Landscaping


SmithSons Strives To Be The Best At Landscaping
Some of the services we offer include:

Hydro Seeding • Excavation • Retaining Walls •Topsoil •  Flower Gardens • Rock Walls • Pruning • Tree Replacement • Mulching • Fertilizing • Irrigation

To ensure our client’s needs are satisfied, we constantly invite our clients to participate by providing input during the job process.
SmithSons maintains a high level of professionalism, care and responsibility in each service.

SmithSons guarantees all of our work to be of the highest quality…
as we know our clients would expect nothing less.

As you look for contractors to install your new hardscape feature, you’ll find that all landscapers are not the same.

 

  • We pride ourselves on being certified installers. We are trained installers for numerous manufacturers.
  • At SmithSons, we have over 25 years  of experience in every aspect of landscaping, but our main focus is installing hardscapes. In fact 60% of all of our business is for hardscapes and 40% for landscaping.
  • Would you like to talk to our past clients? We will provide you with references for both new installations and installations that customers have enjoyed for years. You’ll find everyone is pleased with our work.
  • SmithSons is fully insured including workers compensation and liability insurance. We are official contractor for Anchorage Municipality. We would be glad to issue you a certificate of our insurance.
  • With SmithSons, you can rest assured that anything we install is guaranteed for many years following the installation. To prove our dedication, we’ll come out one year after installation to ensure everyting is still okay and answer any questions.

Our Process Ensures a Hardscape That Will Last a Lifetime

In order to ensure a long-lasting beautiful patio, driveway, or wall installation, SmithSons follows these steps each and every time.

1. Excavation

After deciding the location of the project, we set out boundary markers and excavate 12″ beyond on all sides. This will give us a stabile foundation in which to build our project. It also gives us a solid base to install our paver edge restraint.

2. Compaction

The sub-base is graded out and then compacted using a minimum of 7,000 psi compactor. Compaction is the most important aspect of a quality paver installation

3. Separation Fabric

This is a layer of geo-textile fabric installed between the sub-base and the new base material. Its purpose is to keep the new base material from migrating into the sub-base. Although ICPI does not require it, we install it on most of our projects.

4. Base Material

The base thickness will depend on the project being installed. Walkways and patios will require a minimum of 6″ of gravel base. A residential driveway will have 12″ or more of base. The base material is 3/4″ minus gravel. It is installed in lifts of 3-4″ and compacted between each lift multiple times to achieve full compaction. The base is a critical part of the finished project. We make sure that the base is pitched properly to achieve the desired slope and runoff needed. We install the base to a variance of +/- 3/8″ over a 10′ span.

5. Bedding Sand

Page landscaping uses only concrete sand as recomended by ICPI and license State Officials. We will never use Stone dust or screenings under our paver projects as they hold moisture and can cause failure of the finished project. We use 1″ guide rails to assure that a uniform layer of bedding sand is installed.

6. Pavers

We install a wide variety of pavers from all different manufactures. The pavers and laying pattern are selected by the homeowner. The pavers are laid onto the freshly screeded bedding sand. pavers are cut to fit with a diamond bladed wet saw or a hand held diamond cut off saw.

7. Brick Edging

We install plastic brick edge along all exposed outside edges. The edging is held in place by 10″ spikes placed a maximum of 8″ apart. We use pave tech flexible and rigid edging as we feel this is the best edging on the market today.

8. Compaction

The pavers are now compacted into the bedding sand with a compactor rated for 4,000-5,000 psi. If there are any broken pavers, they are replaced at this time.

9. Joint Stabilization Sand

We use polymeric joint stabilizing sand for between the pavers. The polymeric sand helps to reduce the amount of weeds and ants that come up between the pavers.

10. Final Compaction And Sweeping

The pavers are again compacted to vibrate the polymeric sand between the pavers. The entire area is given a final sweeping and then wet down lightly to set up the polymeric sand

11. Cleanup

We clean up all areas of your yard that have been disturbed by our work. This includes adding loam and seed along the edges of the new pavers or adding new mulch along a patio to blend in with the existing mulch. The driveway and staging areas are broom swept also. We feel that the homeowner should be able to enjoy the project as soon as we leave the property.