The Biggest Backyard Mistakes that Can Cost You Thousands

Most homeowners make one critical mistake before work ever begins. They make decisions in the wrong order. I see the same thing happening over and over again. And today I'm going to teach you how professionals think before they ever put a shovel in the ground. There's three core principles that we always start with. We start with function. How are you going to actually use the space? That's core principle number one. Number two is we build the bones before the beauty. We analyze the drainage patterns, elevations. We want to make sure that whatever we install for you is never going to become a problem for you. We will not compromise beauty over bones. It's always bones before beauty. And then finally, number three, when we look at an outdoor space, we don't think of it as just one big backyard. Think of it as rooms. And I'm going to break all of these concepts down for you today so you get a thorough understanding and can do this on your own. Now, the best landscape designs always start inside of the house and take the components of the house and bring them outside. So, we want to match the function that the customer wants with the aesthetics that they're hoping to achieve, but we put the aesthetics at the very end. It's not the beginning stage, and this is the mistake a lot of homeowners make. Is just making the decisions in the wrong order. Right now, we're in the living room. To complement the living room, we wanted more outdoor living space. So, the outside creates an outdoor living space outside. We also wanted a relaxation zone, the zen zone, the zone away from the turmoil and chaos of the family cuz if you look around my house, you know what you see? Kids. Lots of kids. And yes, I'm blessed to have lots of kids, but that doesn't mean I want to be with those kids 24/7. They're my grandkids, I love them, but I'm older and I need to be able to get away from them. So, I need my own Zen Zone, so we created a Zen Zone separately. But, the children, also to be 100% fair, need their space as well. So, here's where we look at this. When we think of the outside as outdoor living spaces, the rooms, the Zen Zone is over here, and the opposite end of the house, the opposite side, is the kids zone. The moms spend a lot of time in the kitchen. They can look out the window and see exactly where the kids are. When you need to escape from the kids, you've got the entire structure to block you off, and then you have the common space in between, where this is the living room. We want to extend the living room outside. So, as we walk outside, this is meant to be an extension of the living room. And once we know exactly where to place these rooms, then we can start to design around the specific needs and tastes of the people or the customer in that in that typical situation. Now, in this situation, the customer is my wife. And she is water oriented. When I look at this thing, I'm not worried about what color the floorboards are going to be or the color of the stones or what goes in place. What I'm really thinking about is how can I optimize this layout to match the needs of the customer, plus the needs of the kids, plus the needs of separation. Now, one of the other mistakes that I see a lot of people making when they're designing these landscapes is in this case, as we look out way over there, that is a yard, right? And a lot of customers want to put their their gathering area out there. That is I always try to convince people please don't do that. Because your gathering area being way out there is not going to actually be used that often for gatherings. You will look at it, but you're not going to actually eventually continue to make that trip out there. So, you want to bring your gathering area as tight as close in as you possibly can while still keeping the entire landscape functional. So, when we design this thing, we look at where is everything going to to go and that's step one. So, when we start with function, our initial question is not what kind of patio should I build, it's how do I actually want to live in use that space. Questions like do I do you entertain? Uh do you cook outside? Do you want privacy? Do you have kids, pets, pool, fire pit, hot tub? Do you need a quiet retreat? On this property right now, we're going to show you how we answered all of those questions while utilizing principle number three, outdoor rooms. Not just one big backyard outdoor rooms. Now, for number two, when we build the bones before the beauty, often times people will start with, you know, what are their plants going to be like? Uh what about lights and furniture and decorations? And those are not the priority in any way, shape, or form. What we want to understand is traffic flow. We're trying to figure out elevations and drainage. When we're looking at this thing, we're looking at, you know, what's the right patio size for what you're trying to accomplish? Are we going to need retaining walls? Are we going Do we have utilities that are in the way? and what are the elevations that we need to to take into consideration as we're doing a design like this to make sure that not only is the traffic patterns flowing the right way, but the water is flowing the right way. We need 1 in of drop for every 8 ft. Now, as we look at this property, we have a little bit of a challenge. We have a lot of