Richmond Hardscaping is a referral service operated by R&S for owners in Richmond, Petersburg, Hopewell, Colonial Heights and Ashland who are planning a patio, a wall repair or a new planting plan. You call, and we connect you with an independent local company that gives you its own quote and does the work. Nobody from Richmond Hardscaping comes to your yard. Our service to you is free, and the company may pay us for the referral.
How does a call to Richmond Hardscaping work?
For now, every call to this site goes to a voicemail box, and a person returns each message.
- Call and leave a message. A short greeting says this is a local referral service and that the call is recorded. Leave your name, your phone number, your ZIP code and what you want done. It helps to say whether the job is a patio, a walkway, a retaining wall, a planting project or a mix.
- We call you back within one business day. We tell you who we are and that Richmond Hardscaping is a referral service.
- We connect you with a local hardscaping company. With your OK, we pass your request to an independent local company that does the work. That company talks with you about the job and gives you its own quote. If no company can take your job, we tell you so.
Who does the work?
The work is done by an independent local company, not by Richmond Hardscaping. That company agrees on the price with you.
Richmond Hardscaping does not supervise the work and is not a party to your agreement with the company. Any license, insurance or other detail about the company comes from the company itself.
Which Virginia license should a yard contractor hold?
Virginia licenses contractors through the Department of Professional and Occupational Regulation (DPOR). The license has a class tied to the size of one contract: Class C for over $1,000 but under $30,000, Class B for $30,000 to under $150,000, and Class A for $150,000 or more (Va. Code 54.1-1100). Ask which class the company holds for a job of your size.
The specialty matters as much as the class. DPOR's landscape service contracting specialty covers retaining walls built for landscaping purposes and landscaping timbers, with excavation, clearing and grading. Masonry covers brick, block and stone units, and concrete and irrigation have their own specialties (18VAC50-22-30). The rule text names no separate hardscaping specialty, so ask DPOR which one a paver patio needs. DPOR's License Lookup on its contractors page shows a company's class and specialties, and the page links two consumer guides on hiring a contractor.
What does Richmond itself ask of a yard project?
The City of Richmond runs two desks that touch yard work. Permits and Inspections takes building permit applications through the Online Permit Portal and says electrical, mechanical and plumbing work for a project is done under a separate trade permit. Zoning staff review Certificate of Zoning Compliance applications and an Accessory Structure Permit through the same portal, and the zoning page links the city's Fence and Wall Design Guidelines, a zoning violation guide and an administrative variance route for setback problems (City of Richmond, read 2026-10-18). The city's FAQ lists retaining walls supporting less than 3 feet of fill, and concrete or masonry walls up to 6 feet above finished grade, as not needing a building permit (City of Richmond, read 2026-10-18). The pages we read name no patio rule, so the office or your company must confirm a patio for your lot. Details are on the Contact page, under "What to have ready."
The state code adds one line for walls: retaining walls supporting less than three feet of unbalanced fill are exempt from a building permit, unless they hold back certain liquids or carry a surcharge other than ordinary fill, and zoning still applies (13VAC5-63-80). See retaining walls in Richmond for what that means for a wall.
The area we serve
- Richmond
- Petersburg
- Hopewell
- Colonial Heights
- Ashland
Requests can be for a patio, a walkway, steps, a fire pit, a retaining wall, a new planting or a yard drainage fix. We take requests from these places:
- City of Richmond
- Petersburg, Hopewell and Colonial Heights, cities near Richmond.
- Ashland, in Hanover County.
Richmond, Petersburg, Hopewell and Colonial Heights, and Hanover County where Ashland sits, are all on Virginia's Tidewater list under the Chesapeake Bay Preservation Act (Va. Code 62.1-44.15:68). That changes the digging rules. In the City of Richmond, land disturbance of 4,000 square feet or more needs a permit, and 2,500 square feet or more inside a Chesapeake Bay Protection Area (City of Richmond Public Utilities, read 2026-10-18). The state's own baseline is higher: 10,000 square feet, or 2,500 inside a Chesapeake Bay Preservation Area, and a locality may lower these limits (Va. Code 62.1-44.15:55). Whether your parcel sits inside a Preservation Area is a question for the local map. A big grading job can cross these limits.
Where do the facts on these pages come from?
Pages on this site draw on sources such as the Virginia Code and Administrative Code, DPOR, the City of Richmond's permits and zoning pages, Virginia Cooperative Extension and the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation.
Behind every Richmond rule, permit limit or price on these pages sits a saved record: the web page it was read on and the day we read it. A patio price or a wall rule we could not trace to a record stays off the site. Before a page goes up, a checking step holds each figure against its record, and the owner of R&S signs off on the finished text.
Look at the foot of any page for the day it was last revised.
Two examples show how that works for a planting job. Virginia Cooperative Extension says cool-season lawn grasses are ideally established in late summer to early fall, with spring as the second-best time. The Department of Conservation and Recreation also publishes a Piedmont Native Plants brochure for planting projects. For how these jobs differ, see hardscaping in Richmond and landscaping.
If you notice something out of date, tell us when we call you back.
The disclosure and how to reach us
Richmond Hardscaping is a referral service operated by R&S. We pass your request to an independent local company, which does the work.
Call and leave a message. We call you back within one business day and connect you with a local hardscaping company.
See the Contact page for what to have ready when you call.