Landscape Fire Damage Restoration
Fire. Evacuation. Uncertainty. Displacement. The hope / dread / fear emotional rollercoaster with each press release, each tweet, each rumor. And when you finally are allowed back home, will there even be a home?
Fire does not have to directly sweep over your lands: ash fall, heat, and smoke damage may be enough to turn your patch of green oasis into scorched earth. Technically, native plants and animals have evolved to deal with fires, and in some cases rely on fire to reproduce. That said, not many of us live in a truly native environment. We tend to call native vegetation “weeds” and invest considerable time and energy into beautifying our homes. And now, nothing.
We Can Help
We’ve been solving the “What do I do with my yard?” question for almost 50 years, from Bonny Doon to Big Sur to San Benito. Cleanups, erosion control, grading, drainage, revegetation, beautification. Where do I park. How do I walk to my front door. Where do I put my garbage and recycling containers. Do I have a safe place for my children to play. Driveways, walkways, fencing. Patios, walls, arbors. And yes, irrigation and planting. Perhaps a candid conversation on Defensible Space. Whether you are starting from blackened less-than ground up, or just need a good ash cleaning and plant care, we’ve been through this before, and know how to help.
Contract with Confidence
Natural disasters, unfortunately, do bring out those who prey on those less fortunate: everyone seems to have a Bad Contractor story. Since 1973, our teams live in this community, work in this community, shop in this community. Many of our employees have been with us for over 40 years, with 2nd and 3rd generations now entering our workforce alongside their grandfathers and fathers.
We are A+ with the Better Business Bureau, do not hire day laborers, and are fully Bonded and Insured. We prefer to do our work ourselves, not sub out to other contractors with unknown employees beyond our direct control.
We understand vulnerability, and work with empathy, security, and caring. We do not ask for “money up front”. We bill after work is completed, never before. Our cost proposals are fully itemized, cleary written, and completely open. Our invoices are formatted in an insurance friendly fashion, easy to email, concise enough to make record keeping easy. We keep photo logs of job progress.
Our contractor license number is 362745, please look us up to verify our credentials.
Landscape Fire Damage Restoration - Understand the Process
Fire follows a path. So does fire mitigation and renovation. Here’s what you need to do, in the order you need to do it.
- Clean up. Yes, step one, clean up. Remove the debris and clear the ash. Don’t go crazy with the chainsaw. Know what plants may recover and know which ones to clear away. We wear masks (it’s a toxic environment), full PPE clothing, and make lots of dump runs. We use hand tools, power tools, small tractors, trucks and trailers, and have decades of experience. We never lose sight of the fact that this is your home, we are the guests, and work with respect and compassion as we clear away the damage.
- Bring life back into the soil. Yes, fire kills. The heat will kill off subsurface microbial life and glaze the surface of the soil, leaving you with a sterile patch of earth that water and nutrients cannot penetrate. Physically break up the soil so it once again can absorb water and reduce runoff and erosion. Add nutrient rich soil amendments such as a 50% sandy loam topsoil mixed with 50% organic composts. Spread nitrogenized redwood sawdust over remaining vegetated areas. Know where your amendments come from, and ask specific questions about unwanted invasives such as oxalis nodules.
- Change your grades. Yes, good grades are important. Now is the time to address past and future drainage problems by taking accurate elevations, determining slope, and getting the water to go where you want. If you don’t do this now while the sun is shining, you’ll have to do it later, in the cold rain and mud, as you watch your yard wash away come winter time. Add drainlines as needed, and keep your water on your property by using gravel sump pits and bioswales to put water back into our aquifers. The more water we can get into the ground now, the more water will come out of that fire hydrant later, when we may need it again.
- Erosion control. Yes, your confidence may have eroded, let’s not add your yard to the list. Water breaks, straw wattles, silt fencing, cocomat, there are any number of physical techniques available to slow or prevent the speed at which water runs off. If you can’t plant an area now (you have to rebuild your house first, for example), use an approved erosion control grass seed mix to cover areas of bare dirt. It’s relatively easy to do, fairly inexpensive, gets you out of the mud, and can be removed later as time and resources allow. Use temporary, above ground timed irrigation to get things going before rain can take over watering duties.
- Rebuild. Yes, it’s time to move forward and rebuild your outdoor life. Do it right, do it once, don’t cut corners. Establish your use areas and traffic patterns, determine a budget, and make it work. Driveways, walkways, walls, patios, pergolas, ponds, gates, gardens, gazebos, we’ve built them all. A plan may be helpful at this stage, so that everyone is following the same road map, and permits may be required. Hardscaping can be a very significant financial investment, and there are often many ways to achieve the same desired result, so speak with us and we will give you options and information on costs, alternatives, and timelines.
- Replant. Yes, your world will be green again, it may just take a little time. Everyone wants drought tolerant. Everyone wants low maintenance. Everyone wants low water use. Not everyone wants the same plants, over and over again. Pick a theme (mediteranean, desert, tropical, native, garden, so many choices…) and a color (hate red but love orange and blue?), and let us design a planting palette based on availability, feasibility, and suitability. There are even specific planting structures for defensible spaces as well, that both safely trap embers and also create wind vectors up and over your home, rather than letting embers land on your roof. We warranty our plants and offer maintenance services to ensure growth and vitality.
Rejoice. Yes, the world will be normal again. Different, but normal. New life, new growth. We can’t fix everything, but we can fix landscapes. Let us guide you back to an outdoor space you can enjoy, and reintroduce you to the good side of nature. Call us.