Front yard landscaping, Peninsula & South Bay

A paver driveway or walkway, artificial turf or planting, irrigation and lighting, coordinated into one build so the curb appeal reads as a whole.

Yes, $25,000. Most front yards combine several of the scopes above.

Most complete Sequoia front yards land between about $25,000 and $150,000, against a $25,000 construction minimum, and hillside frontages with substantial retaining go well above it. The driveway is usually what decides where inside that range you land, because it is the largest surface and the deepest build.

Access. The dump container, the base rock and the pavers all sit at the curb, so the material moves by machine instead of by wheelbarrow through a side gate. That is a labor difference, not a quality one, and it is the single reason the same square footage can cost noticeably less out front. A sloped frontage with retaining and stairs closes that gap quickly.

From about $30 per square foot for the paver driveway field, installed. A driveway is a deeper section than a patio because it carries vehicle loads, so more of that number is base and compaction than most people assume. Walkways and entries start higher per foot, around $37, because a small area spreads mobilization, cuts and borders over fewer feet.

Yes, and it is cheaper than doing them in sequence. One mobilization, one excavation, one set of grades, and the irrigation sleeves and lighting conduit go in under the paving while it is open. Splitting the work means somebody later cuts a trench through a driveway you have already paid for.

Often, and not always from the department you expect. The driveway approach where it meets the street is usually in the public right of way, which is a separate permission from anything on your own land, and towns differ on who issues it. Walls above a certain height, significant grading and protected street trees each add their own review. We identify which apply to your address during design.

In our experience, in this order: a clear and generous route to the front door, edges that hold a line, planting that frames the house rather than covering it, and light after dark. Expensive materials laid out badly read worse than modest materials laid out well, which is why the plan matters more than the paver.

In San Mateo County the ordinance engages at 500 square feet of new landscape or 2,500 square feet of rehabilitated landscape, and a full frontage refresh usually clears the first of those. Below 2,500 square feet most residential projects can take the prescriptive route, which sets fixed minimums such as four cubic yards of compost per 1,000 square feet and a three-inch mulch layer. Cities adopt their own versions and several are stricter.

Usually, and often you must. Several Peninsula towns protect trees at a specific trunk circumference, and street trees in the right of way are the city’s rather than yours. What we check first is the root plate against where the new hardscape wants to go, because paving over a root zone is how a mature tree dies three years after the job finishes.

Less than a comparable backyard, because access is better and there is usually less of it, but the approvals run on their own clock. Plan on starting design two to three months before you want crews on site, and expect a driveway approach permit or a protected tree review to sit in that window rather than alongside it.