Two properties on the same street can need opposite work depending on whether they sit on the rise or in the hollow. We walk and probe before designing rather than assuming the neighbour's solution transfers.
Where we work from: our shop is at 7980 OH-249, Hicksville, OH. Hough sits outside our home counties — call and we will confirm scheduling before you commit to anything.
Soil and drainage in Hough
Retaining structures here do real structural work, and the drainage behind them is not optional. Drain tile at the base with an outlet to daylight, twelve inches of clean angular stone against the block, geotextile keeping soil out of that stone, and geogrid into compacted fill on anything with height. Walls that lean in this county were backfilled with soil.
On a kettle lot the low ground can be an asset rather than a defect. Species that tolerate periodic saturation — swamp white oak, red-twig dogwood, buttonbush, switchgrass, sedges and blue flag iris — turn the wet corner into the most interesting part of the property instead of the part nobody can mow.
What Hough properties need most
The most valuable thing on most of these lots is the mature trees, and they are the easiest thing to damage by accident. Mulch piled against a trunk holds moisture on bark and encourages girdling roots that can kill a maple twenty years later; the root flare should always be visible. Trenching or grade changes within the root zone do damage that does not show for years.
We would rather talk a homeowner out of a project than sell one that will not hold. Where drainage has to be solved first, we say so, and where the honest answer is two downspouts and eighty dollars of pipe rather than a full system, we say that too.
Winter in Hough
Ice is the other half of the job. Repeated freeze-thaw across a long winter produces more liability than any single snowfall, so pre-treatment ahead of forecast events and material selected for actual pavement temperature do more good than a bigger plow.
Booking happens in the fall because routes are built geographically. A property added in January is either not going to be reached promptly or is going to displace somebody who booked in October, and we would rather tell you that now.
What Hough properties call us for
These are the services this ground actually needs, ordered by what the soil and terrain in Cuyahoga County demand rather than by what is easiest to sell.
- Retaining Walls & TerracingEngineered walls with real drainage behind them — turning slopes you cannot mow into space you can use.
- Drainage Solutions & Yard GradingFrench drains, swales and regrading that move water away from your foundation before it costs you a basement.
- Mulching & Landscape Bed MaintenanceCrisp cut edges, correct mulch depth, and beds that stay clean instead of needing a rescue every July.
- Spring & Fall CleanupsThe two visits a year that decide how the rest of the season goes — debris out, beds reset, leaves gone.
- Sod Installation, Seeding & Lawn RenovationNew lawns, thin lawns and construction scars — graded, amended and established properly the first time.
- Paver Patios & HardscapingPatios and walkways set on eight inches of compacted base — the reason ours are still flat after ten Ohio winters.
Why Hough property owners choose us
We know Cuyahoga County ground
Cuyahoga County sits in the Glaciated Allegheny Plateau, where clay and shale-derived soils that hold water, with steep valley walls along the Cuyahoga and Rocky rivers. We plan around that rather than applying a template written for another part of the state.
We fix the water before anything else
Every dollar spent on plants or hardscape sitting on ground that stays wet gets spent twice. On Cuyahoga County soil we diagnose drainage first — and often the honest answer is two downspouts rather than a system.
46 Google reviews, licensed and insured
Verbatim reviews from neighbours across the region, full coverage on every crew and machine, and financing available so a full plan can be built in one season.
One contractor for all four seasons
Landscaping April through November and snow and ice through the winter, from the same crews. The people who stake a drive in November are the people who mowed it in July.
Nearby places we also serve
Hough sits in Cuyahoga County. We cover these neighbouring communities too:


