Hard and Soft Scapes

On this episode, we're talking about hard and soft scapes. Join Jeremy and Emily for a conversation about the two and how they complement each other. 

https://youtu.be/bQCObBXCRW4https://yardstopgardencenter.com/

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Roll the intro. Welcome back to episode 22 on the ArtStop Podcast. I'm your host, Emily, and today we're going to be talking about soft and hardcape. Our guest speaker is here. Welcome back to the podcast, Dan.

SPEAKER_00 0:15

Thanks. Be back.

SPEAKER_01 0:17

I think we did episode eight with you on landscape.

SPEAKER_00 0:21

Yeah, design projects.

SPEAKER_01 0:22

Yep. We're still doing that, right?

SPEAKER_00 0:25

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_01 0:26

Okay. Well, we've got questions about hardscapes and soft scapes. Um can you tell us what the difference is between the two? Because I didn't know. I I looked up or I was re I was researching about hardscapes and softscapes, and I was like, what is a soft scape?

SPEAKER_00 0:41

It doesn't well, I mean, the basic the basic difference between hardscape and softscape is your softscape is mainly your live landscaping. It's mainly your plants and your trees and your shrubs. Um it's called soft scapes because it's the more fragile parts of a landscape project.

SPEAKER_02 1:02

Right.

SPEAKER_00 1:02

Hardscapes would be the other items that we do, which is kind of your core of a landscape project. Um your your um pavers, your rock, your artificial turf, um, you know, things like that.

SPEAKER_01 1:17

So hardscape is permanent. Softscape is obviously not permanent.

SPEAKER_00 1:23

Yeah, to a degree. Yeah. I mean, a lot of times landscape, well, I guess landscaping isn't always permanent because at some point it does have an expiration.

SPEAKER_01 1:31

Right.

SPEAKER_00 1:32

But um, but yeah, that's a good way to put it.

SPEAKER_01 1:35

Is one more is one more cost effective than the other in the long run?

SPEAKER_00 1:42

Ooh.

SPEAKER_01 1:43

So I'm I mean papers are expensive.

SPEAKER_00 1:45

Sure, you're artificial turf. Most of your most of your core products, that's kind of the foundation of a landscape project, um, is where a lot of your heavy costs come in.

SPEAKER_02 1:56

Right.

SPEAKER_00 1:57

Um, but at the same time, you know, those heavy costs come with lower maintenance going, you know, going forward. Where with your soft scape side, you usually have to do a certain amount of uh maintenance, yeah, you know, treatments, trimming, fertilization, watering, all those things. Um, and on the hardscape sides where it costs you a little bit more money, um those things are there, and you typically have very little maintenance in the future.

SPEAKER_01 2:28

But you do have some. Like if you do pavers, you'd have to pressure wash every here and there.

SPEAKER_00 2:34

Yeah, depending on the environment. Um, right. You know, you may have to clean them. Some people seal them, some people prefer not to seal them. You may have to uh, you know, re-infill sand every few years, something like that.

SPEAKER_01 2:48

Right. What's the maintenance on artificial turf? Well, because especially if you have pets, I often wonder that. People that do dog breeding, they'll put down artificial turf. And I'm like, how do you clean that? Like, how do you maintain that?

SPEAKER_00 3:00

That's a great question. Actually, that's a very popular question. I've had that twice this week already.

SPEAKER_01 3:04

Really?

SPEAKER_00 3:05

Um, a lot of people are starting to turn to artificial turf because they they feel like that um their pets, especially dogs, have um various sensitivities to weeds and grass and like fleas too.

SPEAKER_01 3:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:24

Fleas. Um so they they they look down the artificial turf avenue and and uh that they asked ask the question, you know, how do we clean this with our dog? Well, there is special turfs available that we install and sell that are very permeable, uh especially for urine. And um you simply hose it off, you can blow it off, sweep it off. And a lot of our turfs now carry 10 to 15 year warranties.

