Ferndale · Metro Detroit
Stone that is
still flat in
twenty years.
Patios, retaining walls, steps and outdoor living, built on a base made for Michigan frost. Fixed written price before we start — and a five year warranty on the work, not just the materials.
- G 4.9 214 Google reviews
- BBB A+ ratedAccredited since 2011
- ICPI Certified installerICPI & NCMA
Metro Detroit
completed
platforms
used
What we build
Five things. All of them stone.
We do not mow, we do not plant, and we will tell you straight if your job belongs with somebody else. What is below is what we are set up to do properly, with a starting figure against each one so you are not guessing.
Patios & terraces
From $14,000Paver, flagstone and natural stone terraces on a 10″ compacted base built for frost. Polymeric sand, proper edge restraint, and a layout drawn before a stone is cut.
- 10in base
- Edge restraint
- Drawn to scale
Retaining walls
$55–$95 / face ftSegmental block, boulder and natural stone to six feet. Engineered drawings above four, geogrid where it belongs, and a full drain stone chimney behind every one.
- Engineered 4ft+
- Geogrid
- Drain chimney
Steps & walkways
From $4,800Cut stone treads, landings and front entrances. Every riser the same height, which sounds obvious and is the thing most often got wrong.
- Consistent risers
- Set in concrete
- Non-slip finish
Outdoor living
From $9,500Fire pits, seat walls, outdoor kitchens and pergolas. Built into the terrace as one structure rather than dropped on top of a finished patio.
- Gas or wood
- Built-in seating
- Kitchen rough-in
Drainage & grading
From $3,200The part nobody photographs. Regrading away from the house, French drains, dry wells and downspout tie-ins — done first, or the rest of it fails.
- Done before stone
- Tied to daylight
- Camera survey
What it actually costs
Three real projects, with the real numbers.
Nobody else in this trade publishes this, which is exactly why we do. These are jobs we finished this year, priced the way you would have been quoted them.
The front entrance
$8,400
Typical range $4,800 – $12,000
- Cut stone steps and landing
- 32ft walkway in pavers
- Two seat-height side walls
- Regrading and drainage
- Six days on site
The back terrace
$22,600
Typical range $14,000 – $30,000
- 620 sq ft paver terrace
- Seat wall and gas fire pit
- 38ft of block retaining wall
- Full regrade and dry well
- Low voltage lighting
- Fourteen days on site
The whole back yard
$54,000
Typical range $38,000 – $85,000
- 1,400 sq ft of natural stone
- Outdoor kitchen and pergola
- Two-tier wall system
- Steps to a lower lawn
- Lighting and irrigation sleeves
- Five to seven weeks
Approved financing on projects over $10,000, through a third-party lender. Most of our terrace clients use it rather than waiting a season. We do not take a commission on it and it does not change your price.
Check eligibilityIf it moves, we come back and fix it.
Five years on workmanship, written into the contract, transferable if you sell the house. Settlement, heaving, a wall leaning, joints opening — if it is our base or our build, it is our problem, and there is no call-out charge to look at it. In twenty years we have been back eleven times. We would rather you knew the number than trusted the promise.
Job 2,614 · Berkley
Nine days, and the yard came back.
The problem
A 1950s timber wall that had rotted through, taking about four feet of the back yard with it every spring. The neighbour’s fence was eleven inches out of plumb and still moving.
What we did
Cut the bank back, drove 42″ of base, built a 5′6″ segmental wall with geogrid on three courses and a full drain stone chimney behind it, then laid a 540 sq ft terrace above with a seat wall and fire pit.
What it cost
$34,800, fixed, signed before we started, finished on the day in the contract. The two cheaper quotes had no engineering and no geogrid — which is precisely why the original wall failed.
Why we show this one
Because the expensive part is underground and you will never see it. The only way to judge a stone contractor is to make them tell you what is behind the wall, so we photograph every base before it is buried and put it in your file.
Before you pay anything
Four things you get in writing.
The single biggest risk in this trade is a handshake and a number on the back of a card. Everything below arrives as a document, free, before you owe us a cent.
Your yard measured, with the layout, the levels and the materials named. It is yours whether you hire us or not.
Broken out by part, with base depths and product names, so you can compare it against anyone else properly. Held 60 days.
Both in the contract, not "sometime in spring". If we miss the finish date without a weather delay, you get $200 a day back.
Workmanship, transferable with the house. Plus photographs of every base layer before it was covered up.
Projects
Photographed on the last day.
Every one of these is a Metro Detroit address, shot when we handed it over. The price is what the client actually paid.
About Ironleaf
Twenty years, one trade,
no subcontractors.
Most landscaping companies that quote you a patio are calling somebody else to build it. We are the somebody else. Eleven people on our own payroll, six machines on our own lot, and no markup on a middleman.
Ironleaf started in 2006 with one mini excavator and a plate compactor. Everything since has been bought with work, not borrowed — which is why we can still turn a job down when it is not right for us.
- Michigan Residential Builders licence, bonded
- $2M liability and workers’ comp on every crew member
- ICPI concrete paver and NCMA wall certified
- MISS DIG filed on every excavation, no exceptions
4.9 across 310 reviews
What Metro Detroit says.
They sent photographs of the drain stone before they backfilled. Nobody else who quoted us even mentioned drainage, and ours failed because of it.
Quoted $22,600 in March, paid $22,600 in June. Finished two days early. I have never been able to write that sentence about a contractor before.
Eighth winter on the terrace. Not one joint has opened. The company that did my neighbour’s the same summer has been back twice.
Certified & recognised
Coverage
Thirty minutes of the yard.
Machines and stone cost money to move, so we keep the radius tight and pass the saving on. Outside it, we will say so and give you two names we trust.
- Ferndale
- Royal Oak
- Berkley
- Huntington Woods
- Birmingham
- Pleasant Ridge
- Oak Park
- Clawson
- Madison Heights
- Troy
- Southfield
- Beverly Hills
Questions
What people ask before they call.
How is your price fixed if you have not dug yet?
Because we measure and probe before we quote, not after. If we genuinely hit something nobody could have known about — unmarked utilities, a buried slab — we stop, photograph it and call you before anything else happens. That has happened on about one job in forty, and the conversation comes before the cost.
How long until you can start?
Three to six weeks in season, less in early spring and late fall. Both the start and finish dates go in the contract, and we pay you $200 a day if we miss the finish without a weather delay.
Do I need a permit?
For walls over four feet, usually yes, and we handle the submission and the engineering. Patios and walkways generally do not. We will tell you at the visit, and the permit cost is in the written quote rather than added later.
Will the pavers sink or heave?
That is entirely a base question, and it is why our base depths look excessive next to a cheaper quote. Michigan moves nine inches a year. Ours are built for that and warranted five years — ask any other quote what their base depth is and whether they will put it in writing.
Can I do it in phases?
Yes, and about a third of our clients do. We draw the whole yard once, then price it in phases so you are never paying for all of it at once and the levels still line up in year three.
Do you do lawns, planting or mowing?
No. We regrade and topsoil so somebody else can, and we will happily give you two names. Doing one thing is the reason we are good at it.
Free site visit
Tell us what you want built.
We measure the site, then send a scaled drawing and a fixed written price within three working days. Free, no deposit, and the drawing is yours whether you hire us or not.
- Phone(248) 555-0172
- Emailoffice@ironleafoutdoor.example
- Yard1140 Hilton Rd, Ferndale MI 48220
- LicenceMI Builders 0000000000 · Insured to $2M