Aridscapes

Martin and his assistant were prompt and diligent to accomplish the task of repairing the irrigation lines, plugging the places that no longer had a plant, and placing a more appropriate end-cap on the main lines. He found a place that needed a little for labor than what he had expected, and returned the next day to complete the job. They worked very hard, walked us through all that he did, and showed us that the system was working correctly - even walking us through how to set and regulate the controls. Martin originally thought that it would take him most of a day, but he ended up working the full day, plus returning to work another couple of hours to complete the job. He also asked us for $100 more for the unexpected repair he made. We paid him the original $450 plus only $50 extra, since we felt that $100 more than the original estimate was too much, but thought that the extra labor performed, earned the extra amount we paid. We were happy with the work that he performed, but gave him the "B" rating for price because it was more than his estimate.

Martin and his assistants started the work when scheduled, but there were a few days he was not able to come, one time being the weather, another when he didn't realize the stone company was not open on the day he was planning to pick-up the order, and another time when he didn't have an assistant. He did keep us notified to any unexpected delays. Overall, the work that he performed was very good, but took longer than he had anticipated. After laying the stone patio, he thought that the area around it would need extra work in order to give it proper drainage. That was an unexpected extra expense. The stone that we had chosen, was predominately gold in color, which was not to my liking, so he had us go to the stone quarry to see what the different stone looked like, and we chose to have him pick up some more of a different color to mix in with the original, since we could not return it. We also had him change the design slightly and added a corner area for the stone to be placed on the other side of the sidewalk to tie in with the patio and to use the extra stone. That was an expected extra expense. The patio area and corner that he finished, including the surrounding landscaping and new gravel over the old to cover sparse areas, looked great! Since the patio took him a few days longer than originally expected, because it was more labor intensive than he thought it would be, he asked for an additional $200. He had asked for an extra amount when he had done a previous job for us, and as we did before, we gave him only 1/2 as much extra of what he asked. Because of requesting extra money for the work performed, and taking longer than expected on both jobs that we had hired him for, we do not expect to use him again. We expect to be charged more when we add the scope of work and materials, but also expect the estimate to be accurate for each addition, and not charged more above that.