Driveways, patios, garden walls, steps, pathways and Cornish hedging, built on the same excavation, sub-base and drainage a foundation gets. You are hiring a groundworks contractor to build the part of your garden that has to hold still.
Hard landscaping is the built, permanent structure of a garden: driveways, patios, paths, steps, walls, hedges and bases, everything that is dug and constructed rather than planted. Soft landscaping is the planting. Hard landscaping is the part that carries weight, holds ground and moves water.
That makes it construction work in a domestic setting, and it is judged the way construction is judged, by what sits underneath. A patio is a surface on a prepared base with a fall on it. A garden wall holding a bank is a retaining structure with a foundation and drainage behind it. Steps between two levels are set out to a rise that stays the same from bottom to top.
If your garden has a level change, a wet corner or a surface that has to carry a car, this page is about that work.
Excavated to the depth the ground and the load need, with a compacted sub-base under the finished surface and the run-off solved before anything is laid. See driveways, and our driveways guide compares the surfaces themselves.
Levels and falls set out first, so water leaves the surface and runs away from the house. On a slope that usually means a retained edge or a step, built as a structure. See patios.
Free-standing masonry walls, and retaining walls holding a bank or a level change, founded properly and drained behind. The reinforced version sits on the concrete services page.
Cast in situ or built in masonry, set out to a consistent rise and tied into the walls either side.
Routes around the house, side passages, standing for bins and bikes, gates and thresholds, laid to fall.
Traditional stone-faced earth banks, rebuilt or newly built, with two battered faces of local stone around a compacted core.
Posts set to depth in ground that runs from rab to hard rock, on a line agreed before we start.
Level, drained slabs and foundations for garden rooms, summer houses and workshops.
Your surfaces stay where you put themA base built for the ground beneath it and the load above it does not rut at the wheel tracks or rock at the corners after one wet winter.
Water goes where it is meant to goFalls, edge drainage and a soakaway where one is needed are designed in at the start, so rain leaves the garden rather than standing on it or running at the house.
Ground that moves is held properlyA bank retained by a wall with a foundation and drainage behind it stays retained. That is a structural job and it is treated as one.
The garden works in a Cornish winterSolid access to the door, a path that drains, and a terrace you can still use in February.
Most of what decides whether hard landscaping lasts is buried, and drainage is where the rules concentrate. According to the Government's guidance on the permeable surfacing of front gardens, a new or replacement front garden surface over five square metres needs planning permission unless it is permeable or drains to a permeable area inside your own boundary. Building Regulations Part H applies the same thinking to the rest of the plot, putting soakaways and infiltration ahead of any discharge to a sewer.
That is a groundworks question before it is a landscaping one, and it is the work this business does every week on construction sites, to architects' and structural engineers' drawings, with the director on site running the machine.
Matt Richards owns and runs Cornwall Civils & Construction from Newlyn. He started in construction at 17 and has 23 years behind him: mason by trade, then working foreman, then site manager across groundworks and demolition, and now director of his own company. He builds reinforced concrete retaining walls for architects and developers, and a garden gets the same standards.
A patio, a drive and a foundation are the same job to me. You dig down to something that will carry the load, you deal with the water before you cover it up, and you set your levels before anything is laid.Matt Richards, director
Mason by trade, 23 years in construction
Director led, on site and operating the machine
Working to architects' and engineers' drawings
£5m public liability, including groundworks and demolition up to 15 metres
We work out of Newlyn and cover west Cornwall, from the Penwith peninsula through to Falmouth. Garden and driveway work takes us regularly to St Ives, Hayle and Falmouth, along with Penzance, Marazion, St Just, Camborne, Redruth, Helston and the villages between them. Ground changes across that stretch, from rab and clay to Blue Elvan hard rock at spade depth, and it changes how the base under your surface has to be built.
At St Ives we cast in situ steps up to a new build alongside a 45 metre reinforced concrete retaining wall, with land drains behind it. On a cliffside property we built a soffit slab with integrated drainage, a sunken hot tub and cantilevered steps, on access tight enough to run the job on a one ton dumper.
We do not publish rates, because a garden is priced on what is under it and how much of it has to be moved. What you get before anything starts is a written quote setting out:
If the ground turns out different from what the site visit showed, you get the revised figure in writing and we wait for your answer before carrying on.
Read the reviews rather than take our word for it. They sit on our Google profile and pull through live, so the rating and the count are current rather than typed onto this page.
Based on 5 Google reviews
Great company to work with. Professional, reliable and well organised from start to finish. Communication is always clear, sites are well run & the team are a pleasure to deal with. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend them and look forward to working together again!
Read more on GoogleCornwall Civils have been working on a complex external works package for our project in St Ives. Their works have included an extensive concrete retaining wall, in-situ concrete stairs and an in-ground modular drainage system.
Read more on GoogleCornwall Civils handled a tricky concrete shuttering, steel work, and pour for us on an emergency job. They stepped in at very short notice and worked through nights and weekends to get it done. The quality of their work was excellent, and their commitment was outstanding.
Read more on GoogleI recently had the pleasure of working with Matry at Cornwall Civils and Construction, and I couldn’t be more impressed with the service provided.
Read more on GoogleOne further five-star rating was left on Google without a written review.
Send us your postcode, some photographs and any drawings you have, and we will come and look at the ground before we price the job.
Call Matt Richards on 07958 102538 · Get a free quote online
14 The Strand, Newlyn, Penzance, TR18 5HN
Phone: 07958 102538
Email: info@cornwallcivilsandconstruction.co.uk
Hours: Mon to Fri 07:00 to 17:00 · Sat 08:00 to 12:00
Sunday: emergency call out only
Last updated: 22 September 2026
