Illuminated pergola, furnished deck, and circular fire pit at dusk

Service area · Athens, GA

AthensOutdoor Living Contractor

Retaining walls, pools, decks, and outdoor kitchens, designed by licensed landscape architects for in-town lots, mature trees, and historic streets.

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Serving Athens-Clarke County

Your Athens yard, planned around what's already there

As an outdoor living contractor in Athens, GA, we work with slope, red clay, and one of the heaviest tree canopies of any city its size. Our crews come from Jefferson, one county over, and a licensed landscape architect maps your grade, drainage, and trees first. You see the finished backyard in 3D before work starts.

Curved stone retaining wall with mature flowering shrubs and a green lawn

Athens backyards

Backyards Athens friends keep coming back to

A stone wall creates level room, and a custom pool, a deck, and a grill island fill it.

Brick retaining wall supporting a planted garden beside a lawn

Level space for the patio

Terraced walls give you level room for a patio, a lawn, or the pool. Walls over 4 feet get an Athens-Clarke permit we file.

Retaining walls
Blue swimming pool bordered by stone paving and flowering landscape beds

Custom pools for Eastside yards

Your Athens pool builder draws the pool, hot tub, and pool deck in 3D first. Open yards off Barnett Shoals Road fit all three.

Custom pools
Wood deck with dark railings above a stone patio

Decks at kitchen level

A Trex or pressure-treated deck adds level living space off the kitchen, with a Duxbak dry room below. Your deck builder files the Athens-Clarke permit.

Decks & under-deck systems
Stone outdoor kitchen with built-in grill, fireplace, and dining table

Outdoor kitchens among the trees

Cook for the whole crew at a stacked stone Belgard island. Larger lots in Forest Heights and Kingswood have room for one.

Outdoor kitchens
Covered deck above a stone patio with outdoor seating and lawn

Picture it finished

Saturday night in your Athens backyard

The deck off your kitchen looks down on a pool tucked under the old trees, with a stone wall holding the lawn level beside it. Smoke drifts from the grill island while the kids cannonball in.

Friends walk over from down the street after the game and stay for dinner on the deck. By ten, the hot tub is full and the conversation is still going.

What your weekends look like now

  • Coffee on the deck, looking down over the pool.
  • Grandparents take the wide stone steps down with ease.
  • Dinner comes off the grill island steps from the pool.
  • The neighbors know where to find you on a Saturday.

Around Athens

Athens neighborhoods we design for

Your street decides which reviews apply and how much room you have to work with.

Explore Athens on the map

Cobbham and Boulevard

Both are local historic districts, so new walls, fences, and driveways need a Certificate of Appropriateness first. We prepare drawings sized for that review.

Five Points and Milledge

Early 20th-century homes sit on sloped streets where rain runs fast. Milledge and Milledge Circle carry historic review, and every plan here starts with drainage.

Normaltown off Prince Avenue

Midcentury homes on walkable streets often come with compact backyards and original patios. We plan around tight crew access and put the whole footprint to use.

West side neighborhoods

Forest Heights, Kingswood, and Homewood Hills offer larger, wooded lots. There's room for a patio, fire feature, and planting laid out as one design.

Barnett Shoals Road eastside

Established subdivisions like Brookstone mix with newer builds on larger lots. Open yards here suit a complete outdoor living space built in phases.

Creek and river lots

Athens protects 75 feet on both sides of a stream bank. Your patio and walls sit outside that buffer, and we confirm the line early.

Permits in Athens

One permit office for all of Athens-Clarke

Athens and Clarke County share one unified government, so every address uses the same Building Permits and Inspections office on West Dougherty Street. Walls over 4 feet need engineered plans, and pools at least 24 inches deep need a 4-foot fence. We prepare and file your permits as part of the project.

What sets us apart

Athens projects, start to finish with one team

We've designed and built North Georgia backyards since 1997, and you can check every credential below.

Two landscape architects in-house

Two licensed landscape architects, a title Georgia protects by law, draw your plans. You keep the permit-ready set.

A single contract

Our residential and light commercial license lets one team handle masonry, carpentry, electrical, and planting, with one contact the whole way.

First in Atlanta with Belgard

Sugar Hill Outdoors became Atlanta's first Belgard Master Craftsman through a documented body of finished hardscape.

Milestone draws

Each draw comes after a finished phase of construction, so what you've paid matches what's built.

Stone steps and a winding garden walkway through established landscaping

Homeowner feedback

A client on a longer walkway

“We took the opportunity to expand the walkway around to our basement door... Clint had a lot of great suggestions and his crew did an amazing job in a very timely manner.”
S RedmonGoogle review

Athens-Clarke County building questions

What Athens homeowners ask most before a backyard build.

Walls over 4 feet need a building permit and engineered structural plans. Walls 4 feet and under that hold back only soil are exempt from the building permit, though a zoning permit may still apply. Each wall gets its own permit.

Athens-Clarke requires a fence or wall at least 4 feet high around any pool at least 24 inches deep. Openings stay under 4 inches, and gates close and latch on their own. As your Athens pool contractor, we design that enclosure into the plan.

Athens protects stream buffers for 75 feet on both sides of the bank. Work inside that buffer goes through the Planning Department. Your design keeps patios and walls outside the buffer from the start.

Yes, and steep lots make some of our favorite projects. A slope in Five Points or Normaltown can become stone terraces and steps, and your deck contractor can raise a deck off the kitchen with a dry room below.

If your home sits in a local historic district like Cobbham, Boulevard, or Dearing, yes for most exterior changes. Site features such as walls, fences, and driveways need a Certificate of Appropriateness before work begins. We prepare the drawings for the review.

Ask who designs it and who manages the trades. With us, licensed landscape architects draw the pool in 3D, and your pool contractor runs every trade under one contract. We've built about 60 pools since 2010, paid by milestone.

Yes, and plan on one. Athens-Clarke's Building Permits and Inspections office handles deck permits and points builders to Georgia's prescriptive wood deck construction guide. As your Athens deck contractor, we file it with your project.

Most of our walls start at $50 per square foot of wall face. Taller engineered walls run up to $75 to $80 per square foot, and walls over 4 feet add engineering costs. Your consultation prices the wall your yard needs.

Helpful Athens resources

ACC Building Permits and InspectionsACC Retaining Wall InformationACC Historic District Maps

Start your Athens backyard with a 3D design

Schedule a design consultation, and we'll show you the pool, deck, and outdoor kitchen for your Athens backyard in 3D. We revise the plan with you until every piece fits your yard.

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