Landscaping & Hardscaping on Long Island
Patios, walls, driveways, drainage, lighting, and lawns, designed and built as one project by one accountable crew. Because your yard deserves the same craftsmanship as everything else we build under one roof.
Create the Backyard of Your Dreams
Walk through almost any neighborhood from Rocky Point to Smithtown and you can spot the yards that were built piecemeal. A patio poured by one crew, a wall stacked by another, a sprinkler company that trenched through both a year later, and a low corner by the foundation that still puddles after every storm. Nobody designed the yard as a whole, so it never works as a whole.
Keystone Construction approaches your property the way we approach a custom home: with a single plan. Grading and drainage get solved first, then the hardscape, the lighting, the planting beds, and the lawn are laid out around how your family actually lives. Because our family of companies includes in-house electrical and plumbing professionals, the wiring for your landscape lighting and the supply line for your irrigation system are handled by our own people, on our schedule, under one contract.
Whether you own a cape in Miller Place with a tight backyard, a colonial in Stony Brook on a sloped lot, or an acre in Wading River with room to dream, we design outdoor spaces that drain properly, hold up to Long Island winters, and look better every year as the plantings mature.
Built to Last, Not Just to Look Good
The most common fear we hear about outdoor projects is simple: "Will this still look right in five years?" Long Island is hard on hardscape. Freeze-thaw cycles heave pavers that were set on a thin base. Sandy North Shore soils wash out from under walkways that were never compacted. Walls built without proper footings lean a little more every spring. Almost every failed patio we are asked to repair failed below the surface, in the part of the job nobody could see on installation day.
That is why it matters that Keystone is a design-build general contractor, not just a landscape crew. We bring 75+ years of combined construction experience to the ground itself: excavation to the right depth, engineered base material compacted in lifts, footings that respect the local frost line, and drainage designed before the first paver is placed. The same project managers who run our home builds run our outdoor projects, with the same schedules, the same communication, and the same final walkthrough.
- Proper excavation, base preparation, and compaction on every hardscape
- Drainage and grading solved first, not patched later
- In-house electrical and plumbing trades for lighting and irrigation
- Permits and inspections coordinated with your town for you
- One contract, one schedule, one accountable company from design to walkthrough
What We Design and Build Outdoors
Every project starts with backyard design: a plan that considers your grade, your soil, your sun exposure, and your budget before anything gets dug. From there, our crews handle the full range of landscape and hardscape construction across Suffolk and Nassau counties.
Patios & Walkways
Paver patios remain the workhorse of Long Island backyards for good reason: they flex with freeze-thaw cycles, they come in dozens of colors and textures, and individual pavers can be lifted and reset if the ground ever moves. For a more classic look, bluestone patios pair beautifully with the capes, colonials, and farm ranches that fill our neighborhoods. We also build walkways that connect front doors, driveways, gates, and garden areas so guests are never cutting across wet grass.
- Paver Patios
- Bluestone Patios
- Walkways
- Backyard Design
Retaining Walls, Steps & Stonework
Sloped lots are common along the North Shore, and a well-built wall turns a hillside into usable yard. We construct retaining walls with proper footings, drainage stone, and weep systems so they hold their line for decades, plus seating walls that wrap patios and fire features, and garden walls that frame planting beds. Outdoor steps tie the levels of your property together safely, and decorative stonework, from veneer accents to boulder placements, gives the whole design its character.
- Retaining Walls
- Seating Walls
- Garden Walls
- Outdoor Steps
- Decorative Stonework
Driveways & Entrances
Your driveway is the first thing anyone sees, and on Long Island it takes a beating from plows, salt, and delivery trucks. We build asphalt, paver, and gravel driveways over a properly compacted base, with edging, aprons, and Belgian block borders that keep the lines crisp. A new driveway is also the right moment to fix pitch problems that have been sending water toward your garage for years.
Landscape Lighting
Good landscape lighting does three jobs at once: it makes steps and walkways safe after dark, it deters unwanted visitors, and it lets you enjoy your investment on a July evening instead of just looking at it through the window. Our in-house electricians install low-voltage LED systems with path lights, uplights, wall grazing, and smart controls, wired correctly and safely tied into your home's electrical system.
