A: Michael Labriola Inc. serves Westchester County, New York and Fairfield County, Connecticut, including Greenwich. Our office is in Armonk, NY, which puts us within a short drive of properties on both sides of the state line.
We’ve worked in these communities for over 50 years, and that local history matters more than it might seem. The properties here have their own character — mature trees, stone walls, sloped lots, older homes with established plantings — and designing for them well takes a familiarity you only get by working in the same towns year after year. Our client base has grown almost entirely through referrals from Westchester and Fairfield homeowners, businesses, municipalities, and institutions, which keeps us close to home by design.
We take on both residential and commercial work throughout the service area, from site design and development to landscaping and ongoing commercial maintenance. If you’re not sure whether your property falls within our range, the quickest way to find out is to call our Armonk office at (914) 273-6530 — we’re happy to talk through your project either way.
A: Yes. Michael Labriola Inc. handles projects from the first design conversation through completed construction. You work with one company the whole way — there’s no handoff between a separate design firm and an installation crew.
That distinction matters when you’re comparing landscaping companies in Westchester or Greenwich. Some firms only produce a design, which you then take to a contractor to build. Others only build from plans someone else drew. A design-build approach keeps the people who planned your project responsible for delivering it, which tends to mean fewer surprises, cleaner communication, and a finished landscape that actually matches the drawings.
We’ve worked this way for over 50 years, on everything from residential outdoor living spaces to commercial site development — Westchester Magazine has featured the company for its “one stop shop” approach to residential landscape construction. Whether your project is a brand-new development, a renovation of an existing site, or an addition, our staff works directly with you at every phase. If you’d like to see how that process would apply to your property, contact us for a complimentary quote.
A: There’s no single answer, because no two properties or projects are alike — but the factors that drive cost are consistent. The biggest ones are the size of the area, the scope of work, site conditions, and the balance between hardscaping and planting.
As a general rule, built elements — patios, walkways, retaining walls, outdoor kitchens — cost more per square foot than planted areas, because they involve more materials, labor, and site preparation. Site conditions matter too: slopes, drainage patterns, soil, and access for equipment can all affect what a project requires. Material choices add another variable; natural stone and premium pavers sit at a different price point than simpler finishes. And in Westchester and Fairfield counties specifically, property sizes, terrain, and the standard of work property owners expect all tend to run above national norms, so national cost guides are rarely a reliable benchmark here.
The most accurate way to understand what your project would cost is to have someone look at your actual property and hear what you want to accomplish. We offer a complimentary quote — call (914) 273-6530 or reach out through our contact page, and we’ll give you a clear picture based on your site, not a generic estimate.
A: Yes. Michael Labriola Inc. offers a complimentary quote for projects throughout Westchester County and the Greenwich area. Call our Armonk office at (914) 273-6530, email info@michaellabriolainc.com, or use the contact form on this site.
It helps to have a general sense of what you’d like to accomplish before we talk — even a rough wish list is useful — but it’s not required. Plenty of clients come to us with nothing more than a feeling that their property could be doing more for them, and part of our job is helping you figure out what that looks like. There’s no obligation attached to a quote; it’s simply the easiest way to get real answers about your specific property.
A: It starts with a conversation and a look at your property, moves through design, and ends with construction — with the same company involved at every stage.
After you reach out, we discuss what you want to accomplish and get familiar with your site. From there, our staff works directly with you to develop a design that fits how you actually live or operate — one that’s as attractive to a cost-conscious property owner as it is to visitors and the surrounding community. This is a collaborative stage: your input shapes the plan.
Once the design is settled, construction begins. Because the people who designed the project are part of the same company building it, questions get answered quickly and the finished work reflects the plan you approved. This is the process we’ve refined over 50 years across Westchester and Fairfield counties, on new developments, renovations of existing sites, and additions alike. If you’d like to talk through how it would work for your property, request a complimentary quote and we’ll start with that first conversation.
A: It depends almost entirely on scope. A focused planting or refresh project can come together quickly, while a full outdoor living space with patios, walls, and extensive planting is a longer build measured in weeks rather than days.
