Every spring the same thing happens. The weather turns, people start sitting outside, and everyone wants a patio or a wall done by summer. If you want yours built in spring, the time to start is now, while the yard is still bare and nobody is in a hurry.
Our crews build walls, patios, and the rest of the hardscape all season, and spring is when the requests pile up. In March you can usually ask for a particular week. By late April the calendar fills up fast, and by June we are booking out months. Homeowners who got their estimate in during the winter pick the timing. Everyone else takes what is open.
Some of it is timing the thaw and some of it is paperwork. Larger retaining walls often need a permit, and South Hills townships take different amounts of time to turn one around. Starting early gives the permit room to move without pushing your start date. Our spring hardscape planning post goes through the same pattern from the spring side.
Our own numbers say the same thing. In the 2026 season report, March and April produced 45% of the year's quote requests, and those two months closed at the highest rate of the season. Everything after May sits well below it.
I walk the property. For a patio that means looking at where it sits against the house, how the yard drains, where a machine can reach, and what is in the way. For a wall it means looking at the slope, what is being held back, and where the water goes. I write the estimate myself after the visit.
A bare yard in winter is easier to read than one full of leaves and plantings. You can see the real grade and the real drainage, and you can see the lines that need to move.
Frozen ground does not stop the conversation. It only stops the digging, and the estimate does not need digging.
Our Patio Packages section on the patios page lays out three set sizes with what each includes, along with the add-ons, so you can see where your yard fits before we meet.
Once you are ready to move forward, we lock in your spot on the calendar and order materials. We coordinate any permits the project needs and handle the logistics, so the first day on site is a build day. Most residential retaining walls take one to four days, depending on length, height, and site conditions. Most patios take two to five days, with smaller straightforward ones done in one to two. Larger outdoor living spaces with fire features, walls, and steps can take one to two weeks.
Weather and material availability can move those dates, which is one more reason to be near the front of the schedule and not the back. A winter booking also gives us time to order what your project needs ahead of the season, so materials are not the thing holding up your start date. It also gives you time to ask questions, compare the estimate against the calculators, and change your mind about the size before anything is ordered.
A lot of the yards we visit need both. A patio on a slope often needs a retaining wall above or below it, and it is much easier to design the two as one project than to add a wall to a finished patio later. A winter visit lets us look at the whole yard at once and give you one plan, with the order of work spelled out, and you decide how much to do this spring and how much to leave for next year.
If you want a number before anyone comes out, the paver patio calculator and the retaining wall calculator give you one in a couple of minutes. They are a starting point. The site visit is what turns that into a price for your yard, and sites with tight access or a slope can come out differently.
We build patios and retaining walls across the South Hills, including Upper St. Clair, Bethel Park, and Peters Township. If you are weighing a spring project, send us a note through the contact page and we will set up a time to walk the property.
As early as you can, and over the winter is best. In March you can usually still pick a week. By late April the schedule fills fast, and by June we are booking out months.
Yes. A site visit and an estimate do not need digging. A bare yard in winter is easy to read for grade, drainage, and access.
Often, when the wall is tall enough. Many South Hills municipalities require a permit for walls over a certain height, typically four feet, and the rules vary by township. We will tell you what applies to your property during the estimate.
