From hillside terracing and retaining walls to pools, patios, outdoor kitchens, and fire-wise planting, our in-house team designs and builds outdoor living for Glendale properties that sit against the Verdugos, drain toward the street, and have to hold up to hot summers and fall wind.
Since 1999 - Licensed & insured - 10,000+ projects completed across the Greater Los Angeles Area
Glendale Homeowner Stories
Why Pacific Outdoor Living
Glendale landscapes deserve more than generic improvement. They need a plan that respects the site, mature nature, biodiversity, and the practical realities of construction.
Glendale runs its own Building and Safety and Community Development departments, and hillside lots in Chevy Chase Canyon, Verdugo Woodlands, and Glenoaks Canyon add grading, retaining wall, and indigenous tree review on top of the usual pool and structure permits. Our permitting department assembles those submittals and coordinates with city plan check so the approval path is clear before a crew ever mobilizes.
We source through long-standing supplier relationships and pass our wholesale material discounts through to you instead of treating them as an upsell. Our Sun Valley showroom is about fifteen minutes from most Glendale addresses, so you can compare paver colors, stone veneers, and coping finishes in daylight before anything is ordered.
On a sloped Glendale lot, drainage, grading, walls, planting, and hardscape are one problem, not five. Keeping design, engineering coordination, permits, and construction under one roof means the wall heights, the drain inverts, and the finish grades all get resolved together. We do not hand your project off to outside subcontractors.
Bring your outdoor vision to life sooner with flexible monthly payment options designed around your budget. We partner with Wells Fargo Bank and Lyon Financial to make quality outdoor living accessible to everyone. Get approved quickly, choose convenient monthly installments, and enjoy a revolving line of credit.
Designing for Glendale
Most Glendale backyards are not flat. Properties in Rossmoyne, Verdugo Woodlands, Adams Hill, and the canyons sit on grades that fall away from the house, and the useful square footage has to be built rather than found. Terracing, seat walls, and structural retaining are usually the first line items on the plan, not the last.
That slope is also where water goes during a winter storm. Glendale sits on the alluvial fan below the Verdugo Mountains, so a hillside yard is collecting runoff from everything above it. Getting grading, area drains, and subsurface lines right at the start is what keeps a new patio from becoming a maintenance problem three winters later.
Above it all is fire. A large share of the city sits in a Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zone with annual brush clearance inspections, and the planting plan has to respect that. We design the first five feet around the structure to stay clear, keep the near zone irrigated and low, and reserve the taller mass for the outer edges of the property.
Designing for Glendale
Glendale properties sit on an alluvial fan beneath the Verdugo Mountains. Grade, runoff, brush clearance, and hot inland summers shape what a backyard here can become.
Retaining walls do the real work on a Glendale lot. We size and step them to create level entertaining areas while keeping wall heights within what the city will approve without an oversized engineering exercise.
Runoff arrives from uphill, not just from your roof. Catch basins, solid pipe to the street or an approved outlet, and finish grades that carry water away from foundations and wall footings are planned before hardscape is set.
In the hillside zones, the planting plan has to survive an annual inspection. We keep the first five feet around the structure free of combustible material, use irrigated low-growing species in the near zone, and break up fuel continuity with hardscape and spacing.
Glendale summers run hot and dry with strong afternoon sun off the west-facing slopes. Toyon, coffeeberry, sages, ceanothus, western redbud, and native grasses handle it on drip irrigation and hold up when the Santa Anas arrive in the fall.
Services for Complete Outdoor Living
Our Glendale work can bring planting, hardscape, pools, ponds, patios, kitchens, lighting, and construction details into one cohesive design-build plan.
Engineered retaining walls, seat walls, and terraced levels that turn an unusable Glendale slope into flat, connected outdoor rooms.
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Area drains, catch basins, and finish grading planned for the runoff a Verdugo foothill lot actually receives during a winter storm.
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Pools and spas sited on graded hillside lots, with the retaining, access, and equipment routing worked out before excavation begins.
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Planting plans built around Glendale brush clearance requirements, using low-fuel, well-irrigated species near the house and mass planting kept to the outer zones.
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Steep Glendale driveways rebuilt in interlocking pavers, with the drainage channels and base depth that a sloped approach demands.
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Path and step lighting that makes a terraced Glendale yard safe to move through after dark, and uplighting that holds the city-light view instead of competing with it.
ExploreOur proven design-build process turns your goals into a coordinated plan before construction begins, helping reduce uncertainty, avoid costly surprises, and keep the project moving forward.
01 This initial investment helps guarantee your project is Designed Right, Built Right, on time, and on budget. It gives our team the accurate information needed to plan confidently and avoid costly surprises later.
Learn more about Site AnalysisEnter your address to confirm service availability and find your nearest Pacific Outdoor Living service region.
Outside our standard service area? Contact us anyway. We may still be able to help or recommend a trusted partner.
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Checking your area…
Your property is within our Los Angeles service region.
Our sister company specializes in natural waterscapes, ponds, and fountains, and serves your area directly.
We may still be able to help, review your project, or connect you with a trusted referral.
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Local FAQs
Yes. Glendale is well inside our Greater Los Angeles service region, and our Sun Valley yard and showroom are roughly fifteen minutes away. Use the address checker on this page to confirm coverage for your exact property.
Usually, yes. Glendale reviews retaining walls above a modest height, and hillside lots often bring grading review along with it. Our permitting department handles the submittal and the plan check correspondence, and we plan wall heights during design so the approval path stays as simple as the site allows.
We design to them from the start rather than retrofitting later. That means a clear noncombustible strip against the structure, irrigated low-fuel planting in the near zone, hardscape and spacing used to break up fuel continuity, and taller mass planting kept to the outer edges of the lot.
It should be fixed as part of the remodel. Regrading, area drains, and properly routed solid pipe are far cheaper to install while the yard is already open than to add afterward, and a new patio built over an unresolved drainage problem will not last.
It depends heavily on how much retaining and grading the slope requires, since that work happens before anything visible gets built. A Site Analysis is what turns that from a guess into a number. Our design-build process is built to keep confirmed projects on schedule and on budget. Schedule a Consultation
Start with a conversation about your property, priorities, and the way you want to live outdoors in Glendale.
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