If you have called in to the office and spoken to the wonderful Kathy about your landscape project, then you have been likely quizzed on whether you need a landscape designer, a consultant or just an estimator to meet with you to review the work you are looking to have done. If you still wondering what choice is best for you, keep reading, we may be able to put your mind at ease.
Let’s start with the designer option. Alma is our resident designer. She will take your vision for your space and couple it with her years of design experience to make your landscape dreams and aspirations for your outdoor living space come to reality on paper. Having a design for the project is particularly helpful if you have some general ideas of your needs and wants but you are having trouble with envisioning the space on a grand scale. Designs are required for any large new construction project, projects that will require city permitting and projects that require HOA (Home Owners Association) or ARC (Architectural Review Committee) approval. If you have any combination of these factors, you will need to meet with Alma for a design consultation. The good news about the design process is that it also includes consulting and estimating of the projects so you get all three options in one service.
Not yet sold on a fully scaled and detailed design? A consultation is the way to go. For some of our customers, this may be their first experience with hiring an outdoor living professional. The idea of getting started on comprehensive design may be overwhelming, or maybe you just want to get some pricing to see if a project is going to be fiscally feasible; the consultations are a perfect way to get the ball rolling. Between our 3 consultants, we bring more than 50 years of combined experience in outdoor living, construction and landscaping experience to your table. We love sharing our experiences and knowledge with you and can help to bring your ideas to life with feasible concepts. The best part of a consultation is that we offer the consultation meeting and proceeding budgeting/estimating for free. We will set a time to meet at your home or office to discuss your needs and desires for the space. Once we get an idea of what you need; we take our measurements, notes and pictures and take those back to the office to build budgets for the project. Many of our budgets then turn into designs; once a customer is familiar with the scope of work and confident that the project is financially feasible. Whether we move to the design phase or straight to the installation phase from budgeting, VHS representatives will be with you at each step of the way to guide you through the project.
Do you just need a sprinkler system installed or just a shade arbor built? We would send out an estimator for those customers that are just trying to get some pricing on a particular element of a landscape. With these types of meetings, the customer is knowledgeable of what work they want done and just need to meet with one of our staff to review the scope of work so we can get gather the information needed for an estimate. During this quick meeting, we will discuss material options and sizing but the bulk of the work is determined by the customer.
Hopefully this clears things up a bit. Feel free to reach out for more information or to get started on one these three options!