Photos Cameron Flaisch
A.C.W. Landscapes has served Northwest Georgia since 2003, offering full-service lawn maintenance and high-quality landscape design and installation. What started as a small company with six to eight accounts has expanded over the years to offer everything from professional hand-pruning and pine straw applications to outdoor kitchens, fireplaces and landscape lighting.
With new offerings comes new products and technologies, as owner Andrew Wardlaw has realized in the process of building his company.
“The answer is never ‘no’ to anything anyone ever asks us to do,” he says. “If someone wants a patio, we build a patio.”
Recently, A.C.W. has implemented new services that Wardlaw is excited to promote. The first is a brand of landscape lighting systems called FX Luminaire, which Wardlaw calls “the Cadillac of landscape lighting.” A.C.W. offers three tiers of lighting systems, and FX Luminaire is the one Wardlaw considers the highest.
As a homeowner, you can control these lights using a smartphone; you can even control each light individually or group lights into zones. For example, Wardlaw says up lights on trees or pathway lights can be their own zone, allowing you to control a group of lights all at once.
“You really can get very creative in the design of landscape lighting,” Wardlaw says.
Another interesting feature of the FX Luminaire lights is their ability to change color. According to Wardlaw, each individual light fixture has the capability to change into 30,000 different colors. Using a smartphone, you can choose the light or group to control, pick a color and edit it using a color wheel. You can even manipulate the hue and opacity of the color to perfectly fine-tune to the shade.
In addition to custom lighting, A.C.W. is now certified to install ClifRock panel masonry. In Wardlaw’s eyes, this new product will cut both costs and installation times for landscape features such as outdoor kitchens and fireplaces.
“With this new product, we can really save customers a ton of money,” he says.
ClifRock manufactures molds that look like real stone but are much easier and less expensive to install. There are 10 molds to choose from, so customers have a lot of say in the look of their new outdoor features.
A.C.W. crews pour the molds in their shop and then bring the pieces to the customer’s house for assembly and staining. This means that the only disruption to the home or yard is the installation crew – installation requires no heavy equipment or trucks. Traditionally, construction equipment would cause damage to the yard and be intrusive to the homeowners for several weeks. With ClifRock, Wardlaw and his team can install an entire outdoor kitchen (that might normally take a month) in four days.
Choosing ClifRock can also save customers a significant amount of money, Wardlaw says. One outdoor fireplace that he installed took two days and cost $4,000-$6,000 less than a traditional stone fireplace. ClifRock isn’t just for kitchens and fireplaces, either. Wardlaw says it can be used for water features, skirting on a deck or foundation, columns or stairs, as well.
So why should someone in need of landscaping choose A.C.W.?
For Wardlaw, that answer lies in the name of the company. A.C.W., which originally stood for the names of Andrew and his former business partner, took on a new meaning when Andrew began running the company solo. The acronym now stands for A Christ-Centered Workplace, an ideal that Wardlaw and his team strive to uphold in every job.
Wardlaw says that the company’s mission statement is based on Colossians 3:23, which says “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters.” It is important to him that everyone on his team works to the best of his ability with integrity, honesty and transparency.
“If we make a mistake, we own up to mistakes we make and we do what we can to fix them,” Wardlaw says. “Quality of service and customer satisfaction are our top priorities.”
He encourages potential customers to contact A.C.W. Landscapes for a free quote and design. A.C.W. also offers a free lighting demonstration for landscape lighting, in which they allow customers to test the lights for a day or two before presenting a design proposal.
“If you hire A.C.W. Landscapes to do a job for you, it will be done in the best way possible, and you’ll be satisfied,” Wardlaw says.
If you are interested in giving your outdoor space a makeover, schedule a consultation with A.C.W. Landscapes by calling 706-314-8141or visit their website, acwlandscapes.com.