different elevations established. We have the covered outdoor living zone, and then we have a drop down because we want to get to this water level, but we have not just one, but two different water elevations that we're working with in this case. So, we needed the deck to be able to step down to give us access so that you can put your feet in the water and hang out over the pond. So, this water actually drops down here, so we have an a water elevation here that we've got to deal with. We've got a separate water elevation down here that we've got to deal with that we want to match and blend everything up to. So, when we're designing this thing, the deck is hiding a lot of secrets. Underneath that deck, the pitch is going down, and you can't see it, but any water that flows through that deck is hitting a gradient that allows the water to then be funneled away from the foundation of the house, away from the pond, and down to the both sides of the property. So, we don't want to try to create a swale with just one sense of direction. Whenever we have to course correct water, surface water, we don't want to create a gully washer or a riverbed in just one direction. We want to dissipate that water as fast as possible and get it into different zones so that it can then go away without creating erosion. Now, in this case, the water underneath the deck is designed to flow break this way, and you can see that great elevation change here, and go as fast as possible down to the side where it's now being able to control and channel. And we're using vegetation to help with the erosion elimination. Okay, I'm >> to jump in here because you cannot, and I repeat, cannot dump your water over your property line and into somebody else's property. You can dump it as quickly as you can to the property line, but from there you, the owner, must control your own water. And that must that probably means you're going to have to create a swale. You may have to put in drainage or something, but you're not allowed to take your water and make it somebody else's problem. Now, let's dive back into this video. But, instead of having all of the water from underneath this deck just go one way, we're splitting the gap this way. So, we're controlling it in the center and then we're splitting the gap this way. This is where we start with the bones over the beauty, form over function. We know we need an outdoor living space, but we also know that we've got to be able to handle any issues that come up. So, we need to put the proper things in working order. We're not worried about the aesthetics out of the gate. The aesthetics are the fun thing. That's the Bob Ross color your things, enjoy what you're doing after you get everything right. Now, this is another outdoor room and it's a great example how we divide a big backyard into separate spaces and then be able to create a buffer zone between these spaces whenever possible. Now, every landscape is unique, but here's what the way I want you guys to think. The window over there, that's the kitchen window. So, the moms can look out and see the kids playing and as well and the kids are pretty safe because this zone is entirely closed in. They can't get to the street, they can't get to the front yard. The only place they can get to is the backyard pond and that is a danger zone because that's a 5-ft deep pond. But, in that case, if the kids ever get out of sight, out of mind from that window, you can look out the big patio doors and instantly look into the pond to make sure they're secure. But, to have that buffer zone of privacy between the kids zone and the living room zone, here's a couple of unique things that have been done. As we design and build these things, we take all of these nuances into consideration. The kids zone is here. That's the outdoor living area that you can't see. So, as you're inside the outdoor living area, behind us is the flow of traffic, cars, vehicle, people, what have you. Nobody wants to see that. So, as you're relaxing, this blocks the street view, and then the fence blocks that, and then the plantings initially block it as well. So, we have a combination of all three working in unison to provide privacy as we do this. So, we first we started with function, then we built the bones, and then we think in outdoor rooms, and then finally we use the plantings as your buffer zone. So, we're able to put these plants This has plants on both the outside and inside to provide 360° protection 365 days a year protection for privacy. So, it's a combination of arborvitae's evergreens. I'm in Minnesota, these are going to grow up, provide constant um screening in the winter time. But, if you don't want to see just all evergreens, we have lilacs for flowers, and then evergreens on the other side of the fence to complement it. So, it's a crisscross applesauce type of a situation so that you if you're not stuck with just one or another. Again, this is all strategy that goes into this, but it's also putting everything in the proper working order. As we look at the rooms in this outdoor landscaping, the living room is protected from the kids zone by this entertainment center. So, that provides a natural barrier, and that's also a natural barrier from the street, from traffic, from anything cuz there cars can drive there. There is a street over there and you can't see it from the videos because we strategically