Drainage & Grading
Water is the quiet enemy of every Long Island property. We design and install drainage systems that move roof and surface water away from foundations and patios: French drains along soggy property lines, catch basins in low spots, drywells that return stormwater to the ground, and regrading that restores positive pitch away from the house. If your basement smells damp or your lawn squishes in April, this is where your project should start.
- Drainage Systems
- French Drains
- Grading
Lawns, Turf & Irrigation
Once the hard construction is done, we finish the picture. Sod installation gives you a mature lawn in a weekend instead of a season of seeding and hoping. For shaded yards, play areas, and homeowners tired of watering, artificial turf has come a long way and stays green from January through December. And irrigation systems, installed with proper zones and smart controllers by our own plumbing professionals, keep everything alive through a dry August without wasting water.
- Sod Installation
- Artificial Turf
- Irrigation Systems
Drainage Rules, Permits, and How Outdoor Projects Work Here
Homeowners are often surprised that yard work can involve the building department at all. On Long Island, it frequently does. Most towns, including Brookhaven, Riverhead, Smithtown, and Huntington, require that stormwater be retained on your own property rather than directed toward a neighbor or the street. That is why drywells are so common here, and why a new patio, driveway, or large roofed structure may trigger a drainage review. Adding impervious surface changes how your lot sheds water, and the town wants to see where that water is going.
Retaining walls have their own rules. Once a wall exceeds a certain height, commonly around four feet measured from the bottom of the footing, most towns require a building permit and stamped engineering. That is not red tape for its own sake: a four-foot wall holding back saturated soil is carrying real structural load, and the New York State Uniform Fire Prevention and Building Code treats it accordingly. Footings for walls, steps, and masonry piers also need to respect the local frost depth, roughly 36 inches here, so freeze-thaw cycles cannot heave them out of line.
A few more local wrinkles we handle routinely. Driveway aprons and new curb cuts along town or county roads require a separate permit from the highway department, not the building department. Irrigation systems must include backflow prevention so lawn water can never siphon back into the drinking supply, a requirement your water district takes seriously and one our licensed plumbers handle as part of the installation. Landscape lighting is typically low-voltage, but any new circuits or exterior outlets that feed it require inspection by a licensed third-party electrical inspection agency before the job is signed off.
Soil matters too, and it varies more than most people expect. Much of the North Shore sits on sandy, fast-draining glacial soil that is forgiving for drywells but erodes quickly on slopes, while clay pockets in some mid-Island neighborhoods hold water and demand more aggressive drainage design. We evaluate what is actually under your lawn before we design what goes on top of it, and when a survey, setback check, or zoning question comes up, we resolve it before construction rather than during it.
You never chase paperwork: Keystone prepares the drawings, files the permits, schedules every inspection, and closes out your project with the town. You get one point of contact and a finished yard, not a folder of forms.
What We Offer
Every landscaping and hardscaping project comes with the full Keystone experience, the same one our custom home clients get.
- Free initial consultation and property walk
- Design-build coordination under one contract
- Permit guidance and filings handled for you
- Financing assistance for qualified clients
- Quality materials from trusted local suppliers
- Dedicated project management start to finish
- Professional craftsmanship on every square foot
- Final walkthrough and satisfaction check
Related Services
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need a permit for a paver patio or retaining wall?
Patios often do not, but retaining walls above a certain height, drainage work, and structures near wetlands or bluffs usually require permits. We check local rules before we dig.
Can you fix drainage and standing water in my yard?
Yes. We install French drains, grading, and drainage systems to move water away from your foundation and eliminate soggy spots, which matters on Long Island's flat and sandy lots.
How long do paver and bluestone patios last?
Installed correctly on a properly compacted base, paver and bluestone patios last for decades. The base preparation is what determines longevity, and it is where we never cut corners.
Do you offer landscape lighting and irrigation?
Yes. We install landscape lighting, irrigation, sod, and artificial turf as part of a complete backyard design, coordinated with any hardscaping and outdoor living work.
Ready for a Yard That Works as Hard as Your Home?
Tell us about the patio, the wall, the drainage headache, or the whole backyard. We will walk your property, sketch the possibilities, and give you honest answers at no cost.