Complete projects
Complete Outdoor Remodeling in South Florida
Paving, shade, cooking, turf and boundary planned as one space and built in one sequence — instead of four contracts that each inherit the last one's mistakes.
One space, not a list of jobs
Most backyards get remodeled in fragments. A driveway one year. A pool deck when the coping starts lifting. A pergola the following spring, once the patio it stands on has already been laid and cannot easily take footings. Each piece is competently done and the finished yard still feels like it was assembled by four different people, because it was.
A complete outdoor remodel treats the whole exterior as a single design problem. The levels are resolved once. Drainage is planned across the site instead of surface by surface. Footings, conduit and pipework go in while the ground is already open. Materials are chosen in one sitting, against each other, in the light they will actually be seen in.
That is the case for coordination, and it is a practical one rather than a sales one. The savings are mostly in work you never have to redo.
Scope
What a complete outdoor transformation can include
Not every project uses every element. These are the components that most often appear together, and the reason each one interacts with the others.
Paver installation
The base layer under most of the project. Excavation, compacted sub-base, bedding, edge restraint and jointing — and the levels that everything else has to agree with.
Patios
The primary outdoor room. Its size and shape are set by how the space will be used and by the route between the house and the rest of the yard.
Pool decks
The most demanding surface on the site: wet, walked on barefoot, and exposed to pool chemistry. Coping detail and slip resistance drive the material choice.
Outdoor kitchens
Counters, built-in grills and storage — plus the power, water or gas behind them, which are routed before anything is paved over.
Pergolas
Shade that defines a room without enclosing it. Footings are positioned in the same conversation as the paving they will stand in.
Tiki huts
Denser shade with a distinctly South Florida character. A larger footprint and heavier structure, so its position is settled early.
Artificial turf
The green surface between the hard ones. Its base and drainage have to be planned with the paving, since the two meet at a shared finished level.
Fencing
Boundary and privacy, and the visual frame around everything else. Line and height change how enclosed the finished space feels.
On who does what
No contractor self-performs every trade, and specialist work such as electrical, plumbing and gas is licensed separately in Florida. What makes a coordinated project work is not that one company holds every tool — it is that one party owns the schedule, the sequence and the consequences. Which elements are performed directly and which are coordinated is set out in your written proposal, so the split is visible before you commit to anything.
Design
Designing the space around how it will be used
A yard plan that starts with materials produces a catalogue. A yard plan that starts with behaviour produces a space. Five questions do most of the work.
Hardscape: where do people stand and walk?
Before anything is sized, it is worth tracing the routes that already exist — back door to pool, gate to bins, kitchen to grill. Paths that fight the way people actually move get worn around within a season. Hardscape laid along those lines disappears into the space instead of interrupting it.
This is also where finished levels get set. A patio that meets the threshold cleanly and falls away from the house is a drainage decision made at the design stage, not a paving decision made on site.
Cooking and entertainment: where does the crowd end up?
Outdoor kitchens fail on circulation more often than on specification. The cook needs to not be marooned; guests need somewhere to stand that is not the working side of the counter; the route from indoor kitchen to outdoor counter gets used far more than anyone predicts.
Settle those positions and the services follow — because where the counter lands determines where power, water or gas has to run, and those runs pass underneath whatever gets paved.
Shade: which hours do you want back?
This is the question that changes South Florida projects most. A beautifully finished patio with no shade is used at seven in the evening and avoided at two in the afternoon. Deciding which hours you want to reclaim points directly at the answer: a pergola for filtered shade that keeps the space open, a tiki hut for denser cover and a stronger sense of a destination within the yard.
Orientation matters as much as structure. Where the sun actually sits at the hours you care about is checked on site, not assumed from a plan.
Turf and planting: what stays green, and what has to be mowed?
Artificial turf is often chosen for the areas that were never going to thrive — deep shade under a structure, a narrow side return, a dog run. It meets the hardscape at a shared finished level, so its base is planned with the paving rather than after it.
Privacy: what are you framing, and what are you screening?
A fence line does two jobs at once. It screens what you would rather not see and frames what you have just built. Height and position are worth deciding while the layout is still on paper, because both change how large the finished space feels.
How it runs
Our project process
A multi-element project lives or dies on sequence. This is the order the work happens in, and why each stage sits where it does.
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Consultation
An on-site visit to measure, read the falls, find what is already in the ground and understand how you use the space now. The brief comes out of this, not into it.
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Layout and levels
Finished heights and drainage resolved across the whole site before a single material is chosen. Every later decision depends on these being right.
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Materials and proposal
Surfaces, coping, structure and boundary selected together, seen against each other. The written proposal sets out scope, sequence and what each phase leaves ready.
