Nineteen cuts around a free-form pool. None of them show.
Pools & Water Features · Outdoor Kitchens · Pergolas & Structures $118,000 — $142,000
Bergen County
Exterior design–build
in Franklin Lakes.
Franklin Lakes is acre-plus zoning on rolling ground, which means the projects here are big, the access is good, and the grade is the whole problem. A house sited on a knoll with a walk-out basement wants two or three terrace levels rather than one, and getting those levels to feel inevitable rather than stacked is most of the design work. It is also where our largest budgets sit, because the sites ask for retaining structure before they ask for paving.
NJ HIC # 13VHXXXXXXXXXLicensed & fully insured · $2M general liabilityGoogle 4.9 / 5 — 127 ReviewsTecho-Bloc / Unilock / Belgard AuthorizedHouzz Pro
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Building in Franklin Lakes
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Freeze–thaw
The higher ground north of the Franklin Lakes reservoir runs three to four degrees colder than the Route 208 corridor on a still night, and holds snow a week longer. That produces fewer but deeper freeze cycles — roughly 30 a winter, with frost depth reaching 750 mm in an open exposure. Our footings here go to 900 mm without discussion, and north-facing terraces get an extra 50 mm of base because they thaw last.
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Soil
This is glacial outwash over Precambrian gneiss, and the outwash is the good news: it drains. The bad news is that it is full of boulders, and on a large excavation we will usually turn up two or three that need breaking or hauling. We price boulder handling as a contingency line rather than pretending it will not happen, because on a Franklin Lakes lot it almost always does.
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Drainage
Much of the borough drains into the Ramapo River watershed, and the high ground sheds fast. On a sloping site the danger is not standing water, it is velocity — runoff cutting a channel behind a new wall within two seasons. We build the chimney drain and the outlet before the wall goes up, and we daylight to a point where the discharge will not simply become the neighbour’s problem downhill.
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Approvals
There is no historic district, but several of the larger communities — including the Bear Brook and Urban Farms areas — have HOA architectural review with real teeth, and some restrict work to specific hours and months. The borough also has a steep-slope ordinance that governs disturbance on grades over 15%, which catches a surprising number of back-yard terraces. We check the slope map before the first meeting, not after.
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Our work in Franklin Lakes
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A Franklin Lakes client
“Four winters in and not one joint has opened. The lighting still reads exactly the way it did the night he aimed it.”
Franklin Lakes, NJ
Pool surround + outdoor kitchen
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What we build in Franklin Lakes
Paver Patios & Walkways 60 mm units · 25 mm bedding course · 150 mm compacted base · polymeric joints Driveways 300 mm base under vehicular load · herringbone at 45° · double soldier course Retaining Walls & Drainage Geogrid every second course · 300 mm drainage chimney · 4″ perforated outlet to daylight Decks Kiln-dried ipe or thermally modified ash · hidden fasteners · joists 16″ o.c. Pergolas & Structures Engineered cedar or powder-coat aluminium · frost footings to 900 mm · concealed hardware Outdoor Kitchens 316 stainless cabinetry · 3 cm granite or porcelain · gas plus dedicated 20 A circuit Fire Features Masonry firebox with 25 mm air gap · NFPA 58 clearances · CSA-listed burner and key valve Pools & Water Features Gunite shell · 3 cm granite coping · surround set on 250 mm base with 2% pitch away Landscape Design Planting plan at 1/8″ = 1′-0″ · specimen sizes called out · three-season succession Outdoor Lighting 12 V · 2700 K · 300 W transformer at 60% load · direct-burial 12/2 · aimed after dark
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Start here
Building in
Franklin Lakes?
Four short steps, about ninety seconds. You will get a written range before anyone comes out — and we will tell you what Franklin Lakes specifically is going to add to the excavation before you are surprised by it.
201.555.0148 Mon–Sat · 7a–7p
NJ HIC # 13VHXXXXXXXXX · Licensed & fully insured · $2M general liability · Google 4.9 / 5 — 127 Reviews · Techo-Bloc / Unilock / Belgard Authorized · Houzz Pro