Spring
📍 Virginia Beach & Norfolk · serving Hampton Roads since
Your yard, handled.
Your yard, handled.
Every season of the year.
Weekly lawn care, spring and fall cleanups, hand-laid paver patios and garden beds, and storm cleanup after the nor'easters roll through. Every job is done carefully by hand, with as little heavy machinery as possible. One owner, Rory Mills, and one number, twelve months a year.
+Years in Hampton Roads
1,400+Properties served
5 yrHardscape workmanship warranty
By handMinimal heavy machinery
What we do
Four seasons, one crew
We do not disappear in December. The same people who mow your lawn in July prune your crape myrtles in February and build your patio in the spring.
Spring
SummerSummer
Weekly walk-behind mowing, hand hedge work, irrigation repair and mosquito control.
Fall
WinterWinter
Dormant pruning, nor'easter cleanup, winter color and hand-shoveled walks when it snows.
Patios & hardscape
The part of the yard you actually live in
Paver, flagstone, travertine, porcelain, stamped concrete, brick, cobblestone, permeable, fire pit, outdoor kitchen, pergola and pool surround - we build all of it, every paver set by hand, on a base spec built for Tidewater's sandy soil and high water table.
Pick your material from the Products tab, see it on the supplier's own catalog, then add it straight to your request so we quote exactly what you picked.
Recent work
Around Virginia Beach & Hampton Roads
Our corner of Virginia
From the Oceanfront to Ghent
Salt air, sandy soil, azaleas in April and crape myrtles all summer. This is the part of Virginia we take care of.
Reviews
What neighbors say
Ready for a number?
Free on-site estimates across Virginia Beach, Norfolk, Chesapeake, Portsmouth and Suffolk. Pick a date that works and Rory will confirm within one business day.
About us
A local crew, not a franchise
Pretty Neat Yard is owned and operated by Rory Mills. It started in with a pickup, a trailer of hand tools and a route through Norfolk and Virginia Beach. The shop is still on Major Ave in Norfolk, and Rory still walks every job before it is quoted and works on the crew that does it.
Why the base spec matters more than the paver
Almost every failed patio we get called out to replace failed the same way: not enough stone underneath it. Somebody laid beautiful pavers on a few inches of sand, the first season of tropical-storm rain washed it out from underneath, and by year three it looked like a cobbled road.
We put down 6 to 8 inches of compacted 21-A crusher run on a patio and 10 to 12 inches on anything a vehicle drives on, compacted in 3-inch lifts. It is the least glamorous line on the estimate and the only one that decides whether the patio is still flat in fifteen years.
What you actually get
A written scope before we start, Rory on site from first day to punch list, photos at each phase, and a real cleanup at the end. The work is done carefully by hand: hand tools, wheelbarrows and walk-behind equipment, not skid steers, so your lawn and irrigation survive the build. If something settles inside five years, we come back and fix it.
Years in business
1,400+Properties served
30 miService radius
4.9Average rating
How we work
Four things we do not bend on
The base gets built right
Full-depth compacted stone in lifts, geotextile where the soil calls for it, and proper edge restraint. No shortcuts under the pretty part.
One point of contact
You get Rory's cell number on day one. No call center, no dispatch queue, no "let me check with the office."
Drainage before decoration
If water is running toward your foundation, we fix that first. A beautiful patio over a drainage problem is an expensive way to make it worse.
Done by hand
Hand tools, wheelbarrows and walk-behind equipment, with heavy machines kept to a minimum. No ruts in your lawn, no crushed irrigation, and every edge cut by a person.
Coverage
Where we work
The shop is in Norfolk's Meadowbrook neighborhood. Most of our work is in Virginia Beach, from the Oceanfront and Great Neck to Kempsville, Red Mill, Sandbridge and Pungo. We also run daily into Norfolk, Chesapeake, Portsmouth and northern Suffolk.
📍 7307 Major Ave, Norfolk - shop ·
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Questions
Frequently asked
Services
Pick your season
Everything below can be added straight to a request. Choose as many as you like across seasons - most clients bundle a maintenance program with one build project.
Design & build
Patios & hardscape, every kind
Eighteen different builds, from a $10-a-foot pea gravel courtyard to a full outdoor kitchen. Prices are installed ranges for our region and include base, material, labor and cleanup.
Not sure which surface is right?
Tell us the space, how you use it, and roughly what you want to spend. We will bring samples of three materials that actually fit and let you see them against your house.
Products
Patio flooring & materials
Every material below is stocked by a real supplier in our area. Follow the link to see the full color range and project photos on their catalog, then add your pick to a request so we quote exactly what you chose.
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Where to see it in person
Local suppliers & catalogs
Want to put hands on the stone before you commit? These are the yards and stores we buy from around Virginia Beach and Norfolk. Tell them you are working with Pretty Neat Yard and they will pull our contractor pricing.
Bring us your own material
Found something you love at one of the yards above? Buy it and we will install it. Our five-year workmanship warranty still applies - we just cannot warrant material defects on stock we did not source.
Schedule
Pick a date for your free estimate
Choose a day and an arrival window below. Your selection carries over to the request form. Estimates are free, take about 30 minutes, and you do not need to be home for exterior-only work.
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Patio ballpark calculator
Rough installed range for budgeting. Real numbers come from a site visit - slope, access and drainage move it.
Request info
Tell us about the project
Anything you added on the other tabs is already attached below. The more detail you give, the closer the first number will be.
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Request dashboard
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