Hardscaping Trends to Watch in 2024
2024 is shaping up to be an incredible year for homeowners in the Rock Hill, SC, area who want to finally get that outdoor living space they’ve always dreamed of!
Now that the new year is officially here, you won’t believe how fast time flies as we start the countdown toward spring. Now is the perfect time to get started on your plan to bring your backyard to life with water features and hardscaping once the warm weather rolls around.
Planning ahead now means you beat the rush. As an added bonus, when you work with Ground FX Landscaping & Water Features, you receive personalized service from experienced experts. We have been designing and installing custom hardscaping and water features since 2012, and our Rock Hill hardscaping service specialists are always on top of the latest design trends to keep our customers ahead of the curve.
If you’re ready to finally get the outdoor living space of your dreams this year, below are some of the top design trends in hardscaping to watch in 2024:
Permeable pavers look great and also provide superior drainage for low-lying areas susceptible to moisture accumulation and pooling
Permeable Pavers
Paver patios, driveways, walkways, staircases, and retaining walls offer a way to create unique, functional spaces that look beautiful in all seasons. One of the downsides to pavers, however, is that many are not permeable.
This means that moisture accumulates on top of them and pools. When this happens, the potential for slips, falls, and injuries go up dramatically, and you may also experience wood rot in surrounding structures. The solution? Permeable pavers!
Moisture Control Solutions That Look Great
Unlike traditional pavers that lock out moisture, permeable pavers are designed in such a way as to allow moisture to seep through and enter the soil. This creates a more natural flow, and these pavers are perfect for smaller properties or properties that experience drainage issues.
In fact, some local cities and towns are currently limiting non-permeable spaces out of drainage concerns, and permeable pavers are a way to customize outdoor living spaces without breaking any rules. You still get a custom outdoor living space with beautiful, high-quality pavers, but you no longer need to worry about pools of water or drainage issues.
Incorporating lighting into and around hardscaping features offers security while providing a way to make your outdoor spaces shine.
Lighting In and Around Hardscapes
As LED technology has advanced quickly over the last decade, it’s now easier than ever to incorporate powerful outdoor lighting into hardscaping features. Homeowners are currently looking for outdoor lighting solutions for hardscapes, and many request designs that incorporate lighting into hardscaping features directly.
Unlike traditional landscape lighting that uses separate light fixtures that direct light toward specific features, this latest trend involves building lights directly into hardscaping features. This process creates a seamless design that provides functional lighting for safety and security while also creating gathering areas for friends and family.
2024 will be the year that more homeowners in Rock Hill make the switch to pavers that utilize different colors and shapes to spice things up
Pavers of Different Shapes and Colors as Inlays or Borders
When it comes to pavers, one of the trends we’ve seen in recent years has been the use of aged pavers, also sometimes referred to as tumbled pavers. One of the problems with these solutions is that, in some cases, they don’t look great after five or 10 years.
Instead, we’re seeing a lot more inlays and borders using pavers of different shapes and colors. We wrote recently about using decorative stone in your hardscaping, and we work with a lot of customers in the Rock Hill, SC, area that request this type of treatment for their hardscape design.
Pavers Can Be Upgraded
One of the really nice things about pavers is that they can be changed out. As trends change, we can easily upgrade and transform the look and feel of your existing pavers. Working with concrete still provides options, but the time and cost involved in breaking apart or digging up concrete is often higher than working with inlaid pavers.
Pergolas and Patio Covers
We also forecast a lot of pergolas and patio covers in 2024 as these have become must-have add-ons for many of the hardscaping and landscape design features we’ve installed over the fall of 2023. A pergola lets in plenty of light and doesn’t stifle outdoor spaces like low-lying patio covers and tents. At the same time, pergolas and patio covers provide enough shade to lessen the heat and keep the sun out of your face directly.
When we work with outdoor living spaces that utilize pergolas, we always want to incorporate the placement into the overall landscape design. It doesn’t really do you any good from an aesthetic point of view to have one part of your outdoor living space looking like an Italian countryside vineyard and the other half looking like a plain old backyard in Rock Hill. Instead, we want to incorporate elements that tie everything together while giving you form and function.
Outdoor Kitchens
Outdoor kitchens continue to be a trend going into 2024 as well. From fire pits to full outdoor ovens and dining areas, outdoor kitchens provide a fun way to entertain or just to gather with friends and family. We’ve seen many homeowners in the Rock Hill, Lake Wylie, and Indian Land communities request outdoor kitchen designs to be incorporated into their existing landscape designs as newer materials have hit the market in the last decade. Durable outdoor building supplies allow our team to design and construct outdoor kitchens that are scalable for homes of all sizes.
RGB lighting is popular with computer game players, but it is quickly becoming a trend in hardscape lighting around the Rock Hill, SC, region
RGB Color Lighting
If you’ve ever watched teens playing computer games on the Internet, you’ve no doubt seen computers that feature red, green, and blue (RGB) lighting. While these setups look interesting and certainly get attention, RGB lighting will quickly become a trend for outdoor living spaces in 2024.
Using LED lights that are designed for outdoor use, we install lighting designs that can be controlled via a smartphone app. This means you can not only turn your outdoor lighting on and off from the comfort and safety of your home, but you can also change the color and brightness of the entire outdoor lighting rig or just sections of it. While you may not want a crazy setup like a computer gamer, you can definitely add some personality to your outdoor living spaces by changing the color tone of your outdoor lighting to great effect.
Wireless control off hardscaping features using Bluetooth and WiFi will continue to be popular trends in 2024 and beyond
Bluetooth and WiFi Control
In keeping with technology, 2024 is also shaping up to be the year where more and more outdoor living features are controlled via Bluetooth and WiFi. Aside from the RGB lighting mentioned above, outdoor security cameras, speakers, and sensors can also be installed in and around your outdoor living spaces to be controlled remotely using your phone.
In fact, some water features can be connected via Bluetooth and WiFi to let homeowners turn features on and off remotely or receive alerts if something requires attention. This can be great for efficiency, but it can also help you catch errors before they turn into repair issues.
Contact Ground FX Landscaping & Water Features to Make Your Outdoor Living Space Shine
In 2024 and beyond, Ground FX Landscaping and Water Features is your partner for landscape design, hardscaping, and water feature installation in Rock Hill, SC, and the surrounding area. Call us today to schedule your free onsite consultation by dialing (803) 371-2324, or use our contact form to reach our team online.