SPEAKER_01 3:51

Nice. Tell us more about the warranty.

SPEAKER_00 3:54

Well, the warranty would cover fading, it would cover um you know the blades of the of the turf falling off or breaking. Um that those are the main two warranty problems. Right. Um, buckling and bubbling in the turf, um, which we don't see very often.

SPEAKER_02 4:12

Right.

SPEAKER_00 4:13

It does happen if if something moves underneath the surface of the turf. But um, you know, if you look at how much turf is used on ball fields, for example, your gosh, your college and professional ball fields, so many of them are artificial these days, even high school fields. A lot of there's a lot of high schools that are putting artificial turf down. And you look at the abuse that those turfs take, um, they've kind of set the standard for us to be able to use, you know, durable quality products uh in home and commercial grade applications like we do.

SPEAKER_01 4:50

Right. Well, you said artificial turf is becoming a lot more popular. Lots of people are doing that. Um, would you say that's one of the most popular hardscapes that people choose?

SPEAKER_00 5:00

It certainly is becoming more and more popular. Um, over the last five or six years, you know, personally I've seen it become more and more part of the conversation. You know, just this week alone, it's only Thursday, I've had three different customers that specifically are looking to do artificial turf, which a few years ago, if if I had a customer or two a month that wanted to talk about artificial turf, yeah, you know, that was that was the norm. And so it's definitely becoming a more and more popular conversation.

SPEAKER_01 5:33

Right. Um but uh why is it so expensive?

SPEAKER_00 5:38

You know, artificial turf isn't just the artificial turf, you know, the buying the turf itself isn't the expensive part of the project. There's a lot of prep that goes into doing an artificial turf project. The ground beneath it has to be uh prepped in such a way that it still has some form of permeable, you know, water retain retention runoff. Um, we use certain types of uh concrete products, rock products, um infill uh aggregate that all goes into the installation of the turf, which makes it this nice, smooth, soft surface when we're done.

SPEAKER_02 6:20

Right.

SPEAKER_00 6:20

And that's where the cost comes in, not to mention the labor costs. Wow. It's it's uh it's a it's an art. It's an art to just like pavers, it's an art to install pavers to do it correctly anyway. Yeah, um, it's it's definitely an art. I I actually saw a paver project this week that we were asked to add on to.

SPEAKER_01 6:42

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 6:42

Um that we we did not do the install of pavers uh of this project, and um several years later the customer now wants to add on, and they've called us to to come and do that. And quite honestly, our installation's gonna look a lot better because it is an art, and you know, you can get people to install pavers that aren't necessarily quite the paper artists. I mean, you can take just average pavers and do a great install job and make them look fantastic. The installation is everything. So back to your original question with the is that you know, same with the turf that the installation of it um makes or breaks makes or breaks the job.

SPEAKER_01 7:23

So can you I guess I feel like now we're just talking about the specifics of the hardscapes, which is perfect for this episode. Um so can you really quick just walk us through then what the install looks like for the artificial turf? And then we can go to papers too.

SPEAKER_00 7:39

Yeah, so with an artificial turf installation, um of course it depends on the environment that we're installing it in. Not all environments are the same. Okay. Um meaning that you know, we could be starting on a hill, we could be starting in sugar sand, we could be starting over, you know, hard packed clay or you know, depends on what the ground is below it. Okay, and it also depends on what kind of turf we're putting down. If we're putting in uh a surface that's just for casual use in someone's yard, um, that installation would most times be a harder packed, um fine-based material that we would, you know, grade level and compact.

SPEAKER_01 8:22

Um like for a pudding green or like a mini bowl course.

SPEAKER_00 8:26

For definitely for a pudding green, those are more hard, a hard-packed surface. Um, but even for your casual use in your backyard, if you were gonna do that, it would still be a nice leveled, hard-packed, fine base um material, right? Usually three to four inches worth. So we have to excavate that area several inches deep and and create that several inch bed to install these infilled materials, level it, pack it.

