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Discussing the Home's Landscaping and Hardscaping

Bob discusses the landscaping of a home with Kevin Kalman, general contractor of I'On, and Josh Garvin a Low Country landscape contractor.
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Discussing the Home's Landscaping and Hardscaping

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" -Okay, we've got landscaping and hardscaping as they call it to deal with."

" -Okay."

" -So, this area that you've squared out here is a stone patio or is it concrete?"

" -It's concrete. It's gonna be scored with a pattern and then stain."

" -I was looking at a plan they called for an outdoor fireplace, is that right?"

" -We are. We're going to have a modern outdoor fireplace famous steel unit."

" -Right here."

" -It's gonna fit right there in the middle of that area right there."

" -Hard to think about something like that in this heat to tell you the truth."

" -It is, It is."

" -But I know they come in January and February it gets pretty chilly in Charleston."

" -It'll be just a great place to sit outside in the fall."

" -Yeah. Alright, so the orange paint is basically marking off the edges of the hardscape so that on the other side, you will have foundation plantings or shrubs."

" -Yes, we have foundation planning and we've got some hedges and things going in or flower boarders."

" -Alright."

" -Then, we'll pick up our driveway, which will come across at about that point----"

" -Right."

" -probably it's gonna run down to where the construction centers."

" -And I was watching them this morning when they were grating this. Now, the fill that's been brought in here, is it a hardened or clay-type fill or what is it?"

" -It's a sandy fill. It's a little darker in nature than we've used to from New England."

" -Although it's a little darker, but this is a sandy fill and they'll contacted down, and then we'll do our aggregate concrete, exposed aggregate----"

" -Yeah."

" -in the driveway area."

" -And because this is a low country, we've got fill almost everywhere right?"

" -You do. You have a lot of fill. You need to bring stuff up so we can get the 2% drainage away from the building."

" -Sure. Well, let's talk about sprinklers. Alright, now the rest of the inside corner you have to do by hand. Hi!"

" -Hi Bob."

" -Josh, how are you?"

" -Doing fine."

" -How does this machine work?"

" -Well, it has a metal rotor inside here that works kinda like a vertically-oriented lawn mower blade. It just cuts into the ground. The teeth throw the dirt out."

" -And----"

" -The edge it's the one at the end of the teeth [unk]."

" -Right and the shroud helps channel over the one side of the trench."

" -It makes such a nice little even piles and such a nice clean trench in there huh?"

" -Yes sir."

" -So, what do we do in here? We just kind of had have marked off the area of the hardscape of the patio, and you're putting in sprinkler pipes this close to it?"

" -Uh, yes. We're running a sprinkler pipes sent right along the edge of the hardscape. This is where the spray zone that will irrigate the small turf panel."

" -And it starts up over here and comes all around this way. We've yet to trench this."

" -Yeah, what's the valve this for?"

" -This is the control valve for the zone. Uh, we connected in with a hot lock wire and the common wire."

" -It's low voltage."

" -Low voltage, just a 24-volt. Uh----"

" -Now, how many zones that you're gonna to have in this irrigation system?"

" -We're going to have 7 zones in this irrigation system."

" -Wow! Of course, you couldn't do all the zones at once because you've never have enough water pressure."

" -No resin there Bob."

" -Right."

" Now, it is a concern here conserving water when you got this high temperatures and evaporations rate right?"

" -Yes sir, it's certainly is, and not to mention the cost of the water. We get around that by scheduling the irrigation so that it goes up early in the morning----"

" -to take advantage of low wind conditions."

" -Right."

" -And less of upper transpiration----"

" -Yeah."

" -and real so carefully schedule the irrigation time so that the material gets a proper amount of water for it. We used drip where we can. One thing when you're installing the valve, you wanna make sure that we get the directional arrow pointing with the flow of the water."

" -That way, everything works right when you fired up."

" -Yes, yes. The embarrassing otherwise. And this is just a little plumbing story. Basically, you're just putting PVC pipe together."

" -Yes sir that's correct. It's basically just the same as you're doing a house, regular PVC, uh, piping with PVC glue."

" -And that's what goes inside this black housing and the green cover that we all see in the gardens."

" -Yes sir."

" -Alright, well, Josh, we'll let you get back to work. Now, Kevin, this is a bigger lots than the average iron lot right?"

" -Almost a double lot."

" -Yeah. And so, is there gonna be a lot of lawn? It doesn't seem like a good idea to have a lot of lawn here with this weather."

" -There's lot of sizes, not that much lawn. We have a lot of trees. We have a groove of trees [unk]."

" -Have you got a landscape behind this?"

" -Yes sir."

" -Alright, so this is basically, all that white are in the middle is all the house, and this is the front of the street, so we're standing on the side here. You can put a whole groove of trees in there huh!"

" -That's correct."

" -Yeah."

" -12 matching trees."

" -12 matching flowering trees, and then more flowering trees along the front, at the little terrace in the front there huh?"

" -Yes sir."

" -Its' gonna be very ambitious."

" -Yeah."

" -Mostly shrubby and trees right?"

" -That's correct."

" -Well, it should make for a very exciting landscape plan, yeah."

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