Curved stone steps leading to a fire pit and pergola in a wooded backyard

Service area · Ball Ground, GA

Ball Ground Deck Builder &Outdoor Living Contractor

Retaining walls, decks, pools, and outdoor kitchens, planned by licensed landscape architects for roomy rural lots and valley views.

Schedule Your Design Consultation

Serving Ball Ground

More outdoor room for Ball Ground homes

Sugar Hill Outdoors is an outdoor living contractor for Ball Ground, GA, where the land swings from about 1,000 feet in the valleys to 1,200 on the hilltops. Level space usually starts with a wall. A licensed landscape architect maps your grade, and you walk through the design in 3D before we break ground.

Broad stone steps and boulders connecting a green lawn to the house

Ball Ground backyards

Swim, grill, and spread out in Ball Ground

Ball Ground lots have space for pools, decks, and outdoor kitchens.

Tiered block retaining walls and stone paving beside a wooded hillside

Usable yard on the hillside

A stacked stone retaining wall gives you flat yard for a patio or lawn. Near Gilmer Ferry Road, we match it to an older home.

Retaining walls
Composite deck and pergola with black rails and stone columns

Decks above the valley

A raised deck with a valley view and a dry Duxbak room below. Our deck builders file with City Hall or Cherokee County.

Decks & under-deck systems
Freeform swimming pool, raised spa, and stone patio viewed from above

Pools with acreage around them

A custom pool with room for lawn and lounge chairs around it. On county acreage, your pool builder sets the required 5-foot barrier.

Custom pools
Stone grill island with a stainless steel built-in grill

Ball Ground outdoor kitchens for cookouts

A Belgard grill island off the patio, ready for a Big Green Egg or Blackstone. In Marble Tree, we draw the plans for HOA review.

Outdoor kitchens
Furnished stone patio and outdoor fireplace beneath a large wood deck

Picture it finished

A Ball Ground backyard with room for everyone

Picture the deck off the back door filling up while the grill island heats. Down the steps, the pool sits on flat yard held by a stacked stone wall, and the hills roll off toward the mountains.

Kids and dogs have the lawn, and the grownups have the fire pit on the patio. Family stays the whole weekend, and friends start making the drive out on their own.

What the acreage gives you now

  • Breakfast on the deck, looking out at the hills.
  • Swims in the afternoon, burgers off the grill by six.
  • Kids and dogs get the open lawn below the wall.
  • Friends ask to come back before they leave.

Around Ball Ground

Ball Ground neighborhoods and acreage we serve

Ball Ground has historic in-town homes, new subdivisions, and open acreage. Each one starts the plan in a different place.

Explore Ball Ground on the map

Near Gilmer Ferry Road

Homes in the historic district date from the 1880s to the 1950s, many on hillside lots. Your hardscape is designed to suit an older house and its grade.

Marble Tree off Exit 27

This Eastwood Homes community off Howell Bridge Road sits in the foothills with an HOA. We draw your plans for review and work with the builder's grading.

Acreage outside town

Rural tracts around Ball Ground commonly rely on septic. Your patio and pool are positioned at least 10 feet from the tank, per state health rules.

Etowah River frontage

Riverfront acreage near Ball Ground carries a 150-foot undisturbed buffer under Cherokee County code. Your plan stays upland of that line.

Solid from the start

A Ball Ground backyard built to hold up

Ball Ground sits in the Upper Piedmont, on gneiss and schist bedrock under red clay. Toward the county's northern edge, soils thin and fractured rock rises closer to the surface. We plan footings, drainage, and equipment for rock from the first site visit.

Why Sugar Hill Outdoors

What comes with every Ball Ground project

Sugar Hill Outdoors has been designing and building outdoor spaces since 1997.

Two landscape architects

Georgia protects the licensed landscape architect title. Two on our team plan your property, and the construction drawings are yours.

One license, every trade

One residential and light commercial license and one contract cover grading, stonework, carpentry, and electrical.

Belgard craftsmanship, earned first

Our Belgard Master Craftsman title, the first in Atlanta, came from a documented record of completed installs.

You pay as stages finish

You fund each stage once it's built and ready for you to inspect.

Natural stone stream winding through a planted woodland garden

Google reviews

A homeowner on a new rock wall

“Had them install a rock wall in our front yard and were very satisfied with how it turned out. Definitely reccommend!”
Nicole WithersGoogle review

Ball Ground permit and project questions

What Ball Ground property owners ask before a project starts.

The City of Ball Ground permits work inside city limits through Permits and Inspections at City Hall on Valley Street. Land disturbance permits route to the Georgia EPD. Parcels outside the limits go through Cherokee County. We sort out the right office and file for you.

Look for licensed landscape architects who draw your custom pool in 3D and one contract for every trade. Sugar Hill Outdoors has built about 60 pools since 2010, with a payment after each finished phase.

Yes, outside the buffer. Cherokee County code sets a 150-foot undisturbed natural buffer on both banks of the Etowah. Other streams carry 50 feet plus a 25-foot setback for hard surfaces. We place your pool, deck, or patio upland of those lines.

Many do. Marble Tree, for example, carries an annual HOA fee, and newer communities usually review exterior projects. Historic downtown homes and rural acreage typically sit outside an HOA. Your deck contractor and designer prepare review drawings if your community asks for them.

Taller walls do. In unincorporated Cherokee County, walls 4 feet or taller need a permit and engineer-certified drawings. Inside city limits, Ball Ground sets its own threshold, and we confirm it with City Hall. We engineer any wall taller than 4 feet.

Yes. State health rules call for 10 feet between your septic tank and any patio, driveway, or pool. Hardscape stays 5 feet from the drain field, and a pool stays 15 feet from it. As your Ball Ground pool contractor, we locate the whole system on acreage before design.

Yes. On a hillside lot, a raised deck is often the simplest way to gain level space. As your Ball Ground deck contractor, we set footings to Georgia's 12-inch minimum depth and can frame a roof over the deck if you want one. Your permit goes to City Hall or Cherokee County, depending on your parcel.

Our custom pools typically start near $200 per square foot. Decks run $32 to $48 per square foot in pressure-treated wood, or $48 to $60 in composite with pressure-treated railings. Kitchen islands run about $5,000 to $100,000.

Helpful Ball Ground resources

City of Ball Ground Building Permitting and InspectionsCity of Ball Ground Planning and ZoningCherokee County Building Permits and Inspections

Plan your Ball Ground property in 3D

Set a time for a design consultation. We'll walk the land with you and lay out the plan in 3D. Our deck builders and stone crews build every wall and board from that plan.

Schedule Your Design Consultation
Call NowEmail