Benefits and Weaknesses of Seating Walls
Seating walls are an incredibly popular addition to landscape designs, especially in the Sacramento area. Thousands of homeowners spend all hours of the day outdoors, and adding seating walls to your landscape may be just what you need to enhance your property and take advantage of your backyard. We have listed some of our favorite benefits and weaknesses of seating walls.
What Are Seating Walls?
Seating walls are hardscape structures that generally go around the landscape and usually cut off the landscape from the grass. As the name implies, these are set up like walls, but they are only a foot or two off of the ground and have a flat top surface that allows people to sit on them easily. Refer to the picture above, or contact FiveSTAR Landscape to learn more about some of the seating walls we have created in the past.
Benefits of Seating Walls
Seating walls have many benefits for new landscapes, which is why they are so popular in the Greater Sacramento area. Some of these benefits include:
- Seats for Guests – The greatest benefit is, of course, the ability for more guests to go on your landscape and for them to sit almost anywhere. Seating walls means that there is plenty of space for people to come over, and you don’t have to find chairs and take them outside just to fit people.
- Low Maintenance – Similarly, seating walls require very little maintenance, compared to other outdoor chairs and seats. They don’t get damaged by rain or sun, they don’t get as visibly dirty (although still dirty), and they won’t break down, creak, or rust. They remain outside, undamaged, for years.
- Visual Cut – One of the most forgotten components of a quality landscape is the way the yard is broken up. Many people think that the turf is more important, but the greenest grass still doesn’t look “clean” without some type of visual cue that gives it clean lines. Seating walls act as clean lines that also prevent the grass from bleeding into your hardscape.
These are only a few of the benefits as well. They can provide some degree of protection if you have a fire pit in the center, they can add value to your property – seating walls are simply a great addition to a landscape.
Weaknesses of Seating Walls
Seating walls are a fantastic addition to your landscape design. But they may not be right for everyone. There are a few weaknesses that include:
- Sharp Corners – If you have young children that play in the backyard often, the sharp corners could represent a problem. Talk to your designer about options to decrease the dangers.
- Dirty Seats – The outdoors does get dirty, with mud, rain, and insects. Some guests may not loving sitting on these. Most are easy to clean, but they are not perfectly clean.
- The Right Landscape – Finally, seating walls can’t go on just any landscape. There should ideally be a design element that incorporates seating walls. Talk to your Sacramento landscaper and see if there are any changes that should take place before adding seating walls.
Overall, seating walls have a lot of advantages over other landscape options. They’re not perfect, but they can be depending on how you build the rest of your landscape.
