Briarlake Drainage Improvements

This was another bad drainage/wet basement project. Based on my design and suggestions from soil engineers hired by the client, a fairly extensive drainage system and dry creek bad was installed. A steep hill with it's base only 20' from the back of the house on the basement end, combined with downspout water and surface runoff was congregating large amounts of rainwater in one small area-and it was finding it's way into the basement. A main 6" line with 3 drop inlets was installed parallel to the house-a french drain was installed within a problem area and piped into the main line along with the downspouts. The grade was altered for better water flow and the collection area/swale was covered with large egg rock.

So far so good-I spoke with my client today. 2" of rain in 6 hours the day after I finished and no water in the basement! Will be doing more drainage work on the side of the house after the first of the year.

Peachtree Corners - before/after shots

Peachtree Corners - Removal

After finding out just how entrenched the 20+ year old Euonymous ground cover had gotten on this job, I decided to get a backhoe out on the site yesterday to remove it. This was a good call, as I am getting most of the root systems removed along with the plants. Today I will finish up with the backhoe work and start prepping the area for new plants.

Getting Started in Peachtree Corners

This job will entail removing the majority of existing, older plant material in the front yard and replacing it with a new design/plants. Today I started ripping out the old plants and delivered most of the plants that will be going in once the "demolition phase" is completed.

Stone work in Oakhurst-

This little project was a bit of a departure for me. I do a good bit of dry (no mortar) stone work..walkways, walls, patios, etc...but I generally refer or hire a mason for true masonry work. In this case it was a small walkway and I felt pretty comfortable taking it on. The stairs and the under-deck patio in the photos are part of a new addition to my client's house. The builder who worked on the addition poured the concrete base for the walkway along with the patio. I simply added the slate stones as a veneer. Two day project...first day is putting down a base layer of mortar then setting the stones..after 24 hours, more mortar is applied to grout the joints. After it cures for a few days a good wash with muriatic acid will clean it up nicely.

New Addition in Oakhurst

These folks have built a nice new addition onto the back of their Oakhurst home. New deck, screen porch and interior space turned out really well. (E mail me if you would like the name of the contractor) They are getting close to time for their final inspections and I was out today to do some hand grading and replant a couple of plants that were removed prior to construction.

Design Job in Peachtree Corners

The owners of this house want to reduce the turf area and add some plants. I delivered a sketch of my ideas to them on Saturday along with a proposal in case they want me to do some/all of the planting.

Quarterly Maintenance-Grayson, GA

This house in Grayson needs some work-they have gotten behind with the pruning and weeding mostly. We decided that, instead of a major cleanup, we would concentrate on specific areas of the house for the first 3 quarterly maintenance visits. I started with the front of the house and got everything pruned, some dead shrubs removed, and the weeds in the beds under control.and

Nursery Trip & Tree Installation

Fun day today-took care of some office work this morning, then headed for Buck Jones Nursery in Grayson, GA to pick up a Yoshino Cherry tree I had been waiting on. I try to hand pick the vast majority of plants I install-so trips to the nurseries are frequent. I also like to look around while there and see what is available and looking good-and get new ideas for design. Once the tree was picked and loaded I headed down to Briarcliff Woods to install the tree on a job that had been waiting on this final element.

Last Week in October-

The last week in October was a busy one. I didn't take the time out to post about each job last week so this posting will cover all 3. Started out the week back in Brookhaven Fields doing some drainage workk along the foundation-water had been getting into the basement. An old foundation drain was uncovered and inspected, and a new foundation drain was built under the deck. We had some good rain just after completion and my efforts seem to have paid off-no water problems. From there I went down to Little 5 Points to plant fall annuals in all the beds and the big urns in front of the house-also did quarterly maintenance on this house while I was there. I closed out the week with a fescue grassing/drainage job in the Oglethorpe/Brookhaven area. Very muddy Bobcat work and grading, moving a huge pile of chips from some recent tree work and some plant removal. Finished up the grassing on Friday in the rain-finished the job yesterday with some pressure cleaning of the muddy driveway and sidewalks. Ideally, this job would have been done with better weather and soil conditions...but it is getting late in the season for fescue seeding so the owner really wanted to get this accomplished. All in all, a productive week.

Quarterly Maintenance-Big Canoe & Little 5 Points

With all the recent weather delays, I find myself pretty much working whenever it isn't raining-including this weekend. On Saturday my son and I went up to Big Canoe for a quarterly maintenance account, today I went down to Little 5 Points to do part of the quarterly maintenance and prepare for changing out the annual flower beds. Should finish there later this week-as the first part of the week is devoted to finishing a drainage job in Brookhaven before the weather turns again...never a dull moment;-)