Patios & Walkways

Landscaping design requires balance -- a mix between the gentle floral patterns,

Hardscape Materials

ECI Landscaping uses a variety of hardscape materials -- rock, brick, pavers, and stone variations are the foundation of a landscape design. The use of this natural element provides versatility and stability for a garden. For example, decorative rock provides an excellent foundation for sedums and plants requiring less dirt.

Enjoy an interesting rock garden or enhance the appearance of your home with a natural rock wall. We use hardscapes when building rain gardens, waterfalls and retaining walls.

Landscape Steps

Using landscape rock for landscaping steps is ideal because of their natural beauty, stability, and limited maintenance. Take a leisurely walk through your garden. View your home and enjoy your garden landscape from different angles. Landscaping steps allow for movement between levels of your garden.

Landscaping steps provide access between elevations and bring together spaces within a landscape. Environment Construction builds a variety of landscape stair systems.

Natural Stone Risers

Natural Stone risers are typically built to provide access to doorways or up short slopes. Used in conjunction with rock outcroppings, stone risers can transform the look and feel of your garden to a wilderness retreat.

Timber Landscape Steps

Wood landscaping steps are designed for and typically built on and across long slopes. They often have a dual functionality. On the surface they provide a clear and safe access on a hillside. Below the surface the timbers act as hillside support and provide slope retention.

Block and Brick Landscape Steps

Block steps are typically integrated into block retaining walls. Like the Natural Stone, Block steps are typically built to provide access to doorways or up short slopes. There are many varieties and styles of block to fit your taste and budget.

Open Risers

Open Risers are the lightest option of all the stair systems. They are typically built to provide access between deck structures. In an area designated as an environmentally critical slope, open risers allow foot traffic across sensitive areas with the least amount of environmental impact.

Rock Walls

A rock wall creates an elegant division or border for property and garden areas. You can rely on Environmental Construction to design and build a garden landscape that incorporates the beauty of rock, stone, and block walls.

Patios and Walkways

There are a variety of hardscapes suitable for patios and walkways. We will work with you to find the best suitable product. Slate and concrete pavers can be used to design beautiful patios and walkways.

View our Patios / Walkways page.

Which hardscape material should you use?

With all the many uses, it's nearly impossible for clients to be expected to decide on their own what products to use. We can offer suggestions as to which hardscape products will work best for a given area.

Once you have chosen the ideal hardscape design and materials, we will advise as to the best maintenance practice which will keep your stone or brick surface looking beautiful. We will give advice as to which cleaning products are safe for the hardscape material and surrounding plants.

We strive to purchase the highest quality landscaping materials at the lowest possible price...then pass that savings on to you.

Friends and family will gather to dine, converse, or just rest and enjoy. A patio becomes the focal point for outdoor entertaining.

Patios are extensions of living space within the landscape. Whether intimate or expansive, isolated from or adjacent to your home, patios integrate pattern, texture and color into your garden.

Many choices of material, style, color, and patterns exist for installing patios and walkways - brick, paver, decorative and stamped concrete, flagstone or slate, and natural stone such as cobblestone. Read about the various choices of patio and walkway materials. Then take a look at outdoor lighting suitable for patios, walkways, and garden paths.

Red Brick

Next to colorful plantings and various shades of green, a red brick patio or walkway makes a bold and majestic statement. Red brick is timeless, whether reused from a broken-down wall or clean and new, it is the perfect choice for most any patio or walkway. Brick is available in many styles and colors and is often used for fire pits, walls, and as a base for outdoor lighting.

Pavers

Pavers are a brick-like concrete product that is available in many styles, colors, and patterns. It has a clean look that adds a contemporary or colonial feel to the garden. Pavers offer a very durable and low maintenance surface for patios, walkways and driveways.

Concrete

Concrete is the most common patio surface and the most versatile of all patio materials. Decorative concrete patios can be stained, stamped and etched. It is a durable surface and is easily cleaned and maintained.

HydraPressed Slabs

Hydrapressed slabs are a concrete product that has a much larger surface area than pavers. They often give your garden a modern appearance. Hydrapressed slabs, available in a limited number of styles and colors, are a durable and low maintenance surface for large patios and pathways. For elegance, this is an exceptional choice.

Flagstone

Flagstone is the general term for the natural stone used in walkways and patios. Pennsylvania Bluestone and Montana Slate are commonly used types of flagstone. The flagstone available locally is in fact quarried all over the world. Ground cover, such as thyme, can be nestled between the edges of the stone to create an appealing look. Flagstone is the choice of many homeowners in the Seattle area as it provides a more natural-look or rustic feel.

The flagstone slabs can be cut to shape or used as irregular pieces. They are generally set in sand. When this is the case, it is easy to move and reuse the stone, if desired. This method of installation also allows rain water to penetrate and reduces water run-off.

Flagstone is relatively easy to maintain. Moss and weeds can grow between the slabs and sand may need to be added each year. Care should be taken if using a power-washer on any patio or walkway that has been set in sand.

Cobblestone

Cobblestones are a large rounded river-rock that was commonly used for building the first streets. Creating a walkway of cobblestone allows us to step back in time and gives a relaxed country-feel to a landscape. Cobblestone walkways are especially beautiful and can be set in sand, to allow for permeability, or cemented in place.