Frequently Asked Questions

Southern Roots LLC handles landscape design and installation across Baton Rouge and surrounding parishes. The crew covers everything from flower bed planning and plant selection to full-yard transformations, with a 22-year exterior work background driving decisions on layout, plant placement, and long-term appearance.

Cost depends on yard size, plant selection, site prep needs, and whether hardscaping or drainage is part of the scope. Free estimates are available, and pricing is built to be competitive without cutting corners on finish quality. Annual contracts lock rates and typically cost less than one-off seasonal visits.

Southern Roots LLC installs pavers, slate pathways, patios, and retaining walls in Greenwell Springs and across Central Louisiana. Pavers are set on a graded base with proper pitch, and all materials are selected to hold in saturated soil — a real factor in this region's constant rain.

Patio pricing varies based on square footage, material choice between pavers and slate, grading requirements, and site access. Flat residential lots common in Central Louisiana often need extra base work to manage water flow. A free on-site estimate accounts for all of those variables before any number is committed.

The contractor should understand drainage, not just construction. In Louisiana's wet climate, a wall that lacks proper pitch and a graded base behind it will shift in saturated soil within a few seasons. Ask specifically how they handle water management at the base and discharge point before approving any design.

French drain pricing depends on trench length, pipe diameter — typically 4-inch or 6-inch perforated pipe — number of catch basins needed, and how deep the discharge point must go to achieve gravity-fed flow. Utility marking by the city is required before any digging starts, which affects scheduling but not price.

Grading reshapes the surface to redirect runoff, while a French drain captures subsurface water through perforated pipe and routes it to a discharge point. Persistent wet yards in Central Louisiana often need both — grading handles sheet flow while buried pipe addresses water that saturates the soil beneath the surface.

Concrete cleaning runs 8 cents per square foot, well below the local market rate of 15–20 cents, because downstreaming equipment eliminates ladder and lift costs on most jobs. Whole-house soft wash pricing follows similar logic — lower overhead passes to the customer without reducing the quality of the chemical treatment applied.

Mildew returns in Central Louisiana because the climate — constant rain, heat, and humidity — never stops feeding organic growth. Soft washing eliminates the current buildup by breaking it down at the source rather than blasting it off with pressure. How quickly it returns depends on shade, drainage, and airflow around the structure.

Concrete cleaning is priced at 8 cents per square foot, compared to the 15–20 cents most local competitors charge. High-volume equipment running at 10 gallons per minute allows the crew to work quickly, which keeps labor costs down and makes aggressive pricing sustainable without shortcuts on surface prep or rinse.

The crew covers Greenwell Springs, Baton Rouge, Denham Springs, Zachary, Prairieville, Livingston, Hammond, Covington, and Mandeville. Route scheduling is organized by area, so booking within an established route typically means faster availability than outlying locations.

The owner brings 22 years of exterior work experience and runs a small crew by design — focused on finish quality over volume. The standard is not leaving a job until the result meets expectations, which is easier to enforce with three to four people on a controlled schedule than with a large operation chasing quantity.