SIGNATURE LANDSCAPES & GARDEN CENTER

Not well at all. Sorry outfit! I did not and will not do business with this company.

With landscaping you never know how it is going to turn out until you have had time to see how the plants chosen and planted either thrive or fail. Everything looks pretty at the start. I would say that the concept of our yard was done nicely but the actual work and the quality of that work...which is really way more important than the design really...did not go well. It is highly likely that we are going to have to replace many of the plants and those that survived winter are going to need to be replanted in approrpriate size holes and planted correctly.

The development and review of he plan went very smoothly as did the estimate process. We agreed on the price and timeframe for project to begin. Origninal estimate was the work would start in March '11 and be done in 4-6 weeks. The actual project was finally completed in August '11 (not with standing the horrible weather that Huntsville experienced in the spring of '11 .... the work still took excessively long). The first action that took place was the arrival of a small digging machine an operator to remove concrete walkway and move existing landscaping. In spite of being told that there was a french drain in the area, the operator proceded to destroy the drain pipes anyway. Construction of the pergola was the first task accomplished, and without any substantial problem. Then the individual who was to install the pavers arrived on site. He seemed confused by the job, and unaware of the other pieces of the project that he was to syncronize his work with. As an example, he was totally unaware that there was to be some outdoor lighting to be installed as part of the project, and therefore some conduit would have to be run under the pavers. He had no clue. He was also supposed to repair the drain damage done by the digger. To this day, I am not certain the work was done properly. We asked the owner of the company who the project manager for the project was .... she told us she was, but it was readily apparent that each of her workers/sub-contractors was operating independently and without supervision. The final piece of the project to be completed was the water feature. The owner's son showed up on sight and described water features as his forte' .... since completion of the project, I have had to totally rebuild the water feature to insure it would work properly. When we called the company to tell them that the water feature was not operating properly, they said they would have to charge us a $75 service fee and they emailed us maintenance instructions for the water feature. The entire project form start to finish was a nightmare .... poor or untrianed workers, poor site cleanup, shoddy workmanship, and very little to no project management. Stay away from this company.

We asked for a complex quote, but the quote she provided included only one small part of the project. The overall experience was F. We weren't satisfied with her, at all. I would not use this provider again.

After the first installation, I called and a foreman came and looked at the installation. He agreed that it was not installed correctly and would not work. They pulled it out and reinstalled the drain and the line. When testing the drain, they discovered that it had not been connected to the outlet correctly and formed a large puddle behind the retaining wall that had an existing pipe going through it for the outlet. They returned three days later and connected the drain to the outlet. After the first rain storm, the entire drain system filled with mud, water ran over the wall as before and has never worked. I sent emails with pictures and left phone messages and never got a response. I should add that they gave me two quotes, one to fix the drainage and one to install pavers on the walk way next to the mud filled drain line shown in the pictures.

From the start the effort was in trouble. Initial personnel were untrained, allowed to use the wrong equipment doing more damage to the yard than necessary. They were left unsupervised by an individual who was fired by the company before the project was completed. They installed 6 drains in the yard 3 at the top and 3 at the bottom, with all the water converging to a single pipe and out to the street. It is at this point where water converges to the bottom right drain and the backup occurs. Initially they did not install a drain through to the street, as agreed to in the contract, but installed a pop up drain, which constricted the flow of water. This change was made without consultation. The first time the project was considered complete by the contractor, the yard was left in a terrible state as sod had been put down on top of soil which had not been smoothed or leveled. Not only did it look terrible but it did not allow the water to flow to the drains properly. Landscape bed trim was run over and buried by heavy equipment and not replaced. Black drainage pipes were not connected to the downspouts and other drainage pipe was installed and left to lie across the back of a flower bed. Some drainage pipe was buried or installed at the incorrect angle hence the drainage system never worked as promised. Very little attention was paid to the proper slop required for the water to flow to the drains or between the drains. The drainage system cannot handle the volume of water during a heavy rain and backs up with about an 8-10 ft wide gathering of water. Once the rain stops we have a smaller puddle by the drain, which puddles rather than flows into the drain. There are several other spots in the yard where the water pools up and does not drain properly. The owner did come to inspect the work at our request and agreed that this was not work she was happy to see and she told us that "they would make it right" this involved us purchasing additional sod to cover where the heavy machinery had damaged it prior but we agreed and believed that it would be put right. They did do some grading work prior to installing additional turf but not enough to resolve the problem. A ridge was made on the left side of the yard in the hope of directing the water to the drain but all this did was turned a perfectly flat and even part of the yard into that which now looks like it could be used for an obstacle course (not the look we were looking for) Actually diverts water to a spot in the yard that it did not pool before.We had gone to a 'professional' to help us resolve a small problem of having a few spots of wet grass either side of the house and trusted their representative when he talked us into this system rather than a French drain either side to drain water out through to the street. Is it possible that they should have installed piping on both sides of the home rather than directing it to one side?We were given a price initially that we agreed to, then it was raised with the addition of extra turf which we agreed to again. Now to 'finish' the job additional turf is required in areas that were damaged while trying to improve the drainage on the right side of the house. Additionally, the bottom right drain is not even level with the sod and they want to charge us to put in a riser to make it level. Surely the company has responsibility to make this right. This makes us wonder if that is how this company conducts business.Another issue we have is that when it rains we now have water pooling across the bottom half of the yard where it did not before; in other words, the system not only does not work but is far worse than before they started. The BBB is involved but unfortunately they are not having any better luck than we did.

Signed contract and paid one third of total cost of job on April 30, 2007. Due to extreme drought they said they could not get the sod. I went by their place of business at least one or two times a month for any kind of update. I would leave a message for the owner to call but no response. I know that sod was available for the last two months or more. The company was located close by when I hired them but have since moved a distance away. On the morning of October 2, 2007, I went to their store and told the owner I wanted my deposit back. Without any explanation or apology she had her secretary make me out a check for my deposit.

Over the period of several months phone calls were not returned. When I finally left a message to the company stating I would post a sign on the back of my truck not recommending the company she finally returned my call. Once she did her story changed and she stated she would not replace all of the plants but she would replace some of them but not with what was originally there before. She also told me she would need to place down top soil for the plants; she the laid the landscape cloth and placed the top soil on top of it. When top soil is placed on top of a landscape clothe it defeats the purpose. Because she did this the plants have no way of getting to the top soil and I now have a weed problem and have paid over $60 to try and control the weeds. I have called other landscape companies and they have said when companies do this type of work it's to save money so they don't have to put an adequate amount of mulch down.

Although estimate costs were adhered to by the business, the job was not done per the contract, and what we were told would take two days turned into two weeks (we boarded our dog for one solid week so they could work uninterrupted.) The landscape timbers were just laid on top of each other & not fastened; now they are warping & curling. The drip line was only installed half way around the boxes. The "soil" was so poor that the plants almost died before we found the problem & replanted them in better soil. When I called the business to ask when the job was going to be completed, they said I was "too demanding", & they were not coming back. Since my husband paid up front, we were stuck with a shoddy result. One time I called the office & instead of being put on hold, the phone was laid down & I could hear the office workers cussing about the customers & calling them "choice" names.