How Landscape and Hardscape Improve Your Home’s Value

Landscape and hardscape improvements offer great value to your home, especially when they complement each other. In addition to monetary value, outdoor living space projects offer greater enjoyment to homeowners. And they allow you to extend your home’s functional space into your yard. Homeowners can create luxurious outdoor rooms to add extra usable square footage to their houses without breaking their banks.

Whether you plan to stay in your house or are preparing it for the market, hiring a professional to update or renovate your outdoor space is a smart idea. The addition of an outdoor bar or kitchen, installing a new patio, an outdoor fireplace or even a small spa pool, can allow you and your family enjoyment for years to come. Or, if you’re selling, prospective buyers will also be impressed.

Here are some of the ways how landscape and hardscape are worthwhile investments.

Hardscape Ideas and Landscaping Boost Curb Appeal

This gets said often, but that’s because it is so true. The exterior of your house is what first grabs people’s attention.

The look of your home and property creates an impression and makes a statement about you. And even the simplest landscaping or hardscaping project will boost the curb appeal for your house and give it a more dressed appearance.

By putting some thought into the design of your front yard and backyard, you can easily garner the appreciation of visitors or prospective buyers.

Make Better Use of Outdoor Space

Properly designed hardscape and landscape can not only make your house look attractive but also adds to the functionality. It heightens your family’s outdoor experience and offers more space for entertaining or for quiet and relaxing times personally or together as a family.

Adding a pathway to an outdoor fire pit or even an outdoor kitchen will allow you to easily entertain friends and family. Areas with a pleasant water feature or some lovely, raised flower beds and colorful shrubs and ornamental trees could also help create cheerful spaces to immerse yourself in.

Well-designed outdoor spaces like these can both serve a purpose and be pleasing to the eye.

Hardscaping and Landscaping can Help Prevent Erosion

Water damage to your property can be a major headache and devalue your house and property as well. In our area, homeowners often hire professional Lake of the Ozarks landscaping companies to help them address erosion and drainage problems.

Steep hills near the lake can be problematic. But if you have an uneven or sloping yard hardscaping and landscaping help you protect against erosion. And certain types of plants control erosion by anchoring their roots into the soil.

Likewise, strategically placed retaining walls, walkways, tiered patios, and stairs in the erosion-prone areas will help water flow away from your yard and prevent it from being damaged by runoff.

Privacy and Safety

Landscaping and hardscaping can also add some extra measure of security providing natural deterrents. Surrounding the perimeter with loose stones and pebbles can prevent nosy neighbors from sneaking a peek inside your home.

Similarly, well-placed shrubs and evergreen trees or tall garden walls can prevent unwanted views from prying eyes. And one of the best security measures is the installation of landscape lighting along walkways and patios.

While perfect for nighttime ambiance, landscape lighting can also deter would-be intruders.

What Should be Your Landscape and Hardscape Budget?

One of the top questions people ask is, “How much should I pay for landscaping?” According to experts, your budget for a quality landscape and hardscape should be around 5% of the total value of your house. Doing so will increase the value of your house by a minimum of 15%, allowing you to get at least 150% more for the total investment you put into it.

And did you know that carefully selected plants and features around the house can also lower heating and cooling costs by up to 25%? That’s pretty amazing! Thus, it is easy to see how hardscaping and landscaping can increase the value of your house.

Conclusion

There are plenty of landscape and hardscape ideas you can use to boost your home’s value, depending on your budget. If you are not sure, it is best to hire a professional to help design balanced landscaping that you can enjoy for many years to come. Call Heartland Landscape Group of Osage Beach at Lake of the Ozarks today to get started.

Want to learn more? Check this out: A Closer Look at the Difference Between Hardscape and Landscape