SPEAKER_01 8:53

Do we um level it with clay? Like, do we put a um what is it, crushed concrete or concrete finds?

SPEAKER_00 8:59

So we'll leave that. Like concrete finds is a common use in in those types of surfaces. Um, putting greens, casual use. When you start talking about pet surfaces, you would use more of a small rock base underneath because it's a lot more permeable, so that things like urine and things that stink with with animals will be absorbed through and be absorbed into the ground and and makes it disappear, you know.

SPEAKER_01 9:25

And like slightly off topic, but like is that sanitary?

SPEAKER_00 9:29

Like it is, it's a sanitary.

SPEAKER_01 9:31

I always think about that with artificial turf.

SPEAKER_00 9:32

I'm like, that's like well, the turf doesn't necessarily absorb those materials. So from that aspect, it's not like if a dog urinates on on the turf, it's gonna absorb it and hang on to it. Um, at least most of it's not absorbed, you know. The majority of it will will go down into the surface through the rock into the ground and absorb. Right. And there's also products you can use to keep those surfaces in a heavy pet environment. You may want to use some, you know, uh products that help keep the smell down.

SPEAKER_02 10:06

Right.

SPEAKER_00 10:06

But in an average backyard where a family may have one dog, two dogs, right? Um, that's typically not a problem.

SPEAKER_01 10:15

So is it the paver base or clay or whatever you use to kind of level and harden it out? And then do you put weed cloth underneath? How do you keep weeds from growing up?

SPEAKER_00 10:26

Well, you know, typically speaking, you don't have that problem. Once it's all compacted underneath and it's and it's prepped properly, weeds are gonna be at a minimum. Not to mention the thatching that the turf is uh made on is very tight. So it does sort of become a weed blocker and keep you know, keep weeds at bay.

SPEAKER_01 10:49

Right. Do they make sprays like to clean artificial turf?

SPEAKER_00 10:53

Can you clean it, like hose it down or wash it cleaning it like using sprays that you can purchase that that will help with odor, with you know, um with sanitary issues.

SPEAKER_02 11:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:07

But um, I mean you can also go out there with a soft brush, you know, uh almost like something you would wash a car with, a soft brush and and soaps and clean it if it became that big of a problem.

SPEAKER_02 11:18

Right.

SPEAKER_00 11:19

I would say most people don't ever do that because probably not. You don't really need to.

SPEAKER_01 11:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:23

But um, but if it did, you can certainly clean it.

SPEAKER_01 11:28

Yeah. I don't know if I would want artificial turf in my yard, but maybe that's just because you know, I've never had it.

SPEAKER_00 11:35

Well, it's not for everyone, but you know, the thing about artificial turf for people that have a yard, it just drives them crazy because they don't want to maintain it, they can't keep it you know, green, they can't keep it from becoming weed infested. Their sod keeps dying. Yeah, sod's dying, and that's not always the grass, by the way. I mean, oftentimes that becomes issues with your soil and you don't know it. You know, your soil in certain areas may have a strong acidic uh factor, or it may it may have something there that's just not allowing grass to grow well. And so for people that that really drives them crazy and they want always that perfect look, um, they should come and look at some of the projects we've done where people walk out in their backyard or or wherever it is, and it just looks beautiful all the time.

SPEAKER_01 12:24

I'll put some I'll have to put some footage up on the screen.

SPEAKER_00 12:26

Yeah, people because we've done some projects. I have a project that that comes to my mind that we did a year, year and a half or so ago in uh in Leesburg. And you know, they just walk out the backyard and it always looks perfect.

SPEAKER_01 12:41

That is true.

SPEAKER_00 12:42

And they had they had a hard time with grass for years because of the shade canopy they have, and so they finally gave up and they did a section of their yard and turf and they liked it so much they had us come back and do more of it, and now it's just beautiful green, nice, thick bladed grass. That's uh that's where the benefit comes in. You know, you spend a lot more money, but but in that case, the satisfaction of always having that in your backyard, you take a blower, you blow the leaves off of it, and you're done. You go on. Looks like you just did a day's worth of yard work.

SPEAKER_01 13:15

Yeah, it does look classy, it looks nice. Um, how many varieties, and this might be a broad question, but how many varieties of artificial turf are there? And do we sell all of them? Do we offer all of them?

SPEAKER_00 13:31

Uh definitely a broad question. Um, you know, there's there's several manufacturers out there, I mean a bunch that manufacture their different types of turf. Um so there's there's a ton more than I could even start to name. But um uh generally speaking, we offer six to nine different kinds of turf that that ranges from like your very short thatched uh putting green surfaces all the way up to nice thick bladed, you know, almost St. Augustine looking, yeah, Zoja-looking sod um turfs that are more of your, you know, you can choose basically. You can choose what level of sod or turf you want as far as how long a blade, how thick a blade, um depending on what you're doing with the surface. And there's even artificial turfs that are colored, and that's most commonly used in um like there's a water uh park area that we did that you know required red turf and blue turf.

SPEAKER_01 14:33

And that's kind of cool.

SPEAKER_00 14:34

Uh yeah, so you can you can pick and choose those type of things for different situations if you want to create like a water-looking area, even though it you can tell it's not real water, it kind of insinuates that or sand bunker looking turf. If you have a putting green, um, you would you obviously use a white in that area. So you have all of that, but as green turfs go, we have um you know six to nine different types of turf to choose from.

SPEAKER_01 15:05

Nice. I feel like you would see colored turf at like Disney or something.

SPEAKER_00 15:09

Absolutely. Yeah, all the theme parks have areas where they use different colors of turf. A lot of your splash pads and uh city county park areas that use artificial turf will use various colors.

SPEAKER_01 15:21

Um so you can almost put it anywhere. Like it's not restricted to like it's really not restricted to sun or shade because it's not real.

SPEAKER_00 15:28

That's right.

SPEAKER_01 15:29

But it probably it'll fade more in the sun, obviously.

SPEAKER_00 15:31

Yeah, yeah. If it's in direct sunlight, eventually it will. But right, um, yeah, there's there's no restriction really of where you can use artificial turf. There's definitely grade qualities though.

SPEAKER_01 15:42

Um yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:43

So I mean, we've had we've had people that have asked us to install turf that they bought from Lowe's.

SPEAKER_01 15:49

And uh I didn't know Lowe's offered that.

SPEAKER_00 15:52

Yeah, they offer rolled rolled turf, but quite honestly, it's not the same, it's not the same grade of turf that we would typically sell. Real quick on the turf is that you know that's why we can give 10-year and 15-year warranties because of the grade of turfs that we use. Right. We that's where the costs come in, and people say, Oh my gosh, you know, this is so expensive. Well, it's it's a pay, it's a get what you pay for type of scenario. Yeah. Um, you know, you can always save money and and buy a less expensive turf, but you're also sacrificing warranty, and a lot of times you're sacrificing the install, depending on who that is. Yeah, because a lot of your really good installers don't want to install cheap turf.

SPEAKER_02 16:31

Right.

SPEAKER_00 16:32

Because it reflects on them. But cheap turf won't stay as straight, it'll buckle, it'll it'll do different things.

SPEAKER_01 16:38

Yeah, I've seen some.

SPEAKER_00 16:39

And then that reflects on the installer. So that's where the cost comes in, and that's where we have to uh help our customers understand that you know there is a cost to quality.

SPEAKER_01 16:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:52

And um, you know, we choose quality over necessarily trying to be the the cheapest option. We want to make sure that when it's done, that even if they spend a little bit more, they're looking at it going, we hit a home run here.

SPEAKER_01 17:05

Yeah, it'll be better in the long run.

