Skip to content

Renovations

Landscape Renovation, Working With What Is Already There

Most yards do not need to start over. They need the failed parts removed, the drainage corrected, and the rest rebuilt in the right order. Here is how a renovation actually runs.

Get a Free Quote View Our Work

LIC #1138709

(818) 443-9300

Mon to Sat, free estimates

Licensed & Insured · LIC #1138709 San Fernando Valley Free on site estimates Landscape Design & Hardscape

A landscape renovation is the process of reworking a yard that already exists, rather than designing one onto bare ground. That difference drives everything. An existing yard comes with a lawn that may have failed, planting that has outgrown its space, hardscape that has cracked or settled, irrigation of unknown age, and drainage that may never have worked properly. It also comes with things worth protecting, most often mature trees, established structure, and a pool. A renovation is really a sequence of decisions about which of those to keep, which to correct, and which to remove, followed by rebuilding in an order that does not undo itself. This page covers what a renovation includes, the order the work has to happen in, and how a remodel can be staged over time without wasting money.

Last reviewed July 2026 by Daniels Landscaping, LIC #1138709

What counts as a landscape renovation?

A renovation reworks a yard that already exists. That is a different job from a new install on bare ground, because most of the decisions are about what to keep, what to correct, and what has to come out. A typical renovation mixes several of these: removing a lawn that failed years ago, taking out shrubs that have outgrown their spot, breaking out cracked concrete, correcting grade and drainage that never worked, replacing an aging irrigation system, and putting in new surfaces and planting.

The distinction matters because an existing yard carries history. Old footings, buried pipe, roots, and previous grade changes are all still down there, and a renovation has to deal with what it finds.

Deciding what stays and what goes

The first walk through a yard is mostly triage. Mature trees almost always stay, because nothing you plant will replace decades of canopy. Healthy structural shrubs and established hedges are often worth keeping. Pools stay and become the anchor the rest of the plan works around.

What usually goes is anything failing or fighting the site: turf that cannot survive the water it now receives, plants sited where they will always be too big, hardscape that is cracked or draining the wrong way, and irrigation too far gone to repair. Being honest early about what is genuinely salvageable prevents spending money twice on the same area.

Why demolition and haul away is its own phase

Removal is real work, not a preamble. Old sod and roots have to be stripped rather than buried, because organic material left under new surfaces decomposes and settles. Concrete has to be broken out and hauled, and there is usually more of it below grade than shows on top. Stumps and large roots come out where new hardscape or grading is planned.

Access shapes how this goes. A yard reachable only through a narrow side gate limits equipment size and changes how debris leaves the property. That constraint is worth identifying before the work is scheduled, not during it.

Grade and drainage: fix it now or fix it twice

Once a yard is stripped, the ground is exposed and every drainage problem is visible and cheap to correct. After new surfaces go down, the same correction means tearing them up. This is the single most common regret in a renovation that was rushed.

Grading sets slope away from the house and toward somewhere water can actually go. Drains, channels, and pipe handle what slope alone cannot. On the clay soils common across the San Fernando Valley this matters more than most people expect, because clay holds water and moves as it wets and dries, which is what cracks flatwork and heaves paving.

Cross section of a yard drainage system A side view showing ground sloping away from a house foundation, a downspout tied into buried solid pipe, an area drain in a low spot, a channel drain at the patio edge, and pipe carrying water to a gravel outlet away from the house. Where the water is supposed to go Slope moves it. Pipe carries it. Both, or it sits against the house. HOUSE SLOPE AWAY PATIO Slope away from foundation Downspout tied in Area drain at the low point Channel drain at patio edge Solid pipe to outlet Gravel bed at the outlet WRONG: FLAT OR REVERSE GRADE Water ponds and sits on the footing WATER AGAINST A FOUNDATION IS NEVER A SMALL PROBLEM Collection without slope still leaves standing water. Daniels Landscaping · LIC #1138709
Ground that falls away from the foundation plus piped collection at the low points is what keeps water off the house and out of the spots where it used to sit.

