About Sequoia Outdoor
One team, accountable from design to sign-off.
Sequoia Outdoor is a design-build landscape and hardscape company serving the Peninsula and South Bay. We design it, price it and run the build under one contract and one license, with licensed trade partners doing the work each trade calls for, and we finish on the date we put in writing.
100+
Completed Peninsula & South Bay builds
4.9
Average across 72 star-rated reviews on six platforms
A+
BBB accredited rating
2
Counties served, San Mateo & Santa Clara
Why we exist
The finish is the easy part. We compete on what you never see.
Anyone can lay pavers. Estate driveways and terraces fail at the base, the drainage, and the details that get covered before you ever look at them. We built Sequoia Outdoor to do that hidden work right, and to be the rare contractor who tells you when the job is actually done, because we said so in writing.
Design-build means one accountable company owns the whole project: the plan, the selections, the schedule, the licensed trades in your yard and the sign-off. You are not hiring a designer and then hunting for a contractor to interpret the drawings. The people who priced the plan are the people responsible for delivering it.
And we document it. Every client gets a live project portal with the guaranteed completion date at the top, a phase timeline, daily photos, two-way messages, and every contract and change order in one place. You always know where your project stands.
On time, in writing
The completion date is set at the pre-construction walkthrough and backed by schedule credits. It is the promise we are measured on.
Built to spec, not improvised
Class II base compacted in 4 to 6 inch lifts, real drainage and CMHA-certified installation standards, written into the proposal so the trade building it and the manager checking it are working from the same spec.
Verified and accountable
Licensed, bonded and insured, with itemized coverage. Our license, bond and record are public, and our reviews are unedited.
The team
The people behind your project.
One accountable team carries your project end to end: ownership and production leadership, design, project management of the licensed trades, and client care.
Ownership & GM
A CMHA-certified co-owner serves as acting general manager and oversees production across every project.
Design
Turns your goals and site into a buildable plan with real materials, grades and drainage resolved before it is priced.
Production & Field
A dedicated project manager runs the licensed trade partners who build the base, drainage and finish to our spec, documented layer by layer in your portal.
Client Care
Keeps you updated daily, answers in the portal, and walks every detail with you before sign-off.
Team roles reflect how Sequoia Outdoor is organized.
Two owners, and what they did before this.
Sequoia Outdoor is not a franchise or a lead-gen brand that hands your project to whoever is available. It is two people with construction backgrounds who decided to run a landscape company the way a commercial GC runs a job.
Will Hartmann
Co-Founder, CEO & President
- Cal Poly SLO, Construction Management, 2005
- $500M+ portfolio as superintendent
- 4 years co-owner, commercial concrete
Will began at one of the largest national commercial general contractors and was deliberate about getting experience in both operations and field roles. As a high-performing superintendent he managed a portfolio of over $500 million, leading some of the company’s most technical Bay Area projects. He then partnered in starting a commercial concrete business and spent four years as co-owner and operations manager.
He launched Sequoia Outdoor to build the way he thought it should be done: design-build, so expectations are set at the start and clients stay partners the whole way through.
Luke Whittaker
Co-Founder, CFO & CTO
- Cal Poly SLO, Biomedical Engineering & Statistics
- In outdoor design and construction since 2006
- Founder and owner of Install It Direct since 2009
Luke started out in biotech at Gen-Probe in San Diego, then moved into outdoor design and renovation in 2006 with one of the largest paver, synthetic turf and design companies in the country. He came in through sales and design and worked his way up into management.
In 2009 he founded Install It Direct (IID), the San Diego outdoor living design-build company he has owned ever since. He wanted to build a better system where he grew up, and that is how Sequoia Outdoor started.
One contract, one license, one schedule. Specialists for each trade.
Ask any contractor who will actually be in your yard. Here is our answer, and it is the same one a commercial general contractor gives.
Who holds the contract
Sequoia Outdoor. One contract, one license, one completion date in writing. We design it, price it, schedule it and answer for it at sign-off. Each party’s scope is named in your proposal before anyone starts, and the responsibility for everything built under it stays with us.
Who does the work
Licensed trade partners who specialize in what your scope calls for: hardscape and masonry, concrete, carpentry, electrical, gas and plumbing, planting and irrigation. A specialist who builds retaining walls every week is better at them than a general crew that builds one a quarter. Each partner is licensed, bonded and insured on top of our own license and coverage.
Who runs it
Your own dedicated project manager, from the pre-construction walkthrough to sign-off, with a completion date set in writing and every phase, photo, message and change order in your project portal. The coverage is doubled, not delegated, and so is the oversight.
CMHA Certified Installer
Trained and certified in current segmental-paving, permeable and retaining-wall standards, and kept current.
BBB Accredited, A+
Verified, public license, bond and insurance, with an A+ record handled transparently.
License #1099847
Classifications A, C-8, C-27, D-06 and D-12. Itemized insurance: $2M GL, $5M umbrella, $1M auto, WC, E&O.
80 review listings and recommendations across six platforms as of 2026-08-30. Browse our separate published review archive.
Build with a team that shows its work.
Tell us the space and the scope. We will walk your property and set a real date in writing.