Santaquin, Utah
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Paver patios, fire features and outdoor kitchens for Santaquin yards, set on a base built for orchard clay, fan gravel and the cold that shows up early on the summit.
“Sidewalks, retaining wall, and raised garden are all beautifully done.”
“I will be using them for all of my landscape needs, a pleasure to work with!”
Hardscaping and Concrete in Santaquin
Santaquin sits up on the summit between Utah and Juab valleys, at about 4,987 feet. That height brings colder nights than Provo or Orem, and a lot more freezing and thawing in spring and fall. Water gets under a patio, freezes, swells and lifts the pavers. Then it melts and they settle crooked. A patio here lives or dies by what is under it, so that is where we spend our time before a single paver goes down.
The ground changes from lot to lot. Some Santaquin yards sit on old orchard clay that holds water like a sponge. Others sit up on the gravelly fan ground of the bench, which drains fast but is full of cobble the size of a melon. We dig a test hole and watch how your soil drains first. Then we pick the base depth and fabric for your yard, not a number off a chart.
Most of the hardscape we build here is for people who plan to stay a long time. A big former orchard lot has room for a real outdoor kitchen, a fire pit tucked where the wind cannot reach it, and walkways that tie the house to the garden. Jackson walks the lot with you, marks where the afternoon sun and the wind hit, and gives you a written number before any digging starts.
Santaquin sits up near 4,987 feet in Utah's cherry country, so the season runs a little shorter, the lots run bigger and more former-orchard, and the open summit position means real wind.
Know your Santaquin ground
The Santaquin challenges
At almost 5,000 feet, Santaquin dips below freezing on a lot of spring and fall nights. Any water trapped in a patio base freezes and pushes up. A patio with a thin base or no way for water to leave will start to heave by the second winter. You see it as rocking pavers, gaps at the edges and puddles that were never there before.
Plenty of Santaquin homes were built on old cherry and fruit orchard ground. That clay drains slowly and moves as it gets wet and dries out. It can also hide old root masses from the trees that were pulled out. Pour concrete or set pavers right on top of it and you are building on something that shifts with the seasons.
Santaquin's spot on the summit means wind comes through with very little to stop it. A fire pit in the wrong place throws sparks and smoke at the house. Loose sand in paver joints blows out over a season. An outdoor kitchen loses a lot of its charm if nobody planned for which way the wind comes from.
On the fan ground up on the bench, the dirt is packed with river rock and cobble. Digging a proper base takes more machine time, and those rocks cannot be left loose in the subgrade. If they are, the ground settles at different rates and the finished patio ends up with high and low spots you can feel underfoot.
The J&H approach
We dig past the topsoil and any soft orchard clay, pull old roots and loose cobble, and compact the subgrade in layers. Where the clay is heavy we lay fabric and add more base, so water has somewhere to go besides up into your pavers.
Every patio gets a slope away from the house and a planned exit for water. On clay lots we often add a gravel trench or a drain at the low edge. We fill joints with polymeric sand, which holds up to the summit wind far better than loose sand.
Before we set a fire pit or a grill, we look at which way the wind usually blows across your lot. Fire features go behind a seat wall or the house. Kitchens face so smoke drifts away from where you sit, not into the dining table.
From our job sites
Short videos from real J&H job sites. Tap one to play it with sound.
What homeowners say
"We had a really big project (full lot project) and a crazy timeline, and Jackson and his team were awesome. They are very efficient, work hard to get things done quick, and the quality of their work is top-notch. Great company. Great guys. I would highly recommend them for any landscaping needs."
"Jackson and his crew did a phenomenal job on our back yard. I had a vision and they brought it to life. We had them do a retaining wall, grading, underground trampoline, sprinkler system, and sod. They met deadlines, communication was on point, and the whole crew was friendly.…"
"…The job was completed quickly without sacrificing quality, and the results exceeded our expectations. We would absolutely hire this team again and recommend them to anyone looking for landscaping help."
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Your dream yard. Done right. Done on time.
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