SPEAKER_00 17:07

And that also reflects on pavers. There's certain yeah brands of pavers that we just won't we just don't mess with, and and it's because of what we have seen it ourselves, uh known problems that continue to reoccur. And right, and so for that reason, we we choose to um only sell what we consider to be the best product.

SPEAKER_02 17:29

Right.

SPEAKER_00 17:30

And uh, and again, that often reflects in price, but we choose to have less issues you know going forward with the products, and so therefore we choose the products that we know will last.

SPEAKER_01 17:42

Can you give us a list of everything we offer hardscape?

SPEAKER_00 17:45

Yeah, so from a hardscape perspective, um, that would include like pergolas, you know, uh roofing structures, uh, fire pits, outdoor kitchens, um, you know, which that's wild to mild, uh, or mild to wild on that. That you can come up with your idea how far you want to go with an outdoor kitchen. Um, obviously pavers, artificial turf, um, hard bed walls that we would create out of different block and stone materials, like boulders, right, rock, um, various types of rock and granite that we use uh in beds and areas of the of the yard. Um fountains.

SPEAKER_01 18:25

Fountains are hardscape, right?

SPEAKER_00 18:27

Anything that's a solid structure, we do it, we do all of it. We stock all of it. We stock it all.

SPEAKER_01 18:32

We do.

SPEAKER_00 18:33

We carry it and uh we're prepared to to help a customer design where it should go and make that come to life.

SPEAKER_01 18:40

Right. How do how do hardscapes and soft gapes, softscapes complement each other? Like I feel like as a designer, you mostly always put the two together when you're doing a project or you know, a landscape design for a customer.

SPEAKER_00 18:57

Um it's actually a good question how they how they work together because uh twice this week already I'm I'm in the middle of a design uh for two different projects. One's a backyard project, the other one is a large condominium that has a common area for the owners of the condominiums, and it's a large area of pavers at this particular project that is around a pool area. And it when when we came up with the hardscape side of it, it um it was it was going to look very plain, uh, even though it certainly gave them the usable space. Uh, without some soft scapes, it looked very bland and commercial. So, you know, to have to to kind of bring your question to life is to have some soft scapes or some plants and mulch and right and true a few little trees or whatever implemented into that plan uh changed the entire look and and really softened it up and made it feel more at home rather than just a commercial space to use.

SPEAKER_02 20:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:08

Uh same goes for the backyard project that I'm designing right now, that the customer wants pavers, turf, and rock, uh kind of a campfire sitting area out of rock and a patio, uh, and then artificial turf, mainly because they don't want to fool with the sod having to keep up with sod anymore.

SPEAKER_01 20:28

They don't love the sods.

SPEAKER_00 20:29

No, so they're creating this backyard space that's going to be no grass at all. And um, but again, when we got got done creating the design of the areas they wanted, we really had to focus on putting some soft scape plants and and small trees around it to sort of bring the creativity to life and make it feel nice and soft and inviting.

SPEAKER_01 20:54

Right. Yeah, I went out to a job a while ago and it was mostly all hardscape. It was really cool though. It had like stepping stones, a bunch of, I think it was pea gravel laid around the plants and around the boulders. And there were some plants, but there was uh it had artificial turf. It looked really nice, but without plants, it kind of feels like a desert.

SPEAKER_00 21:17

That's right. I think you need both to complement each other. They they absolutely work together. I have I can't think of a project that I've ever been a part of that we did hardscape only.

SPEAKER_01 21:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:31

At least without it looking very kind of cold and just yeah, plain.

SPEAKER_01 21:35

Right.

SPEAKER_00 21:36

Uh the soft scapes always brings the whole project to life.

SPEAKER_01 21:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:40

It's kind of like it's kind of like building a new home and not putting any landscaping around it.

SPEAKER_01 21:45

That's really sad.

SPEAKER_00 21:47

You can build a you can build a nice big beautiful home.

