A walkway is the part of a landscape everybody uses and nobody thinks about until it is uneven, slick, or holding water. PGS Landscape builds front entry paths, garden paths, and side yard connections that drain properly and stay put through a wet Monterey Bay winter.
Walkway Materials
- Flagstone: natural stone, dry set on a compacted base or mortared
- Pavers: clean geometry, easy to lift and reset if a root ever moves one
- Concrete: poured and broom finished, stamped, or integrally colored
- Brick: a classic match for older homes in Santa Cruz and Pacific Grove
- Decomposed granite: permeable and informal, well suited to garden paths
- Stepping stones: set into lawn, gravel, or low groundcover
Built for Local Conditions
Most walkway failures around here come down to water and soil, not the surface material.
- Drainage: wet winter clay on mountain lots in Felton, Boulder Creek, and Scotts Valley swells and settles, so we pitch paths to shed water and add subsurface drainage where the grade collects it
- Slope and steps: on hillside lots we work out the run and rise so steps land evenly instead of becoming a series of odd rises people trip on
- Coastal salt air: near the water in Live Oak, Capitola, and Pacific Grove, salt and fog are hard on mortar and on cheap metal edging
- Roots: coast live oak and redwood roots lift rigid slabs, and a dry set path can be pulled up and reset where concrete has to be broken out
- Base preparation: a path is only as good as what sits under it
Permits and Property Lines
Rules vary by jurisdiction, so we check before breaking ground rather than guessing. In unincorporated Santa Cruz County, detached residential walks no more than 200 square feet and no more than 30 inches above grade appear on the county list of work that does not require a building permit, though zoning and setback review can still apply. Anything built in a county road right of way needs a separate encroachment permit from Public Works, and the cities run their own permit desks with their own thresholds.
Part of a Complete Landscape
Walkways tie the rest of the yard together. PGS can connect a new path to a patio, run it along a retaining wall on a terraced lot, match it in material to a new driveway, or route it out to a fire pit or outdoor kitchen, with low voltage path lighting and edging built into the same job.
Walkway Installation Across Santa Cruz County & Monterey County
PGS Landscape has been building paths throughout the Monterey Bay area for over 40 years. We serve Santa Cruz, Aptos, Capitola, Scotts Valley, Soquel, Live Oak, Felton, Boulder Creek, Bonny Doon, Watsonville, Monterey, Carmel, Salinas, Pacific Grove, Marina, Seaside, and all surrounding communities. Whether it is a short flagstone entry in Capitola, stone steps down a steep Bonny Doon lot, or a paver path tying a Monterey backyard together, we have done it on ground like yours.
Why Choose PGS for Your Walkway
- Over 40 years of hardscape construction experience in the Monterey Bay area
- Deep knowledge of local soils, slopes, and drainage patterns
- Proper base preparation and grading so paths do not settle or pond
- Materials and details that match the rest of your home and landscape
Ready to fix a path that never worked, or add one that was never there? Call us at 831.254.3447 for a free estimate, or contact us online.