Landscaping in Rome, GA

The ground in Rome

Rome sits where the Etowah and the Oostanaula become the Coosa, and the ground tells you which side of that you are on. River-bottom lots carry deep alluvial soil that digs easily and drains well until the water table finds it. Up on the ridges it is red clay weathered out of the rock underneath: tight, slow, and hard on anything that needs to shed water.

What that means for the build

On the bottoms the question is where the water goes in a hard rain, not whether the soil will hold a wall. On the ridge lots it is the reverse. The same pool and terrace can need a French drain and a daylight outfall on one street and a stepped block wall with a drainage aggregate backfill three streets over.

The properties

Between the historic districts near Broad Street, the newer subdivisions out toward Armuchee, and acreage on the river, Rome covers every kind of property BDS builds on.

What usually leads in Rome

Every trade is available across the whole service area. These are the ones that tend to carry a Rome project:

• Pools & Pool DecksPools, and everything that makes one usable: deck, coping, retaining, fence, grade and planting. Whether BDS is installing the pool or picking up where a pool builder left off, this is what turns the hole in the clay into a back yard.
• Hardscape & Paver TerracesPool decks, terraces, walkways and stepping-stone paths. Compacted base, screeded bedding, cut edges and a locked perimeter. The part nobody sees is the part that decides whether it is still flat in ten years.
• DrainageFrench drains, catch basins, downspout tie-ins and swales. Georgia clay does not drink water. It holds it, and every terrace, wall and lawn on this list lasts exactly as long as the water under it is managed.

All ten trades run in-house, so one crew and one schedule covers the whole job.

See the work

The featured jobs are documented before and after, from the same camera position. They are the honest version of what a finished project looks like.