SPEAKER_01 21:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:50

And uh any scale of home you can imagine. And when you don't put any landscape around a new home, it just kind of looks unfinished.

SPEAKER_01 21:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:00

Very bland.

SPEAKER_01 22:01

Right.

SPEAKER_00 22:02

And so, you know, you gotta have that complete package.

SPEAKER_01 22:06

I agree. If that's what you want. I guess it's all about what the customer wants. That's true. Depends on what your vision is.

SPEAKER_00 22:11

I guess that's an opinion, but yeah, that is.

SPEAKER_01 22:13

That's our biased opinion.

SPEAKER_00 22:16

Your house looks plain if it has no landscaping.

SPEAKER_01 22:18

It needs a little something. Well, I feel like we didn't get to talk a lot about papers, but that's okay. We can always redo, we can always do an episode on that. Maybe I'll get Alyssa in here.

SPEAKER_00 22:27

Do you want to throw some thoughts in on papers for the case?

SPEAKER_01 22:29

We can throw some we can throw some thoughts in there. What do you got?

SPEAKER_00 22:31

Well, there's something. So there's something that I think I hear a lot um when it comes to papers, is that you know, there's a right way and a wrong way to do papers. So I'll give you a couple references. So recently um I was called to a home because they the family purchased this home. It had a bunch of papers already, uh, mainly in the driveway. And um it was a mess. It was the papers were all cracked and broken, and they were like, I don't think the papers are really that old, and they weren't. I mean, if I had to guess, they were five or six years old.

SPEAKER_02 23:06

Right.

SPEAKER_00 23:07

And it was just a mess. And so I started looking into it, and they used a 30 millimeter paver on this driveway, which is um like barely over an inch thick, and they're what I would consider patio pavers. So, for reference, we never use a paver that's less than 60 millimeters unless we have to, unless there's a reason we have to use a 30 millimeter paver. Um, and the reason we do that is because a 60 millimeter paver is a lot more durable, and um, typically speaking, uh allows you to have a lot more guaranteeable service surface to use. And um, so again, you have to be cautious, you know, as a customer that's out here wanting to do pavers, you have to know, okay, it's not just about how much square footage I'm doing, it's about what what kind of paver am I getting in that square footage?

SPEAKER_01 24:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 24:02

Um, and then the installation is the is the other big key.

SPEAKER_01 24:05

That's like the found, yeah. Well, that's your foundation, yeah. Whatever you build on.

SPEAKER_00 24:09

Yeah, the installation is is key because I've seen people again. I had a house in the villages that we just did a bunch of repairs on the pavers. Um, and we took a sidewalk up that was a mess, and they the customer's like, I don't know why it's so bad. Well, there was the prep work was horrible. They they basically compacted the the earth that was there and put the pavers down. And you can't just compact the earth that is usually there, you have to add something, you have to dig that out and put the proper preparation underneath the pavers, which usually requires bringing in concrete fines or the right type of you may use a clay base underneath that for those fines. Yeah, you know, there's there's prep work involved, and that's the one thing we don't miss is the prep work. We make sure that the prep work is done properly because we want it to be right.

SPEAKER_01 25:01

That's the most important part. We offer warranty on pavers too, right?

SPEAKER_00 25:06

Sure. I mean, we always stand behind our installation if there's a if there's a problem and and the pavers, if the papers, you know, we don't usually have a lot of it's very rare we get problems with the actual pavers themselves. If there is a problem with the paper themselves, typically you would know we would notice it as we're going. Yeah, and I can think of a couple cases over the last couple of years where hey, we're halfway through a project and we're like, something's not right with these papers, and you know, we fix it ahead, you know, we fix it right then.

SPEAKER_01 25:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 25:36

But we certainly stand behind our work. And I think any customer that um that knows us, I could certainly come up with a list of customers that you know may have had to call us for small issues over the last few years, and we we step up and and take care of that.

