Landscaping and External Works in Mauritius

BFC Ltd handles the ground outside the building as carefully as the building itself, combining planting with the paving, drainage and lighting that make it usable.

What we deliver

• Garden design and soft landscaping
• Planting, turfing and scheduled maintenance rounds
• Paving, kerbs, walkways and parking areas
• Water features and irrigation
• Boundary walls, fencing and gates
• External lighting and surface water drainage

How we work

Heavy seasonal rain decides whether external works last. Levels, falls and drainage are set out first, because paving laid to the wrong fall will hold water and undermine itself no matter how good the finish looks on the day.

Plant selection is made for the exposure of the site, with tougher salt tolerant species near the coast and shade planting where a courtyard gets little sun. Ongoing maintenance rounds can be added to a facilities management contract.

Getting external works to survive the rain

External works in Mauritius live or die on two things: drainage and base preparation. A beautiful paved terrace laid on an inadequate base will settle and rock within two seasons, and any hard surface that sheds water towards a building rather than away from it will eventually put water where you do not want it. So we set levels and falls first, deal with where the water is going to go, compact and lay a proper base, and only then think about the finish.

Planting follows the same logic. Species that thrive in the central plateau are not always the ones that survive salt wind on the coast, and irrigation needs to match both. We keep external works and building works under one contract wherever possible, because the joints between them — thresholds, drainage outlets, the point where paving meets a wall — are exactly where problems appear when two different contractors each assume the other dealt with it.

Working with the wet and dry seasons

External maintenance in Mauritius is really two programmes. Through the warm, wet months growth is fast and the work is cutting, pruning, edging and keeping drainage clear before the next downpour uses it. Through the drier, cooler months the emphasis moves to irrigation checks, soil condition, mulching, replanting and the harder external work that mud makes miserable. Preparation for the cyclone season is scheduled rather than improvised: overhanging limbs reduced, dead wood removed, loose items and light fittings checked, gullies and channels cleared, and anything that could become a projectile secured or stored. The same visit pattern makes the site safer and stops the first heavy rain from becoming a flooded car park.

Drainage, paving and boundary works

Most external complaints are drainage complaints wearing a different hat. Water standing on paving usually means falls were never right or have settled; water in a basement or against a wall usually means a channel, gully or downpipe is discharging where it should not. We look for where the water comes from and where it is meant to go before laying anything new. Paving is set on a base that suits the traffic it will carry, with joints and falls that shed water to a defined point. Boundary walls, fences and gates are built and fixed with materials chosen for the exposure, since coastal and windward sites eat plated steel and cheap fixings within a couple of seasons.

Planting and irrigation that survive the site

Planting that ignores the site fails expensively. Salt-laden wind, thin coastal soil, full afternoon sun on a west facade and the shade of a large tree are four different growing conditions, and each wants different species. We favour plants suited to the exposure, including hardy and locally adapted species that hold up without constant intervention, and we mulch to hold moisture and suppress weeds rather than watering more. Where irrigation exists it is checked for leaks, blocked emitters and controller settings that no longer match the season, because a system that runs at the wrong time of day loses much of what it delivers to evaporation and can drown the plants it was installed to protect.

What our clients say

Related reading

Why external works are cheaper on a schedule than on call-out is explained in AMC versus reactive maintenance.

Recent work

Coverage across Mauritius

BFC Ltd operates from Quatre Bornes and carries out landscaping and external works island wide, covering Port Louis, the central towns of Curepipe, Rose Hill, Vacoas and Phoenix, the north and the coastal districts. Commercial, industrial, retail and residential properties are all served.