Exterior services in Calgary

Flatwork fails for predictable reasons: inadequate base preparation, no control joints, or placement in the wrong conditions. Compacted granular base, correct thickness for the load, control joints cut early enough to direct the inevitable cracking, and air-entrained mix for freeze-thaw exposure. Slope matters — driveways, walks, and patios all need to drain away from the building. Cold-weather placement needs protection and blankets, and there is a point in the season where the honest answer is to wait for spring.

Most wet basements are surface water problems, not foundation failures, and the cheap fixes get tried first: grading, downspout extensions, and window well drainage. Where the problem is genuinely below grade, the real fix is exterior — excavate, clean the wall, repair cracks, apply a membrane, install drainage board and weeping tile to a functioning discharge. Interior systems manage water that has already reached the wall rather than keeping it out. Structural cracking, bowing, or shear movement is an engineer's call before it is a contractor's.

Ground should fall away from a building — roughly 150mm over the first two metres is the usual target — and a surprising number of properties do the opposite after years of settling and landscaping. Downspouts that discharge at the wall put thousands of litres directly against the foundation in a single storm. Window wells need drainage and covers. Where lots are tight or flat, swales and catch basins move water to where it can leave without dumping it on the neighbour, which is both a drainage question and a legal one.

Excavation starts with locates. Underground utilities are marked before a machine touches the ground, and that is not optional. Beyond that it is soil conditions, shoring where cut depth requires it, spoil management, and access — many Calgary lots have a single narrow approach and an existing driveway nobody wants destroyed. We plan machine access and material routes before the dig, and backfill in lifts with proper compaction, because settlement afterwards is what causes the grading problems the excavation was meant to solve.

A retaining wall holds back soil and water, and the water is what breaks it. Drainage behind the wall — clear stone, filter fabric, and a drain to daylight — matters more than the blocks. Walls above a certain height need engineering, and geogrid reinforcement into the retained soil is what makes tall segmental walls stand. Base preparation below frost, level and compacted, decides whether the wall stays straight. A wall that leans or bulges is telling you drainage or reinforcement was skipped.

Decks over a certain height need a permit and an inspection, and the details that get inspected are the ones that matter anyway: footing depth below frost, ledger attachment and flashing, joist hangers, guard height, and baluster spacing. Ledger attachment is the classic failure — a deck pulling off a house is almost always a ledger that was nailed rather than through-bolted, or flashed badly so the rim joist rotted. Posts need to bear on footings below Calgary's frost depth or the deck moves every spring.

Landscaping is the last trade on site and inherits every drainage decision made before it. Grade comes first, then irrigation and lighting sleeves under any hard surface — running them afterwards means cutting what you just paid for. Calgary's short season, chinook cycles, and alkaline soils narrow the sensible plant list considerably, and topsoil depth decides whether a lawn survives its second summer. Hard surfaces need base preparation on the same principle as any other flatwork.

Pressure washing is mostly about using the least pressure that does the job. Too much strips paint from siding, drives water behind cladding, etches concrete, and forces moisture into mortar joints. Soft washing with appropriate detergents handles most organic growth on siding and fencing without that risk. Driveways, walkways, and patios take more pressure than a wall assembly ever should. We keep water away from openings and vents and let surfaces dry properly before any coating follows.