Does landscaping increase the value of a house? Of course it does! The ideal landscaping project requires that the money invested be at least able to keep up with inflation over the years and provide a certain return on the resale of the property after ten, fifteen or even twenty years. If you invest keeping the following tips in mind, the value of the development should follow the same curve as the value of the home. But be careful, as with any investment, it must be done wisely!
We are currently living in a period where cheap is king, both in materials and in the way of building. To draw a parallel with the real estate market, take a look at some beautiful turn-of-the-century homes that were well built and which, after sometimes more than a hundred years, still retain a value equivalent to a new house. Others, poorly built, are either already destroyed or are selling for a fraction of what they should be. There are also horror stories of relatively new homes that are filled with mould and water infiltration. These have often been built by people without technical knowledge and with limited resources.
As we cannot know everything, if we want to do our own work, we must improve our knowledge on the matter, get informed and invest where we need to! All of this applies perfectly to landscaping.
The primary objective for good performance, is to use quality materials and to rely on the proper implementation. To this end, there are construction standards for landscaping in Quebec, as there are for house construction; the Bureau de normalisation du Québec (B.N.Q.).
Few people are aware of this essential resource. Due to a lack of regulation or simply ignorance, many players on the field do not follow these standards. Therefore, it’s not uncommon to see structures such as support walls, vehicle entrances, patios or staircases twisted and mangled by the bad weather of our northern country. Freezing and thawing is a very good justification for damaged structures, but the reality is that there was probably a failure in the design or execution of the work. Yes, in Quebec, any ground construction will probably move slightly, but never as we often see!
Travelling around the world, we can see that some extraordinary works hold up well for centuries. Some will say that they don’t have the freeze-thaw factors. Make sure that they have mastered other characteristics of the soil and climate.
The second objective for a successful landscaping investment is to properly respond to needs through good planning, a coherent design orchestrated with a landscape plan that can be divided into phases of realization if necessary.
– What do we need?
– What is our budget?
– What are our priorities?
Without exhaustive planning, you can easily fall prey to construction errors, mistakes in the dimensions of the spaces, in the links between the different spaces, or even in the integration of elements that will have no added value even if they are well built. The last important thing to consider is not to overload the design. A clean and functional layout will always be more versatile when reselling a property. Elvis Gratton-style landscaping should be avoided as an investment; it’s not certain that you will recover the value of your investment when you resell!
To find out how to plan your landscaping projects, consult the ultimate guide to the seven steps of a landscaping plan.