Helpful Tips
Night Lighting
Landscape Lighting Tips
A beautiful garden or yard can be enjoyed at times other than just during the day. Properly lit landscape can turn your yard into an evening oasis for the enjoyment of you and your guests, and increase the curb appeal of your property. The trick is to provide enough light to be functional without overlighting your yard like a runway. 
Pathway Lighting
Illuminating your walkways is the most functional use of low voltage landscape lighting. Visible paths prevent trips and falls while encouraging people to stay on the walkway and out of your garden. Path lights comes in a variety of styles. We have relations with the top lighting manufacturers and have have hundreds of options for you to choose from. Spacing these lights is essential for proper lighting coverage. Pathway lights are best placed 8- to 10-foot apart and can be staggered on either side of the path.
Direct and Accent Lighting
Focal points in your garden or landscape can be illuminated by direct lighting. Focal points include fountains, decorative flowers and shrubs, trees and other
Hanging Lights and Lamps
The undersides of large trees can benefit from hanging lanterns to illuminate the canopy above and the ground below. Hanging lamps and lanterns can also provide necessary lighting over dining and picnic tables, grills and other outdoor furniture.
A Word of Caution
Only lighting and wiring intended for the outdoors should be used to light your landscape. California Hardscapes is a CA Certified Low Voltage Lighting Installer and has hundreds of completed projects under our belt. We're confident we can help you with your lighting solutions.
Concrete Curing and Sealing Tips
Water can be concrete's worst enemy as it is being placed or finished. However, after concrete has been properly placed and finished, it is extremely critical that the moist concrete be cured. There are several ways to ensure that your concrete remains moist, and curing compounds are the key. To defend against freezing-thawing or water damage that occurs in concrete, consider applying a sealant. 
Curing is the process of maintaining an optimum environment (temperature & humidity) around the fresh concrete for a specific period of time so that the concrete can achieve its designed strength and durability characteristics.
The chemical reaction that occurs when you mix water and cement is called hydration. Hydration is a two stage process. The initial stage happens quickly. Which is the transformation from the liquid to the solid state. It can happen very quickly and in less than four hours. After this, the reaction slows down. The reaction can continue for months and sometimes years! Crystals are continuiously growing and the concrete keeps getting stronger and stronger. In fact, concrete keeps curing and hardening its entire life. 
For this reaction to continue the concrete needs water! If the freshly poured concrete is left open to the atmosphere/elements, the relative humidity of the concrete will rapidly drop below 100 percent. While the water evaporates into the atmosphere. If the humidity level drops below 80 percent, the hydration reaction can actually stop. If this happens early in the life of the concrete, the concrete may only achieve half of its design strength which can cause problems and excessive cracking.
Over the past 15 or so years we have developed secret mix designs to limit cracking, improve finishes and create much stronger PSI strengths than most all of our competitors. We offer supperior concrete work & mix designs for the best price, guaranteed.
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Preparing for a Paver Job - Tips
Here's a few things to consider when deciding which elements to include in your paver driveway, patio, pool deck or walkway.
Before your first meeting with us.. have in mind how you intend to use your the roposed area and a budget. Do you want a paver patio for entertaining? A new driveway for better traffic flow or more parking? A fire pit or BBQ-Firepit station? Do you need a retaining wall to keep you patio level? Budgets are important because they give us a guideline to work within. The more information you're able to provide us the better we'll be able to help you plan your patio project and provide you with an accurate cost estimate for your paver project. Create a wish list and note a few of your own ideas. We can design or build anything but you are the one that needs to enjoy the layout, elements and placement of everything. We pride our selves in keeping our project running On Time and On Budget. If you can Dream it..we can build it!
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