Four phases. One team. Same hands the whole way through.
Most luxury outdoor work is split between two firms — a landscape architect who designs it and a general contractor who builds it. The handoff is where it breaks. The plants the architect specified get value-engineered out. The detail drawn at quarter-inch scale gets simplified at full-scale. The relationship between the family and the design dies the moment a different team shows up to build. Knaak is built around eliminating that handoff.
Phase I · Site Walk
No design begins until the place is understood. The first visit is the principal walking the property — sun exposure, drainage, view corridors, existing canopy, the way the family lives outdoors today, what they wish was different. We listen more than we talk. We take photos, measurements, soil notes. We ask about the neighbors, the prevailing wind, the long view from the kitchen, the place the kids actually want to be.
This is also when we tell you honestly whether the project fits the studio. Not every project does. The site walk costs nothing and commits nothing.
Phase II · Design
The design phase produces a master plan — site analysis, programmatic zones, hardscape geometry, planting plan, water-feature schematic, lighting concept. Concept sketches first, then refined drawings, then detail specifications. Iterative, with the family, until the design feels inevitable — as if it had always been there.
Material samples are selected in person. Plant species are confirmed at the nursery. Hardscape mockups are laid out on the property before they are ordered in volume. The design is finished when nothing in it is generic.
Phase III · Build
Our crew breaks ground. Pool excavation, hardscape, pergola raising, irrigation, electrical, gas, finish carpentry. Same team that designed the project. The principal is on-site through every major phase — when the pool is shaped, when the coping is set, when the pergola goes up, when the major plant material lands.
Permitting, inspections, code review, hurricane engineering — all handled in-house or through long-standing subcontractor relationships. The family is never left to coordinate trades.
Phase IV · Install
Plant installation, lighting commissioning, water feature start-up, finish-grade walkthrough. The first time the project is seen at night, lit properly, with everything turned on, is the moment we have been working toward.
After install, we stay on call. Establishment care, plant warranty, fixture maintenance, irrigation tuning through the first growing season. Most clients call us back for phase two — a guest house, a second residence, a different property.
Typical timeline.
From first site walk through final installation, most projects run 2 to 6 months. Estate-scale projects with historic-district review or coastal permitting can take longer.
- Site walk to signed master plan · 2 to 3 weeks
- Master plan to permits in hand · 6 to 10 weeks
- Permits to construction complete · 2 to 6 months
- Construction complete to plant installation and walkthrough · 4 to 8 weeks
We do not rush. The discipline of the process is the protection against work that looks rushed ten years later.
Begin a conversation.
Introduce the property, the vision, and the timeline. The site walk costs nothing and commits nothing.
Inquire