The order a renovation has to happen in

Sequence is not a preference, it is dictated by what buries what. Demolition and removal come first. Grading and drainage follow, while the ground is open. Then anything that lives underground goes in: irrigation lines, sleeves for future runs, electrical for lighting, and drainage pipe. Hardscape comes next, since patios, walls, and paving are heavy and their construction is hard on everything nearby.

Planting goes last, deliberately. Plants installed early get trampled, buried, and coated in dust by the trades that follow. Turf and sod are last of all. Any renovation that plants before it builds will be replacing plants.

The order of stages in a landscape renovation Five numbered stages stacked in order with arrows pointing down: demolition and haul away, grade and drainage, utilities underground, hardscape, and planting last. The order a renovation has to happen in Each stage buries the one before it. The sequence is not a preference. 1 Demolition and haul away Old lawn, tired shrubs and broken concrete leave the site 2 Grade and drainage Ground is open, slope is set, drain pipe is laid to daylight 3 Utilities underground Irrigation lines, sleeves under paving, low voltage cable 4 Hardscape Patio, walls and paving are built on the finished base 5 Planting last Trees, shrubs, turf and lawn go in on top of finished work PLANT FIRST AND YOU WILL PLANT TWICE Later stages drive right over it. Daniels Landscaping · LIC #1138709
The sequence is set by what buries what, so any stage taken out of order has to be torn out and built a second time.

Phasing a renovation over time

A renovation does not have to happen all at once, and staging it is often the difference between doing it properly and not doing it at all. The workable approach is to split by area rather than by trade, finishing one zone completely before starting the next, so you always have a completed space rather than a yard permanently under construction.

The one thing worth doing up front regardless of phase is the underground work across the whole area. Running irrigation sleeves and drainage while the ground is open, even for areas you will not plant for a year, avoids cutting through finished surfaces later.

Working around what you are keeping

Mature trees are the feature most often damaged by a renovation, usually without anyone noticing until later. Heavy equipment driving over the root zone compacts soil and suffocates roots. Raising grade over the base of a trunk can slowly kill a tree that stood for fifty years. Trenching straight through a root plate does the same.

The protections are simple: keep equipment off the root zone, avoid changing grade near trunks, and route trenches around root plates rather than through them. Native oaks need extra care, since they are adapted to dry summers and regular summer water near the trunk encourages rot.

Cross section of a mature tree root plate and three construction damage mechanisms A side view of a mature tree with its canopy above ground and a wide shallow root plate below ground that spreads past the drip line. Dashed vertical lines mark the drip line at each canopy edge and a protection fence stands on that line. Three damage mechanisms are marked in rust: heavy equipment compacting soil over the roots, fill soil piled against the trunk burying the root crown, and a utility trench cut through the root plate. How construction kills a mature tree Almost none of the damage happens to the part you can see. DAMAGE SHOWS UP YEARS AFTER THE CREW LEAVES DRIP LINE DRIP LINE PROTECTION FENCE PROTECTION FENCE AIR SQUEEZED OUT FILL ROOTS CUT ROOT PLATE: WIDE, SHALLOW, PAST THE DRIP LINE 3 2 1 1 2 3 COMPACTION GRADE CHANGE TRENCHING Machines press soil shut and force out the air roots need. Fill on the trunk buries the root crown and invites rot. A utility trench severs major roots at one cut. PROTECTION: fence the drip line before work starts and keep equipment, storage, and spoil outside it. The root plate reaches past the drip line, so route trenching around it, never through it. Daniels Landscaping · LIC #1138709
Protecting the root zone from compaction, grade change, and trenching is what keeps a mature tree alive through a construction project.

Where do we do renovations?

We install renovations across the San Fernando Valley. See the detail, local projects, and pricing for your city: