Hardscaping in Hartland, WI

Hardscaping in Hartland, WI.

Hardscaping in Hartland - a smaller village with a river through it, tighter older lots near the centre, and newer subdivision development further out.

Hartland splits fairly cleanly into two kinds of property, and which you have determines most of what a project involves. Nearer the village centre the lots are older and generally tighter, on a street pattern laid out long before anyone was moving machinery into back gardens. Further out the development is newer and follows the conventional subdivision pattern found across the county.

On the older, tighter lots access is the dominant cost. Where a machine cannot reach the rear, material comes in and spoil goes out by barrow through a side passage, and that changes the labour content of the whole job rather than adding a line to it. It is the first thing worth establishing, because it can affect whether a design is sensible at all.

Older properties also tend to carry older services in unrecorded positions - a line to a garage, garden lighting added at some point, drainage of uncertain vintage. A utility locate covers the public services and nothing else, so anything a previous owner installed is only known if it gets pointed out. Walking the site and naming what you know is worth more here than on a newer lot.

The Bark River runs through the village, and parcels near it or near the lakes to the west can fall inside the county shoreland band, which brings Waukesha County in alongside the village. Most addresses are unaffected, but it is a question worth asking rather than assuming.