If you live in a colder climate, there’s more to worry about than how to heat your house in winter – freezing temperatures can bring about a great deal of worry. Frost heaving should be an area of major concern for your landscape design and dealt with accordingly. Depending how deep the frost line extends in your area, structures such as decks and mortared walls must have footings that extend deeper than that frost line to prevent damage from frost heaving. This kind of forethought in your landscape plan will help you avoid any costly repairs and put you at ease.

It’s not all sweat inducing, back breaking hard work that’s involved with creating a beautiful landscape – there’s also a certain amount of crucial paperwork that needs to be done, even before the first hole is dug. Permits are a way of ensuring that a generally accepted standard is upheld by everyone in the community and your municipality. This protects every single home owner for conditions that are their responsibility and those that are not, such as minimizing the impact of water runoff from an adjacent property. Smart homeowners will consider going above and beyond these minimum standards for their own benefit and peace of mind. For example, a homeowner may choose to install hardscape structure footings deeper than the suggested standards to protect against unusually cold winters.

The details of permitting are often carried out by the landscape contractor but it’s ultimately the homeowner that is still responsible for anything and everything that happens. Be sure to understand the necessary requirements so that you can protect your interests and protect yourself. In some circumstances, it’s possible to discover permitting was not properly done for previously completed work and as a result, you will have to bring everything up to code before proceeding with new projects.