Houzz Stat: How Long Outdoor Projects Take and Who’s Getting Hired

How long does it take? When it comes to completing an outdoor improvement project, the planning time varies significantly, depending on how big the project is. Among survey respondents, minor projects involved an average of just over three months of planning and three months of implementation. The biggest projects, which we refer to as complete overhauls, averaged slightly more than six months to plan and just over 5½ months to implement.

Major projects include substantial updates like paving, putting in new beds, and building or upgrading structures or both. But they don’t reach the level of complete overhauls, which include work like relandscaping and reterracing.

Owners not pulling the weeds alone. Most homeowners — 73 percent — who completed an outdoor project in 2016 hired a professional. But only 63 percent of those who are planning or in the midst of a project say they will hire one. Our research team attributes the difference to the fact that some people don’t plan to hire a pro, but decide midproject that they actually do want to hire one. Of those who completed an outdoor project, one-third worked with a landscape architect, one-third with a landscape contractor, and nearly as many hired a stone, paver or concrete specialist. 

Read the complete 2017 U.S.. Landscape Trends Study here.