The questions homeowners actually ask.

It depends on what is under the ground, not just what goes on top. A straightforward patio and planting on flat, stable soil runs far less than a pool and retaining wall on a canyon lot that needs grading and drainage first. We do not publish a per-square-foot number because the per-square-foot number is the thing that gets homeowners into trouble — it ignores the site. After we walk your property, you get a fixed-price concept tied to your actual conditions. That figure holds. Request an assessment and we will put a real number in front of you.

Site conditions, first. Slope, soil, drainage, and access decide how much structural work happens before anything you can see goes in. Then scope — a pool shell, a retaining wall, and an outdoor kitchen each carry their own engineering. Material choice matters less than people expect; the sub-base under the stone costs more than the stone. We build structure, function, then finish, in that order, and we tell you where the money goes at each stage. Nothing is hidden inside a vague line item.

Fixed where we can fix it, and named where we cannot. After the assessment we give you a fixed-price concept for the defined scope. The only line items left open are genuine unknowns — what we find when we open up grade, for example — and we name those out loud before you sign, with a number attached. Because one team does every phase in-house, there is no chain of subcontractors each adding their own markup and their own change order. One contract. One person standing behind the figure.

Deposit and payment schedule are tied to milestones, not to the calendar — you pay as work is completed and inspected, never far ahead of it. California law limits what a contractor can collect up front, and we stay well inside it. We can point you toward third-party financing for outdoor construction, but we do not hold your loan or push a lender on you. Bring the budget to the assessment and we will build a schedule that fits it honestly.

Because the visit is where the real work of pricing happens, and we would rather earn the job by being right than by guessing over the phone. Darren walks the site, reads the slope and the drainage, and tells you what the property needs — including the parts other contractors skipped. There is no charge and no obligation. After 40 years we know which jobs we are the right firm for, and the only way to know yours is to stand on it. Book the visit here.

Five steps, same order every time. We analyze the site — slope, soil, water, access. We model the design so you see it before we dig. We build the structure: grading, drainage, sub-base, retaining. Then we integrate the custom elements — pool, kitchen, hardscape. Finish goes last: planting, lighting, the things you notice. Structure first, function second, beautiful last. That order is why our work is still standing decades on while jobs built the other way around crack and slide in five to seven years.

A focused hardscape or drainage job can run a few weeks. A full backyard with a pool, retaining walls, an outdoor kitchen, and planting is a matter of months — and the number moves with permitting, inspections, and what the ground reveals once we open it. We give you a real schedule at contract, not an optimistic one, and because one in-house team runs every phase there are no gaps waiting on a subcontractor to show. You will always know what is happening this week and what comes next.

You talk to Darren Earl. He founded UltraScape in 1984, he designs the build, he prices the build, and he is on site while it goes in. There is no account manager who hands you to a project manager who hands you to a subcontractor. One name on the company, one number to call, one person responsible from the first walk-through to the final inspection. That continuity is the entire point of how the firm is built.

Yes — all of it, in-house. We pull the permits, schedule the inspections, and meet the inspector on site. Pools, retaining walls, and grading on a hillside lot carry real structural code requirements, and getting them signed off correctly is part of why the work lasts and why the 10-year liability stays clean. You do not chase paperwork or coordinate between agencies. We carry the permit work the same way we carry every other phase.

Yes. We model the design digitally so you can see the layout, the grades, and how the elements sit together before a single shovel goes in the ground. That matters most on sloped and canyon-adjacent lots, where what looks fine on a flat sketch can fight the site. You sign off on the plan you can actually see. No surprises framed as creative license — the model is the agreement.

The whole outdoor build, in-house: pools and spas, outdoor kitchens, fire features, water features, hardscape, outdoor lighting, xeriscape and irrigation, drainage and grading, retaining walls, and full design-build backyards. One team handles engineering, grading, demolition, excavation, masonry, concrete, pool construction, plumbing, electrical, lighting, planting, and irrigation. You can start with pools and spas or see finished projects across every category in the gallery.

Drainage, grading, and slope work are where we start — they are the foundation everything else sits on. Plenty of contractors will pour you a patio and walk away before the first rain shows what the grade is doing. We read the water and the soil first, fix the structure, and only then build the finish. This is the work most firms avoid and the work we are known for. A patio over bad sub-grade is just expensive landscaping waiting to crack.

Yes — that is exactly the property we are brought in for. A pool on a slope is a structural and hydrological problem before it is a swimming problem: you are holding back soil, managing water, and engineering a shell that will not move. We hold C-53 Swimming Pool, C-8 Concrete, and C-27 Landscaping classifications and have built on San Diego County hillsides for 40 years with a clean structural record. See how we build pools and spas, then have us walk your lot.

Often, yes — remediation is a large part of what we do. A settling patio, a leaning retaining wall, a yard that floods, a pool deck pulling away from the grade: these almost always trace back to structure that was skipped or done wrong the first time. We open it up, find the actual cause, and rebuild from the sub-grade so it holds. We will tell you honestly what can be repaired and what has to be redone. Send us photos and the address and we will come look.

Across the county, from the coast to the inland hills. We regularly build in Rancho Santa Fe, Del Mar, La Jolla, Encinitas, Poway, Scripps Ranch, Carmel Valley, Carlsbad, Solana Beach, and through Jamul and the East County — where the shop has sat since the start. If your property is in the county and has a problem worth solving, it is worth a call. We are based at 20808 Thyme Way in Jamul, which keeps the whole region inside an honest drive.

Those are the lots we ask for. Canyon-adjacent grading, hillside retaining, coastal soil and salt exposure, and the drainage problems that come with all three are the core of the work, not the exception. The harder the site, the better we fit it — the easy flat lot is the one anyone can build. If a contractor has already told you your property is too complicated to quote, that is usually the moment to call us.

Yes. UltraScape holds active California CSLB license #523467, with C-27 Landscaping, C-53 Swimming Pool, and C-8 Concrete classifications, and we carry full liability and workers' compensation insurance. You can verify the license yourself on the CSLB website — we encourage it. A license you can check is worth more than an adjective you have to trust. Forty years in, the record behind that number is the whole pitch.

California law holds a contractor legally liable for 10 years on the structural elements they build — the concrete, the pool shell, the retaining walls. It is not a marketing warranty; it is statute. Every structural element we have poured for 40 years has carried that 10-year tail, and we have absorbed it clean. Most contractors do not stay in business 10 years, let alone 40. When the person who built your wall is still standing behind it a decade later, the incentives line up correctly.

The Better Business Bureau opened our file in 1994 — 30 years of documented history — and we hold an A+ rating with no major consumer disputes on record. Our Google rating is 5.0. We did not buy those numbers; they accumulated one finished job at a time. You can read the homeowners in their own words on the reviews page. The point of a long public record is that it is hard to fake and easy to check.

Because of the order we build in and the record that proves it. Structure goes in first, function second, finish last — so nothing cosmetic is sitting on a foundation that was rushed. Zero structural complaints in 40 years is not a slogan; it is what the CSLB and BBB files show. Add the 10-year statutory liability on every structural element and you have a firm with every reason to build it right the first time. The proof is the work still standing, not the promise.