Hardscape and Landscape Construction in Los Angeles, CA

Dick Minium Construction builds hardscape and landscape construction in Los Angeles, CA for architecturally significant homes on the Westside. Stone, concrete, steel, and planting outside the house: terraces, walls, pool surrounds, and gardens built with the same care as the rooms inside. You get exterior work built to the architect's drawings, with the engineering and detail the drawings call for.

What Our Hardscape and Landscape Construction Covers

Outdoor work is construction. It carries structure, drainage, and finish tolerances, and we treat it that way.

• Terraces and retaining walls. Retaining wall and terrace construction in stone, board-formed concrete, or steel, engineered for the slope and soil behind them, finished to the lines on the drawings.
• Pool surrounds and backyard construction. Pool and backyard construction around new or existing pools: coping, decking, surrounding walls, and the waterproofing details where hardscape meets water.
• Outdoor living construction. Covered terraces, outdoor kitchens, fire features, and seating walls that extend the architecture of the house rather than sit beside it.
• Hardscape landscaping. Paths, driveways, steps, and courtyards in stone and concrete, set over proper base work and drainage so they stay true.
• Gardens and planting. Residential landscaping built from the planting plan: soil preparation, irrigation, specimen placement, and the grading that keeps water moving away from the house.
• Exterior structure and lighting. Footings, steel, and the electrical runs that landscape lighting and outdoor rooms require, coordinated under one contract.

How the Work Runs

1. Walk the site with you and your architect

We start outside. We walk the grades, note where water goes now, and read the drawings against the ground as it exists. Owner and architect stay in the conversation from the first visit.

2. Resolve the engineering before anything is poured

Retaining walls, terraces over occupied space, and pool surrounds need structural answers first. We work through soils, footings, waterproofing, and drainage on paper so the field work follows a settled plan.

3. Build in sequence

Demolition and grading, then drainage and utilities, then structure, then finishes, then planting. Stone and concrete get the same layout discipline as interior millwork. Each stage gets checked against the drawings before the next covers it.

4. Finish and hand over

The job ends with graded soil, running irrigation, working lighting, and clean lines where hardscape meets planting. If we built or renovated the house, the exterior can fold into estate management so the house is watched after we leave.

What Shapes the Investment

The honest drivers are the site and the drawings. Slope matters most: a flat yard and a hillside terrace are different projects, and retaining structure, soils work, and engineering scale with the grade. Access matters on the Westside, where a rear yard reached through a side gate changes how material moves and how long the work takes.

Materials set the next tier. Dimensioned stone, board-formed concrete, and custom steel cost more than standard flatwork, and the difference shows for decades. Water is the last driver: pools, fountains, and anything built against them add waterproofing and detail work that should be priced honestly, not discovered later.

Every project is scoped from the drawings and the site itself. Call 310.392.6622 and we will walk the property with you and give you a concrete, line-by-line picture of the work.

Why Owners and Architects Call Us

Dick Minium Construction is a Westside Los Angeles general contractor for architecturally significant homes and the art inside them, working with owners, their architects, and collectors for more than thirty years. Hardscape and landscape construction sits inside the Build side of the workshop, alongside renovations, additions, and custom kitchens and baths. The same crews, the same tolerances, the same respect for the architect's intent.

The work is built to the drawings. When a terrace detail meets a condition the drawings did not anticipate, we bring the question back to the owner and architect with options, not improvisation. That patience for in-depth, highly personal custom work is the point of the firm.

We work across Los Angeles, Santa Monica, Beverly Hills, Malibu, Pacific Palisades, Brentwood, and West Hollywood. One call reaches the workshop: 310.392.6622.

Hardscape and Landscape Construction Questions, Answered

What is the difference between hardscape and landscape?

Hardscape is the built, non-living part of the exterior: terraces, walls, steps, pool surrounds, and paving in stone, concrete, and steel. Landscape is the living part: soil, planting, and irrigation. A good exterior project designs and builds both together, because the drainage and grading under the planting depend on the structure around it.

Do you handle landscape construction without a renovation?

Yes. Exterior projects stand on their own: a hillside terrace, a pool surround, a garden built from a planting plan. We take them on when the work demands the same standard we bring inside the house, and most often with the owner's architect or landscape architect at the table.

Do hardscape projects in Los Angeles need permits and engineering?

Often, yes. Retaining walls over certain heights, structures near pools, and hillside work generally require engineering and permits in Los Angeles. As the general contractor, we carry that coordination: structural calculations, drawings, and inspections move through one contract instead of several.

Can you build around an existing pool?

Yes. Pool surrounds, new coping, decking, and the walls and planting around an existing pool are regular work for us. The critical details are waterproofing and movement joints where new hardscape meets the old shell, and we resolve those before demolition starts.

How do you handle drainage on a sloped lot?

Drainage comes first, before any finish surface goes down. Westside hillside lots need subdrains behind retaining walls, graded swales, and collection points that move water away from the house and the neighbors. We build that system into the structure so it never depends on the finish work to perform.

Will the exterior work match the architecture of the house?

That is the standard we build to. The terrace, the walls, and the planting follow the architect's intent the way an interior room does, down to joint layout and material selection. If the house has a language, the exterior speaks it.

Get Started

If you are planning hardscape and landscape construction in Los Angeles, CA, the first step is a site walk with the drawings in hand. Call 310.392.6622 to arrange it. We will look at the grades, the access, and the plan, and give you a clear scope and a concrete quote for the work.

Prefer to talk it through? Call (310) 392-6622 — a quick call is usually the fastest way to get a straight answer for your situation.