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Groundwork
Excavation, sub-base, compaction and drainage. Footings and service routes go in while the ground is open — the point of no easy return, and the reason layout is settled first.
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Surfaces and structures
Paving, then the structures that stand in it, then turf and boundary. Each trade works to levels already established rather than negotiating with whatever the last one left.
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Walkthrough
The finished space walked against the approved scope, with guidance on caring for the specific materials installed.
The practical case
Combining multiple outdoor improvements
What you gain by doing related work together — and where the argument genuinely does not apply.
The ground opens once
Excavation, machinery access and reinstatement are the expensive, disruptive parts of any groundwork. Doing related work in one visit means paying for that once rather than three times.
Nothing gets cut back into
Footings and service routes are the classic retrofit problem. Set before paving, they cost nothing extra. Reached afterwards, they mean lifting and relaying a finished surface.
Drainage is designed, not inherited
Surfaces installed separately each solve their own water problem and hand the remainder to the next one. Planned together, water is directed once, across the whole site.
The materials agree
Paving, coping, timber and fence are seen in one glance from the back door. Chosen in one conversation, they read as a scheme rather than a sequence of separate decisions.
One schedule, one accountable party
Separate contracts make the gaps between trades your problem to manage. A single sequence puts the handovers — and any dispute about them — on one side of the table.
Where it does not apply
If the elements genuinely do not touch — a front driveway and a rear pool deck at opposite ends of the property — bundling them buys you convenience and little else. Worth saying plainly.
Phasing is a legitimate plan
Doing everything at once is not the point; planning it as one thing is. If a kitchen or a shade structure is likely later, allowing for its footings and service routes now costs very little while the ground is open — and saves reopening a finished surface to reach them. Tell us what might happen in two years, even if this year's budget only covers paving.
South Florida
What the climate actually asks of an outdoor build
Water arrives in quantity
Our rain does not fall gently over a day. Falls, permeable options and where water is routed once it leaves a surface are design decisions here, not afterthoughts — particularly where paving meets turf or a structure.
Sun is relentless
Surface temperature underfoot is a genuine selection criterion around a pool, and sustained UV affects how finishes and colours hold up. Both are worth weighing before appearance.
Salt air near the coast
Closer to the water, fixings, fasteners and finishes face a harsher environment than they do a few miles inland. It changes what is sensible to specify.
Climate is not the same thing as code
Everything above is about how materials behave in this environment. Permitting and construction requirements are a separate matter, they differ between municipalities, and they depend on what is being built. What applies to your specific project is reviewed during the on-site consultation rather than guessed at from a website.
Imagery
The kind of spaces this produces
Surfaces, shade, planting and boundary working as one composition rather than a set of separate purchases.
Areas we serve
Complete outdoor remodeling across South Florida
Before you commit
Questions about coordinated projects
Does Arco carry out every trade on the project directly?
No contractor self-performs everything, and any who claims to is worth a second question. Some specialist work — electrical, plumbing and gas among it — is licensed separately in Florida. What matters for your project is that one party owns the schedule and the sequence, so the gaps between trades are not yours to manage. Exactly which elements are performed directly and which are coordinated is set out in your written proposal, so the split is visible before you commit.
Do I have to do the whole yard at once?
No, and phasing is common. What matters is that the phases are planned against each other. If a shade structure is likely in two years, its footings and any service routes can be allowed for while the ground is already open — so phase two does not require partially undoing phase one.
What usually gets decided first?
Levels and drainage, before any material is chosen. Where water goes across the whole site governs finished heights, and finished heights govern where a patio can meet a pool deck or a turf lawn. Almost every other decision depends on those two being settled.
Can you work around an existing pool, patio or driveway?
Usually. Whether existing hardscape can be kept, extended or built onto depends on how it was installed, the condition of the base underneath, and whether its levels still work with what you want to add. That assessment happens at the on-site visit, because the answer changes the scope substantially either way.
How does South Florida weather affect the design?
Mostly through water, sun and salt. Heavy seasonal rain means drainage is designed rather than assumed. Sustained sun makes surface temperature underfoot and material fade real selection criteria. Near the coast, salt air is a factor in fixings and finishes. These are climate realities rather than legal requirements — permitting is a separate matter, covered below.
Do you handle permitting?
Permitting requirements differ from one South Florida municipality to the next, and they depend on what is being built — a paver patio and a roofed structure are not treated the same way. What applies to your specific project is reviewed during the on-site consultation, before you commit to a scope.
Start with the whole space, even if you build it in stages
Tell us what the yard needs to do. A designer will visit, measure, read the falls, and set out what a coordinated plan would look like — including where phasing makes sense.