Landscape designer in Pearland

In Pearland a building permit is required for fences, driveways and flatwork such as patios, slabs and walks. The city's minimum for concrete is #3 rebar at 12 inches on center and 2,500 psi. Driveway approaches must be 12 to 20 feet wide with a 10 foot minimum curb radius, and the part in the right-of-way has to match the street surface.

Flatwork permits also need a site plan with drainage arrows showing how the lot drains after the new concrete is in, plus notes that the lot's drainage pattern will not change, neighbors will not be affected, and excavated soil leaves the site. We prepare that plan as part of the job. Permits can be pulled by a registered contractor, so homeowners do not have to manage it.

Pearland's main drainageways are Clear Creek, Cowart Creek, Mary's Creek and Hickory Slough. Brazoria Drainage District No. 4 maintains the major creeks and ditches, and the city maintains storm sewers and roadside ditches in the right-of-way. Building, filling, paving or grading inside a mapped floodplain needs a development permit and a sealed grading planGrading planA plan showing existing and proposed ground levels with contours and spot elevations, defining how the land will be reshaped..

Most yard problems are smaller than a creek, but they come from the same cause: flat clay ground that does not absorb a heavy rain. Yard drainage solutions, catch basin installation and French drain installation move that water to the street or ditch before it pools at the slab.

The clay common across this part of the Gulf Coast is very slow to drain and shrinks and swells with the seasons, cracking a few centimeters wide and a foot or more deep when dry. That movement is why driveways and patios crack. We build concrete driveway installation and driveway replacement work on compacted base with steel and control jointsControl jointA groove cut or tooled into concrete so that cracks, which are expected, form in a straight, planned line. placed to take that movement, at or above the city's minimum spec.

Shadow Creek Ranch was annexed by Pearland in the late 1990s and spans Brazoria and Fort Bend counties, so city permits apply along with the community's own review. Silverlake is different: it is unincorporated, split between the Pearland and Manvel extraterritorial jurisdictions, and governed by its homeowners association. We confirm which rules apply to a lot before we draw it.

The most common Pearland projects combine drainage with a surface: a new driveway that stops sending water toward the garage, a patio that drains away from the house, or a backyard regraded so it dries after a storm. All of it runs through our landscape design process and one crew.

• Driveways and approaches built to city spec
• Patios with the drainage plan the permit requires
• Catch basinsArea drainA surface inlet with a grate that collects water from a low spot and sends it into an underground pipe. and pipe to the street or ditch
• Backyard regrading for flat clay lots