Loth & SonLawn Care & Landscaping
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Stone that stays where it was set.

Patios, walkways, steps, and retaining and garden walls, in pavers or natural stone, across Lower Merion Township.

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A cobblestone-style paver driveway edged in granite cobble, running up to a stone and clapboard house between freshly mulched beds.
Paver drive with a granite cobble edge, and the beds on both sides of it.
  • Veteran-ownedU.S. Marines, 2008–2017, Sgt.
  • PA HIC #PA196377Insured $1M / $2M.
  • Family-run since 2019Father founded it; Rathana runs it.
  • Free estimatesA reply in 1–2 business days.

How we think about it

A patio is mostly the part you cannot see. The excavation, the base depth, the compaction, the drainage, the edge restraint. Get those wrong and the surface tells on you in about two winters: sunken spots, rocking stones, a wall that starts to lean out at the top.

That is the work Loth & Son does first, and it is why we do our own grading rather than hand it to somebody else. The crew that decides how the water leaves your property is the same crew that sets the stone on top of it.

A bluestone patio with a curved stone seat wall capped in bluestone, set with outdoor dining and lounge furniture beside a house.
Bluestone patio with a curved stone seat wall.

On the property

A curved bluestone front walk running through mulched beds and daffodils, past a white lamp post toward the street.
Curved bluestone front walk, with the beds cut to follow it.
A curved paver walk bordered in granite cobble, wrapping a mulched bed, with a lawn, a fire pit seating area and a shed beyond.
Curved paver walk with a cobble border around the bed it wraps.

What this covers

  • Patios

    Paver and natural stone, laid on a base built for this soil and this climate.

  • Walkways & steps

    Front walks, garden paths, stepping stones, and the steps that connect grade changes.

  • Retaining walls

    Structural walls that hold a slope, built with the drainage behind them that keeps them standing.

  • Garden walls & seat walls

    Lower walls that shape a bed, terrace a lawn or edge a patio.

  • Edging & restraint

    Granite cobble, steel or a paver soldier course, which keeps the outer row from creeping.

  • The grading underneath

    Cut, fill and pitch, so water goes where you want it instead of toward the house.

In more detail

Guides for this work

See all the guides

Questions we get asked

  • What is included in hardscaping?

    Everything on a property that is built rather than grown: patios, walks and paths, steps, retaining and garden walls, edging, and the grading and drainage underneath all of it. On most Main Line jobs the grading is the biggest single part of the work and the part nobody sees when it is done right.

  • How do I choose a hardscaping contractor?

    Ask what goes under the surface, and how deep. Ask who does the grading and where the water goes when the patio is finished. Ask whether the same people who set the stone will be the ones who come back if something moves. A contractor who can answer those three in plain words has done this before. Then ask for the estimate in writing.

  • Can you lay pavers on dirt?

    You can, and by the second spring you will have a walk that dips at the threshold and a patio with stones that rock. Soil holds water and moves with frost. Pavers need a compacted stone base that spreads the load and drains, a screeded setting bed, and an edge restraint along every open side. That base is most of the labor and all of the reason the surface stays level.

Also

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Tell us about the property.

Photographs of the space as it is now are worth more than any description. Send whatever you have.

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Free, written down, answered in one to two business days. Or call Rathana on 215-803-7742.