When most people think of a landscaper, they picture someone arriving with a van full of plants, a strimmer, and a lawn mower. There is a place for that, but it is not what we do.
At Carmen Landscapes, we are landscape construction specialists. The difference is fundamental. We do not maintain gardens; we build them from the ground up. Every wall, every patio, every pool and every pond starts with proper groundworks, and without that foundation, even the most beautiful design will fail within a few seasons.
21 Years of Building, Not Just Planting
Craig Carmen has spent 21 years in landscape construction. That is two decades of digging foundations, laying drainage, forming concrete, building pools and shaping the land to do what the client wants it to do. Alongside Craig, Dean Carmen brings over 40 years of experience in landscaping and groundworks.
This is not a team that learnt from a textbook. This is a team that has done the work, thousands of times, in gardens across Walton-on-Thames and North Surrey.
The Construction-First Philosophy
The structural elements are what make a garden last. A gorgeous patio is only as good as the sub-base beneath it. A swimming pool is only as good as its excavation, its blinding, its blockwork and its rendered shell. A drystone wall is only as good as the foundations it sits on and the drainage behind it.
These are the things we get right, because we have the equipment, the experience and the stubbornness to do them properly. When we take on a garden renovation, we handle the foundations, the drainage, the formwork, the masonry, the pool, the pond, and everything in between. We do not subcontract the parts that matter.
What Construction-Led Landscaping Actually Means
It means that when we quote for a project, the price reflects the real work involved in building it to last. It means that when we dig a hole for a pool, we dig it deep enough and wide enough to accommodate the shell, the drainage, and the services. It means that when we lay a patio, we lay it on a properly compacted sub-base with the correct fall for drainage.
It means that when we build a retaining wall, we build it with foundations that go below the frost line and drainage that stops water building up behind it. It means that when we install a fence, the posts go deep enough to stay upright in a storm.
None of this is glamorous. None of it shows in the finished photograph. But all of it is the difference between a garden that looks good for a year and a garden that is still standing strong in ten.
Our Core Construction Capabilities
We cover the full range of landscape construction work:
- Groundworks and site preparation: Excavation, drainage, foundations, formwork, and site clearance.
- Swimming pools: Concrete pool builds, from excavation through blockwork, rendered shell, lining and full filtration systems.
- Patios and paving: Porcelain, sandstone, granite, and limestone, laid on proper sub-bases with correct drainage.
- Ponds and water features: Koi ponds, swimming ponds, fountains, and formal water features, all properly lined and filtered.
- Stone masonry and brickwork: Drystone walling, retaining walls, rendering, and feature stonework.
- Fencing: Timber and concrete post fencing, installed deep enough to last.
Why We Do Not Do Maintenance
We made a deliberate choice not to offer garden maintenance or lawn mowing. It is not that maintenance is not important; it is that construction is what we are good at, and we would rather do one thing exceptionally than two things adequately.
When you hire Carmen Landscapes, you are hiring a team that builds. You are hiring 21 years of experience in making the ground do what you want it to do. You are hiring a crew that knows how to excavate a pool shell, how to lay drainage that works, and how to build a wall that does not move.
Built for Surrey Gardens
We are based in Walton-on-Thames and work primarily across North Surrey: Weybridge, Esher, Cobham, Hersham, Shepperton, Sunbury, Woking, and the surrounding villages. We know the soil types, the drainage challenges, and the planning considerations that come with working in this part of the world.
If you are planning a garden project in Surrey and you want it built to last, we would like to hear from you.