Innovative Solutions Plus Unique Looks Equals New England Hardscapes

Juliet Farmer, ConcreteNetwork.Com Columnist

Just south of New Hampshire, in Tyngsborough, Mass., New England Hardscapes, Inc. operates. The three-year-old company, owned by Rich Capachione, primarily serves customers within a 30- to 40-mile radius, which mainly encompasses south New Hampshire and most of Mass., as well as Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Maine and Vermont (occasionally).

With a client base consisting mostly of new pool owners, 80 percent of the company portfolio is pool decks, plus a small amount of commercial work, as well as stone, masonry and concrete pavers (which, Capachione points out, goes hand-in-hand with pool construction).

"There's lots of new construction in our area," Capachione explains. "[So] there are lots of homes that need hardscaping help. By installing the right hardscape elements to a property, we provide the proper framework to set off the landscape or softscape."

New England Hardscapes takes hardscaping help a step further by designing whole outdoor living areas. Their sales/design consultants create whole landscape plans (including pools, patios, walls, fire pits, walkways and
driveways) for clients.

Capachione says the company gets a large amount of referrals from past customers, local pool companies, architects and builders. They also make a lot of their own stamps.

"We do different things, like create patterns and specialty logos," he explains. For example, they created a Dinosaur stamp series, the largest of which is seven to eight feet. "[We] saw a niche, and we've been able to get certain projects [from this stamp alone]. It's a unique look."

New England Hardscapes also reproduces surfaces, such as wood, travertine, flagstone—even stainless steel. They recently completed a high-end patio, where they used paint rollers, rock salt and tin foil to create texture, then cut two-by-two squares, grouted the joints just like tile and stained them. The finished product is a patio that looks (and feels) like travertine tile.

Capachione says flagstone is a popular request in his area. "We texture concrete, color it, cut the pattern in, grout it and hide the control joints in the pattern...The end result looks better than flagstone," he notes.

Another request that's gaining in popularity is exposed aggregate. New England Hardscapes uses smooth stones and decorative river pebbles from all over North America, and they've also been combining stamps with aggregate (using fine granite) so the concrete has the texture of stamped with aggregate in it. All of which Capachione says gives customers options besides the standard look.

The company is going to focus more on commercial work in the coming year, and Capachione says he's hoping that 30 to 40 percent of their revenue stems from said commercial work. In the meantime, they just recently finished exposed aggregate patios and walkways for a nearby college, as well as the entranceway for a luxury apartment complex.

With their focus on custom color and texture projects, New England Hardscapes has found their niche. "[We] provide solutions to customers," Capachione explains. "We create a lot of things we've never done before, and we've even sold things we've never done before, but we realize that we have the talent and creativity to pull it off."

For example, when a client in Maine wanted their driveway to look like seashells, New England Hardscapes came up with a white exposed aggregate mix with some seashells in it, which made it durable and got the look the customer wanted.

And because Capachione says nobody wants cookie-cutter pools anymore, New England Hardscapes has also been creating diving rocks and waterfalls to make more natural-looking pools. They recently completed a paver patio around a pool and then skim coated the attached spa to make it look like rock.

For the time being, most of New England Hardscapes' decorative specialty projects are residential. "People don't blink at spending money," Capachione adds. "They want what they want, and they feel comfortable that they are getting something unique, so it's not an issue."

New England Hardscapes is poised for a big year in 2006. Capachione says he's been working with architects and thinking about interior work more and more, particularly flooring for both residential and commercial. The company is also ready for growth—they started with seven employees in 2003 and now have 35 employees with plans to expand to 50 next year.

"We provide unique surfaces no one else here can provide," Capachione concludes. "Providing innovative solutions is our key."


New England Hardscapes
Richard Capachione
33 Middlesex Rd
Tyngsboro, MA 01879
(978) 649-7701 Office
(800) 659-7701 Toll Free
Send Mail Now - Click Here
http://www.nehardscapes.com

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