4 Hardscaping Ideas to Increase Your Home’s Value

Hardscaping not only makes your outdoors more inviting, it can increase your home’s value. What kind of hardscaping should you consider? 

What is hardscaping? 

Hardscaping refers to man-made additions to an outdoor space that are not vegetation. Some popular forms of hardscaping are patios, walkways and paths, structures, retaining walls, pergolas, landscape stairs, water features, steps and sidewalks and even paver driveways.  

According to some sources, hardscaping can add up to 15 to 20 percent to your home’s value. While estimates may vary, depending on the hardscaping features and the home’s original value, hardscaping increases livable space by making the outdoors a comfortable place to gather. Wouldn’t you like to enjoy all your backyard has to offer with hardscaping improvements?  

Finding a landscaping partner can transform your outdoor space into a beautiful retreat, and hardscaping can be part of that transformation.  

Why add hardscaping?  

Hardscaping increases a home’s curb appeal, making it instantly more appealing to buyers. And by making your backyard more attractive, you are essentially adding space that serves as an outdoor extension of the home. Comfortable backyards for entertaining are like adding an extra room (and a kitchen – depending on what you decide to add).  

At any rate, adding hardscaping to your home can enhance its appearance and allow you to spend more time enjoying your yard.  

Here are a few hardscaping ideas for backyards (and hardscaping for front yards as well) to get your creative juices moving.  

1. Add a Patio to Your Backyard 

A patio can make a huge difference in an outdoor space. Patios make the outdoors more functional and more beautiful at the same time. Often done in stone or concrete, patios let you enjoy time outdoors in the fresh air and sunshine and make a perfect place for furniture and entertaining.  

At Rice’s, our stone and concrete patio landscape designers can help you create a perfect patio retreat. Here you can find yourself relaxing, entertaining family and friends, having a BBQ or just a cup of coffee in the morning. A patio helps you enjoy your space to the fullest.  

Rice’s offers custom concrete color and stamping to enhance the texture and appearance of your patio. We have the expertise to add finishing touches such as landscaping from our plant portfolio. We can review all the plant options with you, and our team is skilled in helping you select the right plants to enhance your patio, give it beautiful color and even add privacy.  

See some of our work on patios below.  

2. Boulder Boundaries Combine Beauty and Function 

Boulder boundaries can be the perfect choice to add privacy to a patio, pool or backyard. Using large boulder barriers, the Rice’s landscaping team can help you: 

• Define an area. 
• Add beauty and interest to your backyard. 
• Deal with sloped property, by adding visual interest that is easy to mow around and maintain.  
• Mange water runoff, by directing it in the best possible manner with the boulder boundary. 
• Protect your yard and home’s foundation from erosion.  

Boulder boundaries make dramatic, and yet completely natural, addition to a backyard landscape. When a homeowner wants more privacy, they can be incorporated with landscaping plants and trees to provide that. For some backyards, boulder boundaries can line landscaping stairs and steps or simply add a focal point.   

And hardscaping can be used anywhere in your yard. Front yard hardscaping ideas often include boulder boundaries and other privacy-adding options. Sometimes water runoff or erosion is an issue in the front of the home as well, and hardscaping can help prevent these problems there as well.  

Rice’s is skilled at designing and installing boulder boundaries. We can help you determine if a boulder boundary will achieve your goals, and then we can design the layout and complete the project.  

See some of our work below on boulder boundaries.  

3. Seating Walls Enhance Entertainment Areas 

A seating wall gives not only visual interest to a backyard patio, but it also provides more seating for entertaining. A seating wall can help define your patio area, separating it from the grass and plantings, and add sophistication to your backyard. 

These seating walls are typically stone or concrete that are placed a foot or two off the ground. They feature a flat top that makes them comfortable for seating.  

 A seating wall can also serve as a retaining wall. The landscape designers at Rice’s can help you design a seating wall and add surrounding plants to ensure a beautiful result. 

See some of our work below on seating walls.   

4. A Pergola or Trellis Offers Shade and Visual Interest 

Outdoor structures have always been popular to add shade and architectural beauty to a yard. These can be larger pergolas with seating underneath or a smaller trellis that makes a perfect respite in your landscaping. Pergolas and other structures are garden hardscaping ideas that give your flowering areas that added touch of class.  

A pergola lets the sunshine through, while allowing some shade. Seating under a pergola makes outdoor dining special. A trellis can offer structure for plants that grow on a vine. You can incorporate a bench below for comfortable seating to enjoy nature.  

At Rice’s, our landscaping designers can help you plan exactly what you like, helping you transform your backyard to meet your vision. We offer custom carpentry, using materials like natural wood, composite, stone and vinyl. Our landscaping designers also can help select the right planting to enhance your new pergola or trellis, so they blend perfectly in your backyard.  

See our work on outdoor structures below.  

Would you like to explore hardscaping opportunities in your backyard? 

We hope this gave you some hardscaping ideas for your space. But these are just a few of the options available.  

If you’re ready to add hardscaping to your yard, want some ideas for adding visual interest or functionality to your outdoor space or just want to talk through how to enhance your home’s backyard possibilities, talk to the experts at Rice’s. We want to help you design (and maintain) your outdoor living space, so you can enjoy all the outdoors has to offer. Contact us to set up an appointment.