Landscaping Barrie, TOUGH OAKS Ralph J Young delivers stone-focused landscaping with an emphasis on function, safety, and clean lines. Projects are tailored to each property, balancing aesthetics with practical site considerations.
Homeowners highlight attentive listening, practical design suggestions, and careful workmanship. Projects are planned around access constraints and completed with consistent step heights, integrated stones, and neat finishes that improve curb appeal.
Based in Barrie, serving nearby neighbourhoods across the city and surrounding Simcoe County areas.
Services include design and installation of stone steps and staircases, front entrance rebuilds, interlocking patios and walkways, raised patios, garden bed construction, planting and edging, small retaining borders, and site clean-ups and restorations after construction. Repair and restoration of settled pavers and step leveling are also available.
Recent reviews consistently mention clear communication, strong collaboration on design, and high-quality stonework for steps, porches, and patios. Customers note punctual, tidy execution and solutions that address drainage and access constraints. Many comments describe projects finishing on budget with outcomes that enhance curb appeal.
If you are looking for excellent work done; right, on time and on budget with the best customer service around - Cynthia and Ralph are the ones to call!They have handled multiple jobs for us restoring paver stone patios and fixing messes left by construction and renovation. Every time I have been thrilled with the outcome.Highly recommend!!
Thank you Ralph and Cynthia! This dynamic duo did an amazing job on my front porch. They listened well and understood my vision and even enhanced it with some well thought out suggestions. They work hard and great together! (I could never work with my husband!) Everyone just loves the stonework and steps and I truly enjoy sitting and having my early morning coffee on it. My 1960's backsplit has been transformed beautifully. Thank you!
Tough Oaks put in our new steps and driveway in the summer of 2020.The design is very nice, and I’ve posted a couple of pictures showing how Ralph integrated the field stones instead of just plopping them on the side. He designed and built a nice two-tiered garden bed and selected plants that will do well there. He even extended our downspout a bit and hid it under river rock. The steps are all the same height, which is a big improvement over what we had before.What we really like most, though, is what you can’t see:Our driveway has always had large ruts. We’ve had it repaired and the ruts came back within a few months. When Ralph pulled up our old interlock we found there were only a couple of inches of gravel underneath. Ralph promised us 16-17 inches of A gravel and 1-2 inches of high performance bedding, and as you can see from the photo they really dug down. Then he graded it to slope gently away from the house and packed it all two inches at a time until it was like concrete. He also matched up the top of the bricks with the garage floor so there is no bump when we drive in.As of this writing we’ve only had it a month so I guess I can’t technically say for sure that the ruts won’t come back, but looking at the quality of the work, I would be very surprised if they ever did.The other thing I’d like to compliment them on is the quality of the communication. Cynthia really kept us in the loop the whole time.I would definitely recommend this business.
We hired Tough Oaks to replace some old unsightly wooden stairs leading from our back door into our yard. We wanted something stone, solid, with a larger area for a chair, plants, etc. Ralph and Cynthia did not disappoint. They heard our ideas and came back with a plan that was far better than what we had tried to describe. Because our backyard was inaccessible without knocking down a garden fence (which we didn't want to do), they worked like Trojans, moving everything by hand. Ralph and Cynthia were friendly and always had time for our young grandchildren and their many questions as they watched the work. Best of all, they also stabilized our existing brick patio and tied the new stones into the patio with a single border. Their work totally exceeded our expectations and we would happily recommend them to you.
Fantastic experience with Ralph and Cynthia. They were diligent, informative, knowledgeable, and kept us apprised of everything throughout the entire project. They were fair and honest with costs and given the final result, we are incredibly happy we chose them to take on this project for us. The curb appeal of our home has undoubtedly increased thanks to Tough Oaks. Would absolutely recommend them for any landscaping project.
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