A few things influence any timeline. Design comes first, and giving that stage the attention it deserves pays off during construction. Weather plays a role in the Northeast — ground conditions, planting windows, and seasonal demand all shape scheduling. And site factors like access, grading, and existing conditions can extend or simplify the work. Larger projects can also be planned in phases, which spreads the work across seasons without compromising the overall design.
When we prepare your quote, we’ll talk honestly about what your specific project involves and how it fits the calendar — including whether starting the design now positions you for the construction season you’re hoping for. Reach out to our Armonk office and we can walk through the timing for your property.
A: Yes. Michael Labriola Inc. has provided commercial site design, development, landscaping, and maintenance for over 50 years, alongside our residential work. Our clients across Westchester and Fairfield counties have included corporations, local businesses, municipalities, institutions, hospitals, and golf courses.
Commercial work has its own demands. Grounds need to look professional year-round, hold up to heavy use, and stay practical for the people managing the budget. Our staff works directly with you or your facilities team to produce a design that’s as attractive to a cost-conscious site manager as it is to employees, visitors, and the surrounding community — and our commercial maintenance services keep properties looking sharp long after installation.
That range is part of what referrals have built here: property managers who saw our residential work, homeowners who noticed a commercial property we maintain. If you manage a commercial, industrial, or institutional site anywhere in Westchester County or the Greenwich area, contact us for a complimentary quote.
A: The best time to start is usually earlier than people think — because the design phase comes before any construction, and design can happen in any season.
Homeowners in Westchester and Greenwich often wait until spring to make the first call, which is also when every landscaping company’s schedule fills up. Starting the design conversation in fall or winter means your plan is finished and ready when the construction season opens, instead of just beginning. As for the work itself, the Northeast calendar offers good windows across much of the year: spring and fall are ideal for planting, summer suits hardscape construction, and late-season projects can take advantage of quieter schedules.
The honest answer is that the right time depends on what you’re building and when you want to be enjoying it. If you have a target date in mind — a graduation party on the new patio, a landscape settled in before winter — working backward from that date is the smartest way to plan. Tell us your timeline and we’ll tell you what’s realistic; a complimentary quote is a good place to start.
A: In broad terms: architects and designers plan outdoor spaces, and contractors build them. The titles overlap a lot in practice, which is why the more useful question is usually who’s responsible for the whole project, start to finish.
Landscape architects typically hold state licensure and often handle complex technical work such as grading plans and large-scale site development. Landscape designers focus on the planning and creative side — layouts, plantings, materials — with varying credentials. Landscape contractors execute the physical work: excavation, masonry, construction, planting. Some firms do only one of these things, which means coordinating multiple companies and hoping the design survives the handoff.
A design and construction firm combines the planning and the building under one roof. Michael Labriola Inc. has worked this way in Westchester and Fairfield counties for over 50 years, participating in all stages of site design from conception to completion, for both residential and commercial clients. If you’re not sure what your project actually requires, that’s a normal place to be — describe what you’re hoping to do and we’ll tell you plainly what’s involved.
A: Possibly — it depends on your municipality and your project. Permit requirements vary significantly from town to town across Westchester County, and Greenwich has its own requirements as well, so there’s no single rule that covers the whole area.
In general, the kinds of work most likely to involve permits or municipal review include retaining walls above a certain height, new patios and walkways that add impervious coverage, fences, significant grading or soil disturbance, and drainage changes. Some communities also have architectural review boards or wetland considerations that apply to outdoor projects. Skipping this step can be an expensive mistake: unpermitted work can create problems during a home sale and, in some cases, towns can require it to be removed.
None of this should scare you off a project — it’s simply part of building responsibly in this area, and it’s one of the practical reasons to work with a company that has spent decades on projects in these towns. Requirements are ultimately determined by your local building department and every property is different, so treat this as general information rather than guidance for your specific situation. When you contact us about your project, the approvals it may involve are part of the conversation.