SPEAKER_01 25:53

Right. You mentioned something about some papers are sealed. Some people want their papers sealed and some people don't seal them. I thought you had to seal them.

SPEAKER_00 26:02

No, you don't have to seal papers. Um papers at my own house aren't sealed, but um what is sealing?

SPEAKER_01 26:09

What's involved with that?

SPEAKER_00 26:10

It's a it's a uh coating that's sprayed on the papers. Okay, and it basically it helps it does help bring some of the colors out. Um and basically it it helps from fading. Um doesn't doesn't prevent it from fading, but it does kind of slow that process. Um, but sealing is is something that has to be done right, it has to be done at the right time.

SPEAKER_02 26:35

Right.

SPEAKER_00 26:36

Um a mistake that we've seen many times is people sealing papers right after they're laid, and that's a big no-no because papers are wet. They're they're they come from the factory needing to cure and and dry out, and the only way for them to do that is to be laid on the ground and and then you give it a certain amount of time where they can cure and sort of dry out. Uh you definitely don't want to seal wet papers because it will be problematic.

SPEAKER_01 27:04

That's actually a really good question. How long does it take for papers to cure?

SPEAKER_00 27:08

Um, well, kind of open-ended depending on weather, but um, you know, typically 30 to 60 days after they're late is a good time frame.

SPEAKER_02 27:18

Right.

SPEAKER_00 27:18

Um, to give it, especially in Florida, especially if they're out in an open area where they don't have a lot of shade coverage, you know, you might be on the shorter side of that. Um if we've had a lot of rain, they might need more like 60 days. But um, you know, that's kind of the a rough gauge of cure time once they've been laid.

SPEAKER_01 27:38

Does sealing help prevent the fading? Or is sealing more for aesthetic appeal?

SPEAKER_00 27:44

Well, it is for aesthetics, but it it also does have a function to keep things from staining into the pavers.

SPEAKER_01 27:50

Yeah, I've seen that. I've seen some pavers.

SPEAKER_00 27:52

You know, so if you if you drop a drop of oil on a paper that's just been sealed, it'll kind of bubble on top instead of soaking in.

SPEAKER_01 28:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 28:01

Um, same thing with concrete, right? Basically, concrete driveway, same same scenario.

SPEAKER_01 28:07

And you can pressure wash pavers to clean them. I've always wondered about that because I feel like pressure washing, it would get in between the cracks and like loosen the the brick.

SPEAKER_00 28:16

And it can if it's pressure washed improperly, you know. Right. You you when you're cleaning papers, you don't want to blow all the infill sand out because it will loosen them up. Uh, but going through every few years and putting some more infill sand in is is an easy process. Right. You can do it yourself at home. Anybody can do it literally. And um or you can call us to come and help you do it if you need it, if it needs to be done again.

SPEAKER_01 28:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 28:46

But uh, and that's a that's a misconception that a lot of people don't understand is when they see us doing that sand infill at the end of a project, um they they often ask us, you know, why is it not up to the top? We're missing a bunch of sand. And the sand doesn't have to be at the top, the sand is just there to fill in, you know, a good portion of that. Let's say you have a two-inch paver, right? And if that sand infills an inch uh of the bottom half of that paver, then it's holding that paver in place, and that's all it needs to do.

SPEAKER_01 29:18

So the sand is there to keep the paver from moving so that it has time to settle.

SPEAKER_00 29:22

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 29:23

Well, thanks for coming on the podcast, Jeremy.

SPEAKER_00 29:26

No problem.

SPEAKER_01 29:27

Thanks for tuning in to this podcast, y'all. I hope it is helpful. If you're interested in getting a free quote on Heartscape or SoftScape, you can go check out our website, theartscapeartscenter.com, and fill out the free quote. And maybe it'll be Jeremy that helps you. All right, we'll see you guys in the next episode.

SPEAKER_00 29:47

Hey, let's get to landscape and hardscape.