Outdoor Decor

BUILDER’S LANDSCAPING ADDITIONS ADD CURB APPEAL AND MAKE THE BUYER’S LIFE A LITTLE EASIER

The price for a new home usually includes the driveway, front walk and final grading of the soil — but no landscaping. It’s up to buyers to hire someone after they close the deal to sod or seed the lawn, install sprinklers, trees and shrubs, and build a deck or patio.

Originally, that was the case with the house in Van Buren Township whose construction the Free Press has been chronicling this spring and summer.

However, once the interior of the house was finished, builder RDK Homes decided to add landscaping and a deck to increase the house’s curb appeal and to help attract a buyer.

That way, a purchaser will not “have to worry about paying cash for a deck, sod or landscaping. It can all be worked into the mortgage now,” says Greg Kime, sales manager for RDK Homes.

The amount owners spend on landscaping at a new home depends on their taste, pocketbook and where they live. A typical estimate is to figure the landscaping will cost at least 10 percent of what the home did, although 15 percent is more realistic in high-end neighborhoods, according to Rick Lazzell, education director of the Michigan Green Industry Association.

Since the 2,600-square-foot Van Buren Township house is priced at $299,900, 10 percent would mean a landscaping budget of $29,000.

However, recent buyers in the Walden Woods subdivision, where the house is located, are, on average, spending less than that — roughly $6,000 to $14,000, according to two landscapers working in the area. The more pricey of those include larger trees or extras like elevated patios with lights built into the pavers.

RDK Homes says the landscaping cost $9,800 at the house the Free Press has been reporting on in its House Chronicles series. That includes 1,100 square yards of Kentucky bluegrass mix sod and an irrigation system with a rain sensor. The timer is in the garage. The sprinklers are divided into eight zones for the lawn and a separate zone for the landscaping.

The landscaper built a curved 100- piece brick retaining wall in front of the house. Plants in the front yard include an 8-foot Colorado spruce with three Gold Coast junipers around it, four yews in front of the foundation, several hostas, three pyramidal yews, and mulch over the planting beds. There is a flower bed for annuals. The rear yard is sodded.

Rainman Landscaping Inc. in Westland drew up the landscape plan and installed it. It is “a start” that future owners could add to if they desire, says company owner Mark Oprisiu. The prices that follow are for people who deal directly with the contractor.

One option would be to plant a few larger trees for more privacy. While a 7- to 8-foot Colorado blue spruce is $350 installed, a 16-footer would be about $1,400, Oprisiu says. Larger trees are costlier to move and plant. Adding shade or flowering trees to the plan would be about $300 or more per tree, Oprisiu says.

Home owners who can’t afford to go big on trees may take comfort in the fact that smaller trees are easier to transplant and often easier to get established. Within several years, they may rival the size of a tree that was considerably larger at planting.

Another option that would affect the landscape look would be a different mulch. Going from shredded bark to more expensive stone “could easily change the price $600 to $1,000,” Oprisiu says.

A buyer could dress up the sides of the concrete drive with strips of pavers. That would run about $12 per square foot along the drive and about $10 a square foot along the front walk. Putting a cap on the retaining wall would involve more materials and labor and could nearly double the cost of this 100-piece brick wall, which was about $500.

Ornamental options
Birdbaths, lawn sculptures, benches, trellises — there is no end to the ornamentation that can be added to landscaping. Grindstone boulders are sometimes used in planting beds. Oprisiu says a 3-foot round grindstone boulder that’s 6 inches high would run about $200.

RDK Homes hired Brothers Building Co. of Livonia to construct a 18-by-15-foot cedar deck at the rear of the house. The cedar is stained redwood red. A decorative wrought iron railing dresses up the deck’s perimeter. There is one step down at one side to the backyard. The deck added $4,900 to the home’s price, Kime says.

The same sized deck in Wolmanized wood (lumber treated to prevent deterioration) would be a little less expensive, while one in wood composite, which has a 30- year guarantee, would be higher, according to Peter Jastrzembski, a partner in Brothers Building.

For those who prefer a patio, the cost for a flagstone patio mortared in concrete would be about $20 a square foot, while pavers would run $10 or more a square foot, according to Oprisiu.

Built-in landscape lighting appeals to some buyers. His company has a four-light minimum; after that, the cost of labor, wire, a timer and transformer runs about $125 per light installed.

Figuring out what you want
There are a number of factors influencing how much a new home buyer would be willing to pay for landscaping. Personal taste is one. What neighbors are doing is another. But a big influence can be that, by the time the home is built, the buyer is feeling shell-shocked at just how much money is already spent.

Budgets are stretched thin with down payments, prospective monthly mortgage costs, bills for furniture and moving expenses. Utility and tax bills may be higher than at the old house. Add to that the cost for any upgrades made during construction, like switching to a higher-quality kitchen counter, bathroom tile or light fixtures.

Then it comes time to consider the landscaping. Weary buyers know they have to have some type of landscaping, but they may not have a clue how much it will cost.

“We ask them if they have a budget. Usually they don’t, because they don’t know” what the price for landscaping will be, says Lazzell of the Michigan Green Industry Association.

Ideally, buyers of new homes would have given thought to their landscape needs when the project was still on the drawing board and decided on a budget.

For those clients who haven’t done that homework, Lazzell suggests they visit a large bookstore with a good magazine selection. Buy five or six magazines that feature landscapes and gardens. Tear out the pages with appealing photos and show them to the contractor as examples of what you like.

“Usually, they’ll look through our books and we work up a design. Most of the time, people don’t even know what they want. We have to work up a design and alter it from there,” says Bob Lucas of Lucas Nurseries in Canton, who also does work in the Walden Woods subdivision.

Drive around the neighborhood with the landscaper and show him or her which landscapes you like. The landscaper can give you an idea of how much they cost.

“The budget may be decided then and there,” says Lazzell, whose business is Lazzell’s Horticultural Services in Bloomfield Hills.

It may make sense to landscape in phases, spreading the cost over several years. The first priority should be the irrigation and sod, as well as screening for privacy and foundation plantings in the front yard. A second stage could be to landscape around the deck or patio. Young families might put a high priority on establishing a play area.

When hiring a landscaper, ask for local references, local professional affiliations, certification and replacement policies covering both work and plant material. Interview several companies for the job and ask family and friends for input on contractors they’ve liked.

“Find someone who was happy — not just with the work, but with the time they spent with them,” Lazzell says.

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