A: Well-designed landscaping is consistently ranked among the home improvements that add real value. Real estate professionals overwhelmingly point to curb appeal as a factor in attracting buyers, and industry surveys have found landscape upgrades recovering much or all of their cost at resale.
The value shows up in more than the sale price. A property that looks cared for from the street makes a first impression that carries through a showing. Outdoor living spaces effectively add usable square footage for entertaining and everyday life. And unlike most improvements, landscaping can improve with age — trees and plantings mature and fill in over the years. In markets like Westchester County and Greenwich, where buyers expect properties to be well kept, the landscape is part of how a home is judged.
That said, results vary by property, project, and market, so it’s wise to think of landscaping first as an investment in how you live in your home, with resale appeal as the durable bonus. If you’re weighing a project — whether you plan to stay for decades or sell within a few years — we’re glad to talk through which improvements tend to make the most sense. Request a complimentary quote to start the conversation.
A: Yes — phasing is a common and sensible way to approach a large project, and it works best when the full vision is designed up front.
The key is the master plan. When the complete design exists first, each phase can be built in a logical order — site work and hardscape typically early, plantings and finishing elements later — and everything fits together as intended. Infrastructure can be roughed in during early phases so later additions don’t mean tearing up finished work. Without a master plan, phased projects tend to accumulate compromises: a patio positioned without thought to the future pool, plantings that end up in the path of next year’s walkway.
Phasing spreads the investment across seasons, lets you start enjoying parts of the property sooner, and gives you flexibility if priorities shift. Because Michael Labriola Inc. is involved in all stages of site design from conception to completion, we can design your Westchester or Greenwich property as a whole and build it in the sequence that suits you. If you have a big vision and want to approach it in steps, tell us — that’s exactly what a good design process is for.
A: Look for evidence, not promises: a track record you can verify, completed work you can see, and a clear answer to who will be responsible for your project from design through construction.
A few practical markers help. Longevity in your local market means a company has satisfied enough clients to keep going — and that it has worked with the terrain, conditions, and expectations specific to the area. A portfolio of completed projects shows you their range and standard of finish. Client references and testimonials, especially from projects like yours, tell you what the experience of working with them is really like. And how a company communicates during the estimate stage — whether they listen, answer directly, and explain trade-offs — usually predicts how they’ll communicate during construction.
Ask whether the same firm designs and builds, or whether you’ll be coordinating multiple companies. Ask to see work in nearby towns. Ask how long they’ve served the area. Michael Labriola Inc. has grown through referrals across Westchester and Fairfield counties for over 50 years, and we’re happy to answer all of those questions about ourselves — reach out and put us to the test.
A: You don’t need to prepare much — but three things make a first consultation dramatically more productive: a wish list, a sense of your priorities, and honest thoughts about how you use your property.
The wish list can be loose. Photos you’ve saved, gardens you’ve admired around Westchester or Greenwich, features you keep coming back to — a patio for entertaining, more privacy, better curb appeal, a play area. Then rank them. Knowing what’s essential versus what’s nice-to-have helps a designer make smart trade-offs. Finally, think about the practical side: how much time you realistically want to spend maintaining a landscape, how you entertain, which parts of the yard you actually use, and any frustrations with the property as it stands.
A comfortable budget range, even a rough one, is also genuinely useful — not because a designer will automatically spend it, but because it shapes what can realistically be designed. Come with whatever you have; part of our job over the last 50 years has been helping people turn a vague sense that a property could be more into a concrete plan. Bring your ideas and we’ll take it from there.
A: A new installation starts from a blank or nearly blank site — typically new construction — while a renovation works with an existing landscape, keeping what serves the property and rethinking what doesn’t.
Renovations are the more common project in established communities like Westchester and Greenwich, where most properties have mature trees, existing plantings, and hardscape that has aged with the home. Good renovation work is partly editing: deciding which mature elements are assets worth designing around and which are liabilities — overgrown foundation shrubs, a cracked walkway, plantings that no longer suit the house. New installations offer a cleaner slate but demand more decisions, since everything from grading to the first tree is chosen from scratch. Additions fall in between, extending an existing landscape to serve a new pool, wing, or outdoor living area.
