Landscape Contractor / Design Build Maintain

JUL 2016

LC/DBM provides landscape contractors with Educational, Imaginative and Practical information about their business, their employees, their machines and their projects.

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The owner of a south Florida home wanted the front entrance to look like you were driving into a space surrounded by natural rock cliffs. He asked me and my team at Waterfalls Fountains & Gardens Inc. to create naturalistic rock formations mixed with vegetation that would cover the entire concrete façade of the garages, a tunnel, a ten- nis court above as well as the surrounding landscape. The client had distinct images of rock cliffs that he has seen in his extensive travels throughout the world. The rock formations were to be planted with as much vegetation as possible to make them look natural. Along with the homeowner and general contractor, we selected all of the natural stone materials that would best create the homeowner's vision. We used 90 tons of black volcanic rock from the Sierra Nevada Mountains, supplied by Featherock, to create the water features. We had to figure out a way to cut and split the stone, making it lighter and easier to install on the walls of the house. We used special chainsaws that can cut through stone, as well as special drill bits. This was a learning experience since there was no information readily available on how to cut and sculpt volcanic rock. We now consider ourselves pros at sculpting this rock. The biggest challenge was to secure the boulders to the walls of the house while making them look as natural as possible. On top of this, the style of the rockwork had to complement the Asian influenced Above: A homeowner in south Florida wanted a natural-looking rock formation with plantings and a waterfall to cover the garage at the front of his home. Having traveled the world, the client had developed a distinct vision based on his experiences. The style had to match the home, which has an Asian influence. Matthew Giampietro, president of Waterfalls Fountains & Gardens Inc., used his experience from living in Japan and studying the art of rock arranging to design and install the rock formation. It took three months to build the space using 90 tons of black volcanic rock from the Sierra Nevada Mountains, supplied by Featherock. Waterfalls Rock! by Matthew Giampietro, Waterfalls Fountains & Gardens Inc. 26 LC DBM

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