Backyard Renovations in Cokato and Wright County

One crew for grading, walls, concrete, and stone

A typical backyard renovation around here starts with a lot that drops toward the lake or toward the neighbor, an old timber wall leaning out, and a small slab off the back door that pitches the wrong way. The job we built under a deck on a sloped lot is the shape of most of them: rebuild the walls to hold the grade and define the levels, lay a Chilton flagstone patio between them, set a stone fire pit at the center, and run stone steps between the upper and lower yard. On other lots the patio is broom-finish or stamped concrete, the wall is boulders, and the fire pit sits on a paver circle. Same trades, same crew, different materials.

• Excavation and grading with a skid steer
• Boulder, block, or dry-stacked stone walls
• Concrete, paver, or flagstone patio
• Steps, fire pit, seating walls, and lighting

Sequencing the yard so nothing gets rebuilt

The order matters more on a whole-yard job than on any single piece. Drainage and rough grading come first, while the machine can still reach every corner. Walls go in next, because they set the levels everything else sits on and the machine needs room behind them. Concrete pours before pavers so the pump truck and wheelbarrows never cross a finished paver field. Steps get built with the walls they pass through. Pavers and flagstone go down after the heavy work is done, then the fire pit, then lighting and the final grade for seed or sod. When four contractors split that work, someone always ends up driving over someone else's finished surface. When one crew does it, the order is baked into the schedule.

Getting water off the yard first

Most backyards that feel unusable are wet, and most wet backyards in Wright County are wet because the clay does not drain and the grade sends roof water toward the house. Before any stone goes down we find where the water comes from, downspouts, the neighbor's slope, a low corner, and give it a way out: regrade to a swale, bury the downspout extensions, put drain tile behind every wall, and pitch the patio away from the foundation. A dry yard is the difference between a patio that gets used and one that grows moss.

What drives the cost of a backyard renovation

A whole-yard quote is a stack of the individual pieces, plus the grading and drainage that make them work.

• How much grading and how much clay leaves the site
• Wall length and height, and whether engineering is needed
• Patio square footage and material: concrete, pavers, or flagstone
• Steps, fire pit, seating walls, and lighting
• Drainage: drain tile, swales, catch basins, downspout runs
• Demolition of old decks, slabs, and walls
• Machine access to the back of the lot

What you get

• Grading, walls, concrete, and stone from one crew
• Drainage fixed before anything is built on it
• Work sequenced so finished surfaces stay clean
• Walls, patio, steps, and fire pit in matching materials
• One quote, one schedule, one call
• Yard left graded and ready for seed or sod

How it goes

1. 1

   Call or send the form

   Tell us what is wrong with the yard now and what you want to do out there. Photos from the deck help.

2. 2

   Site visit

   We walk the grade, find where the water goes, look at what has to come out, and talk through levels and zones.

3. 3

   Written quote

   Grading, drainage, walls, patio, steps, fire pit, and lighting as separate lines, so you can phase or trim.

4. 4

   Build and clean up

   Demo, grade, drain, walls, concrete, pavers, fire pit, lights, final grade. One crew start to finish.