Michael Labriola Inc. handles all three — totally new developments, renovations of existing sites, and additions — for both residential and commercial clients, and has for over 50 years. Whichever yours is, the starting point is the same: a look at your property and a conversation about what you want it to become. Contact us for a complimentary quote.
A: As much or as little as it’s designed to need. Maintenance isn’t an afterthought — it’s a design decision, and it’s one of the most useful things to be honest about at the start of a project.
Different choices carry very different care requirements. Hardscape features like patios and walkways ask little beyond occasional cleaning. Lawns need regular mowing and seasonal care. Planting beds range widely: some designs need frequent attention to look their best, while others are planned specifically to stay handsome with modest upkeep. In this region, seasonal work — spring cleanup, fall preparation — is part of the rhythm for nearly every property.
The right question isn’t how to minimize maintenance, but how much care you’re realistically willing to give a landscape, or hire someone to give it. Tell your designer that honestly and the design can match it. Michael Labriola Inc. designs with that conversation built in, and provides ongoing maintenance services for commercial properties throughout Westchester and Fairfield counties. If you want a landscape that fits your life rather than competing with it, that’s exactly the conversation to have — reach out and we’ll start there.
A: An outdoor living space is an area of your property designed and built to function like an extension of your home — a place for cooking, dining, entertaining, and relaxing outdoors, not just a yard you look at.
The term covers a range of features that are often combined: patios and terraces, outdoor kitchens and dining areas, seating around fire features, and the plantings and site work that tie it all to the property. The best ones are designed around how you actually entertain and live — how many people you host, whether you cook outside, whether you want sun or shade, how the space connects to the house.
Outdoor living has become one of the most requested project types in Westchester and Fairfield counties, and it’s an area Michael Labriola Inc. knows well — Westchester Magazine featured the company as “The Face of Outdoor Entertaining.” Because we handle both design and construction, the same team that plans your space builds it. If you’ve been picturing summer evenings in a backyard that finally works the way you want it to, visit our Outdoor Living Space page or contact us for a complimentary quote.
A: Three things, and all of them are verifiable: more than 50 years serving the same communities, a family-owned company involved in every stage from design through construction, and a client base built almost entirely on referrals.
Longevity in one market says something no advertisement can. Michael Labriola Inc. has served Westchester and Fairfield counties for over 50 years, and growth has come through referrals from satisfied clients — homeowners, local businesses, corporations, municipalities, institutions, and golf courses. The company has been named a Best of Westchester winner in 2016, 2019, 2022, and 2023, and Westchester Magazine has featured it as “The Face of Outdoor Entertaining” for its one-stop-shop approach to residential landscape construction.
The range matters too. Handling residential and commercial work, design and construction, new developments and renovations means we bring broader experience to any single project than a narrower firm can. And because the company is family owned and operated, the standards are personal. The simplest way to judge any of this is to talk with us: call (914) 273-6530 or request a complimentary quote, and see for yourself how the first conversation goes.
A: Yes. Masonry has been one of Michael Labriola Inc.’s major areas of expertise since the company was founded, and we do it for both residential and commercial properties across Westchester County and the Greenwich area.
Masonry is often the finishing touch that turns an attractive landscape into a genuinely beautiful setting. A bluestone walkway adds distinction to a garden or a home’s entrance; a stone or brick balustrade defining a patio or terrace combines function with good looks. The applications are wide-ranging — functional or decorative, indoors or out — and work equally well on a private backyard or a commercial entrance, courtyard, or public-facing grounds. On the commercial side, well-built stonework also stands up to the heavier use that business, institutional, and municipal properties see.
We employ only skilled artisans for masonry projects, and working within the constraints of your design and budget, our masons produce fine work using quality materials. Because masonry is handled by the same company that designs and builds the rest of your landscape, the stonework is planned as part of the whole property rather than added on afterward. If you’re considering a walkway, patio, terrace, wall, or other stonework for a home or commercial site, contact us for a complimentary quote.