General Contracting · Tacoma to the Eastside · Veteran-Owned · WA L&I #BIGSTSG760LQ
Big Star General Contracting
Veteran-Owned
Service · 04 of 09

Hardscape & rockery

Retaining walls, terraces, native stone features, water features, drainage engineering. Disciplines learned co-owning an Arizona stone warehouse and on golf course construction. Master-plan-development scale, applied to your property line.

Hardscape is the discipline most homeowners undervalue and most contractors get wrong. Retaining walls fail because the drainage behind them was never engineered. Stone walkways heave because the base was wrong. Water features leak because the membrane was cut by a careless laborer. Joel co-owned a stone warehouse in Arizona for three years — wholesale flagstone in, custom-cut and crew-installed out, on master-plan developments where the rockeries, water features, retaining walls, and yes, every stone mailbox on the cul-de-sac were ours. Bring that scale of experience to a single Bellevue or Mercer Island property and you get the kind of hardscape that ages into the landscape rather than fighting it.

Retaining walls done right

Drainage engineering behind the wall is non-negotiable. Perforated pipe, gravel backfill, weep holes, and proper batter (the wall lean) are the difference between a wall that holds for fifty years and one that bulges and fails in eight.

Native stone features

We source PNW-appropriate stone — Vancouver Island, Eastern Washington basalt, regional river rock — that ages into the landscape. We avoid the imported stone that reads as out-of-place from year one and only gets worse.

Water features

If you're going to spend the money on a water feature, it has to last. Proper basin construction, EPDM membrane (not pond liner), redundant pump systems, and freeze-thaw protection. We've built water features on Arizona master-plan developments and on PNW residential. Both demand discipline.

Ready to discuss your project?

Every project starts with an on-site consultation. Book yours on Calendly — $300 up front, applied to your project if you book with us, $200 credit if you don't.

Start a project

Book your on-site project consultation.

We deliver top-quality work that lasts. Many imposters promise the world, only to leave you discovering later about the shortcuts they took to beat the lowest bid. Those shortcuts save you today and cost you plenty tomorrow.

We are licensed, insured, and bonded. Let our 30 years of vast planning and construction expertise guide your project to a successful outcome — on time and on budget. We excel at project management to contain pricing sprawl and protect delivery timelines.

How it works

Book your $300 on-site consultation. If you book the project with us, the $300 is applied toward your purchase. If you don't, you receive $200 in Big Star credit good toward any future project.

A real on-site visit by a real builder. Not a sales pitch from a phone-bank quoter.

On-site project consultation
$300
applied to your project · or $200 credit if you don't book
  • On-site walkthrough of your property and project scope
  • Direct conversation with Joel — not a phone-bank quoter
  • Written quote within 48 hours of the visit
  • Materials specification and timeline planning included
  • License, insurance, and bond verification on request
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