Wood landscaping features Archives

0 Comments By david General, Landscaping, Landscaping Calgary, Renovation, Wood landscaping features arbors and pergolas, landscaping calgary, natural stone, stone cladding, wood cladding

Transform your pillars with stone or wood cladding

Calgary has many older neighbour hoods with older homes built in the 1960’s and 70’s. Many of these homes are located in communities just outside the city core. They include Lake Bonavista, Acadia, Haysboro, Lakeview and many other communities. Many of these homes have old style pillars built at their front entrances or straddling their front steps. If you want to look at other options besides simply painting over the steps then you may want to considering cladding your pillars with wood, stone or both. You can transform your pillars with stone or wood cladding and it will totally change the look from old and dated to new and fresh.

Wood cladding for your pillars

Wood cladding for your pillars is a great choice for existing pillars that need a quick makeover. Cladding your pillars with would can quickly change the look of the pillars to something bold and fresh. Your pillars may be located in the front of your property, straddling your front entrance or porch. Pillars can also be found bordering back yard patios. For wood cladding you can choose from various kinds of wood but the most popular choice for wood cladding around pillars is cedar or Meranti hardwood. Both Meranti and cedar cladding will require annual staining or oiling to keep the rich wood tones looking vibrant. There are various style options to choose from including shaker style as seen in the photo to the right. Using wood cladding for your pillars will be a less expensive option than stone cladding because wood cladding is much less labour intensive. Make sure to have a qualified professional or journeyman carpenter install your wood cladding to guarantee you will have great looking pillars as your finished project. Wood cladding compliments patios and walkways
and many front step ideas work well with this application. IF you have arbors and pergolas on your property the rich wood tones of your pillars will match nicely with those components as we

Stone Cladding for your pillars

Stone cladding is another way to transform your pillars. Stone cladding is a more costly option than wood because it is more labour intensive. There are endless possibilities when it comes to stone cladding. These include natural stone and cultured stone, often called artificial stone. Some high end cultured stone can looks as authentic as natural stone. If you want to insure the look remains the same for many many years then natural stone is the way to go. Natural stone will not fade or change colour over time. Cladding your pillars with stone will give your pillars a bold and rich look and the stone matches very well with natural wood cladding. Stone cladding goes extremely well with paving stones exposed aggregate or concrete patios. Stone cladding can also be installed on the facing of your actual house in the front or back area. If you have some front walkway ideas you could consider matching your new front pillars with the new ideas. Both natural wood and natural stone cladding will go very well with any natural stone you have on your property. The two are meant to be together!

Chinook Landscaping and Design works with a number of great natural wood and stone suppliers. You can visit their websites by clicking on the links below.

Amico stone
Stone Concept
Kayu Canada

Arbors and Pergolas for your front or back yard

Wood features are a great way to soften the look of your landscaping. Arbors and Pergolas can give you that soft touch and arbors and pergolas for your front or back yard can be a practical landscaping feature too.

Whats the difference between an Arbor and Pergola?

Some of our Calgary clients are confused by the difference between an arbor and a pergola. The differences are quite clear really. An arbor is typically much smaller than a pergola. An arbor is often used for a garden accent or as an archway over your front or backyard entrance. A pergola is normally used over top of a patio or siting area to provide shade and/or privacy. A pergola normally has numerous large cross beams whereas an arbor may only have a two or three. Read more about arbors and pergolas for your front or back yard.

Pergolas for shade and More

Pergolas for shade are quite common in Calgary. They are very useful in blocking much of the sunlight that shines onto your patio or sitting area. You can choose to have a greenhouse like fibreglass roof on your pergola to keep out the rain and reduce sunlight or you can leave the roof open for partial shade from the cross beams. Pergolas being used for privacy is another common application. Often we find that neighbouring homes have high decks that overlook our clients properties so in this case a pergola can provide excellent privacy over top of your patio or hot tub area.

Arbors can aid in drainage solutions

Did you know that arbors can be a great aid for drainage solutions? We often use cedar arbors to straddle a front or back walkway. Instead of running your drain pipe underground you can choose to run your drain pipe over top of the arbor and therefore over top the walkway and down the other side of the arbor. This allows you to avoid underground drainage. Overland drainage is always preferred over underground drainage because underground drainage can freeze up in spring and cause your eavestrough to over flow. We can hide the drain pipe in the arbor beams so they are not visible. You can visit our page on drainage solutions to learn more about using arbors for drainage issues.

Arbors for beautiful landscape accents

Arbors make beautiful landscape accents. The warm look of cedar can help to soften your landscape while providing an ornate accent to your property. We can build arbors in a variety of styles and they can be stained or painted according to what matches your landscape best. The soft look of cedar arbors is particularly helpful when you have a lot of concrete or cold landscape components.

Materials used for building Arbors and Pergolas

Arbors and pergolas are almost always built out of either cedar, Meranti hardwood or pressure treated wood. If you want a rich wood look for your arbor then cedar or meranti is best. If you plan on painting your arbor then pressure treated wood be appropriate and is also the least expensive option. Using arbors or pergolas for your front or back yard are is a great idea regardless of what material you use.

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Category: Wood landscaping features