Hardscape & Landscape Contractor in Coquitlam

Steep Slopes, Smart Engineering

Coquitlam is one of the most topographically dramatic cities in the Lower Mainland. Westwood Plateau and Burke Mountain are two of the steepest residential developments in BC, with lot grades that drop 3 to 6 metres from street to back fence. The soil is a mix of glacial till and rocky substrate, and many lots are inside environmentally sensitive area overlays that protect the creeks draining off Burke and Eagle Mountain. Older Coquitlam neighborhoods such as Maillardville, Austin Heights, and Como Lake are flatter and more forgiving but come with their own challenges: smaller lots, mature trees with significant root systems, and aging drainage infrastructure. A one size fits all approach does not work here.

Burke Mountain is where most of our large budget Coquitlam projects happen today. The neighborhood is still growing, with new single family builds on hillside lots, and the combination of steep terrain and quality conscious homeowners means the design standards are high. We build tiered retaining wall systems with engineered base preparation, integrated drainage, and geogrid reinforcement on virtually every Burke Mountain project. The payoff is views of the Fraser Valley and Mount Baker that few other Lower Mainland neighborhoods can match.

Westwood Plateau has been established longer and many of our projects there are second generation, replacing or rebuilding hardscape installed in the 1990s that was not engineered for the slopes. We see a lot of failing walls from the early days of the neighborhood: undersized base preparation, missing drainage, insufficient geogrid. Rebuilding these correctly takes more effort than starting fresh because we have to remove the old wall, often dispose of contaminated base material, and reengineer the new wall to modern standards.

Maillardville and Austin Heights are flatter, older Coquitlam. Lot sizes are smaller, and the soil is better (silty loam over glacial till). But mature trees are everywhere and tree protection is enforced by the City of Coquitlam, so excavation near root zones requires planning and sometimes air spade work. Como Lake and River Springs often have drainage considerations because of the lake and creek systems. Every Coquitlam project starts with a conversation about what is actually under your lot before we talk about what will go on top of it.

Trueform Works Across All of Coquitlam