Specialized landscaping services are the technical jobs that sit outside routine mowing and cleanup — drainage and grading, landscape lighting installation, irrigation, and backflow work. HD Landscape & Maintenance handles these across the Portland metro area, licensed through the Oregon Landscape Contractors Board under LCB #9977.
By Donavan Hesedahl, Founder & Owner · Last updated July 2026
Oregon actually answers this for you. The state’s Landscape Contractors Board tests licensees in separate competency areas — Plants & Turf, Design/Grading & Drainage, Hardscaping, Irrigation, and Backflow. Everything past that first category is specialty work, which is why so few crews cover all of it.
That split is the most useful definition we’ve found, because it maps to how the work actually behaves on a property. Mowing is a schedule. Drainage is a diagnosis. If a company can send a crew every Thursday but can’t tell you why water pools against your foundation every February, that’s the line you’re standing on.
Oregon requires two licenses to do this work legally: an individual Landscape Construction Professional license for whoever supervises the job, and a separate business license for the company contracting it. Both are worth checking before you hire — the LCB runs a public license lookup, and consumers have one year from substantial completion to file a claim against a licensed business.
Drainage work in the Portland metro means French drains, catch basins, dry wells, downspout extensions, swales, and regrading to move water away from a structure. Most Portland-area properties need one or a combination — and the right answer depends on your soil and slope, not on a catalog.
Here’s the local reality: the Tualatin Valley floor is heavy clay and silt, and the metro takes most of its rain between November and March. Clay doesn’t percolate. So water that would soak away in sandier soil instead sits in the top few inches, finds the lowest point, and stays there for months. That’s why the same yard can be bone dry in August and a standing puddle in January.
That soil profile also rules some solutions out. A dry well only works if there’s somewhere for the water to go — in dense clay, it fills and stops draining, which is why we more often run a piped French drain to a legal discharge point instead. Getting that discharge point right matters: regrading past certain thresholds triggers erosion-control and grading review through Portland Permitting & Development, and dumping water onto a neighbor’s lot creates a problem worse than the one you solved.
Drainage and grading live on our Landscaping & Design service page — that’s where to go for the full scope and pricing detail.
This is the specialty most homeowners are surprised by, so it’s worth being precise.
Under Oregon law (ORS 479.905), low-voltage landscape lighting up to 300 volt-amperes that cord-connects to an existing GFCI receptacle counts as limited energy electrical activity. Licensed landscape contracting businesses are exempt from electrical licensing for that outdoor lighting work — but the business has to issue its installer an identification card on a form provided by the State Landscape Contractors Board, and the installer carries it on the job site. Most homeowners have never heard of that card. It’s a fast way to check whether the company at your door is actually operating inside its license.
The moment a job needs a new dedicated circuit, a new exterior GFCI receptacle, or line-voltage fixtures, it stops being landscape work. That’s an electrician and an electrical trade permit. In Portland specifically, contractors working under an LCB number can’t file trade permits through the city’s online DevHub system at all — those applications go in by email, because the system doesn’t accept LCB license numbers. We’d rather tell you that up front than discover it mid-project.
On fixtures, the Pacific Northwest punishes cheap metal. We specify brass or copper over aluminum and plastic, because nine wet months a year corrodes aluminum housings and clouds plastic lenses — you’ll be replacing a bargain fixture in three seasons. Cable gets buried at proper depth in wet-location-rated jacket, not stapled along a fence line.
Timing is the other local factor. Portland is dark before 4:30 p.m. in December, which means a lit path or driveway isn’t decorative here — it’s most of how you use your yard for a third of the year. Booking in early fall gets the system commissioned before the light goes.
Specialized work is priced per property, not off a rate card, because the drivers vary enormously — a 30-foot downspout extension and a full-yard piped drainage system are the same category of work and nowhere near the same job.
As of 2026, the three things that move a specialized quote most:
Every quote is written before work starts, and we don’t begin until you approve it. Call (971) 336-5520 with your address and what you’re seeing, and we’ll give you an honest range with no obligation.
We cover the Portland metro Monday through Saturday, working out of Aloha in Washington County. Drainage and lighting requests come most often from Portland and Beaverton, where older lots and mature tree cover combine to create the water problems described above.
We also serve Tualatin, Lake Oswego, and Hillsboro, plus Tigard, Sherwood, West Linn, Wilsonville, Clackamas, Newberg, and Salem. You can see completed work in our portfolio, or browse everything we offer on the services hub.
Related work often booked alongside specialized services: hardscaping and outdoor structures (retaining walls frequently double as grade solutions) and seasonal services such as gutter cleaning, which is the cheapest drainage fix there is.
Anything beyond routine lawn and yard maintenance that requires distinct technical competency — drainage, grading, landscape lighting installation, irrigation, and backflow. Oregon’s own licensing exam separates these into their own categories, which is a fair guide to what “specialized” means in practice here.
Pricing depends on linear footage, excavation depth, site access, and material grade rather than a flat rate. We give a written price before any work starts and never begin until you’ve approved it. Call (971) 336-5520 with your address for an honest range.
Yes — all three. Drainage and grading are detailed on our Landscaping & Design page, and we install low-voltage landscape lighting within the scope Oregon permits licensed landscape contractors. If a job needs new line-voltage circuits, we’ll tell you an electrician is required.
Yes. We work with commercial sites, HOAs, and public-sector properties across the Portland metro. Commercial drainage and lighting jobs are scoped the same way but usually involve larger runs, phased scheduling around business hours, and coordination on permits.
Almost always, yes. You can’t diagnose a drainage problem or lay out a lighting plan from a phone call — we need to see the grade, the soil, and where water is actually going. The site visit is free and comes with no obligation.
Ready to sort out drainage or light up your property? Get a free quote.
HD Landscape and Maintenance LLC 6581 SW 192nd Ave Aloha, OR 97007
Phone: (971) 336-5520
Email: hdlandscapellc@gmail.com
Hours: Monday–Saturday, 7:00 am – 7:00 pm · Sunday closed
Oregon LCB Lic. #9977 · Licensed & Insured
Serving the Portland metro area including Portland, Beaverton, Aloha, Tigard, Tualatin, Lake Oswego, Hillsboro, West Linn, Wilsonville, Sherwood, Clackamas, Newberg, and Salem.