starts and why, and we ask for the destination port before any RFQ. The value is the right material, QC'd and reliable, not beating a commodity.

Why we're different

One stone, one team, from the mountain to the crate.

Most exterior stone is bought from a photo and a price list, then chased across suppliers when something does not match. We do the opposite, and we own the result.

  • We go to the quarry and choose the material for the climate it has to survive, not just the look.
  • We deliver the finished format and finish, cut to your drawing, dry-laid and proven before it ships.
  • The finish is matched to a sealed master sample, so the last shipment reads like the first.
  • Counts are controlled against the overall drawings before the saw starts, not corrected on site.
  • Crates are mapped by install zone with weight planned per container, so the crew stages and sets.
  • One accountable partner for the stone, and a clean line where your site package begins.

Proof of execution

Real material. Documented from quarry to crate.

You will not find finished homes here. The work belongs to the contractor we built it for. What we show is the material and the process: the quarry, the stone, the finish samples, and the crates staged for the jobsite.

Bring the outside

Send the drawings. We will handle the stone.