used landscaping to create that privacy screen. So, now we have access to the Zen Zone from two strategic places on the property. And so, when we're designing a landscape, we always want to think of it from the inside as well as from the outside and the different rooms. So, we're going back to the three core principles. We start with function. How do we want to use each place? Then we build the bones before the beauty. And then it's a matter of separating each of these strategic spaces into different rooms, not just one big backyard. All right, from inside of the house is one of the access points to the Zen Zone. So, as we go out here and you can call whatever you want, but when we go out here, multiple points of attraction bring us out to this zone. So, we have a built-in bird feeder. Maybe it's an old person thing, but I have crows, blue jays, orioles. I have This thing is always full. Woodpeckers. And so, that from that area, I can see the birds from the kitchen. I can see them from the the alcove. But also, it brings us to this area here and this is an outdoor wood-burning sauna. So, this whole area was designed to offer complete privacy from the street, from views on the backyard, from views from the outdoor living area, and complete and utter isolation from the kids zone so that you can come down here, you can go in the hot outdoor wood-burning sauna, and then you can grill as well. Now, so I have a grill all the way down here cuz sometimes those grills have grease fires and the last thing I needed was a wood house starting on fire. So, we have one set of grills down here. We have this set up. I know it looks messy right now because I've just been grilling, but you can also see where the wood-fired sauna is outside. And that just gives me complete privacy, but when I need access to the rest of the house, here's how we've connected the dots. Now, another thing that I need you guys to think of is a landscaping in stages. It does not have to be one and done. You don't have to complete your landscaping all in one season. This is another mistake that a lot of contractors make when they're dealing with customers and customers make when they're dealing with contractors. Find a contractor that will do things in stages for you. This entire landscape was built in different stages, but it was all built strategically and tied together. A landscape architect will typically do a design and they'll draw your plants in for you and they'll give you an idea of what things are going to look like, and that can actually be a little bit misleading because then you start to think about the greenery, which is not a priority in any way, shape, or form. A good design builder is going to prioritize how are you going to use the space? Not what color is your patio going to be, but how is this going to be an extension of your personal needs? A landscape designer really wants this to be an extension of who you are and how you're going to utilize that space, and they're going to build around those principles. They get an idea of how you're going to use the space, but now we've got to worry about how are we going to craft the bones to make this vision come to life? What are the elevations? Because your elevations are going to set boundaries on what you can accomplish. You can't alter the physics of nature. So, water flows where water is going to flow. You have to take these things into consideration, and a good design builder is going to do absolutely that. There's going to be a little bit of flexibility that you, the customer or homeowner, needs to have. And if you're the design-builder yourself, you are going to have to understand you've got to build around these things or you're going to be building a problem, and you don't want to do that for your customer. And then you're going to separate the ultimately the landscape into different zones whenever you have a the possibility to do that. And then, if you are working with a really good contractor and you're the homeowner, the contractor is going to be able to separate your projects into timelines as well. It does not have to be done all one and done all at once. You can do the pond at one point. You can do the gazebo at another point, the outdoor Zen zone at another point, the outdoor playground at another point. You can split an outdoor landscaping project up into different timelines and different years. And that's as long as you get the order and process. We go back to the beginning of the video, and one of the main mistakes that I see a lot of homeowners making is putting the wrong things in the wrong orders before they even spend their first dollar. Once you start to think like the pros think, it's going to help you be able to design your own, build your own, and then find a contractor that can see your vision and complete it for you. Now, I know we covered a lot of ground, but I really hope something like this helps you guys out. So, when you have a landscape design-builder or contractor come out to your property and he starts breaking these things down for you, it'll get you guys on the same page. Your contractor on the same page, you the homeowner on the same page, creating the same vision, which is going to ultimately give you the finalized dream. And don't rush it. But, that's all we've got for you on today's video. I hope it's helped you out. God bless and go get them, you guys.