JPC LANDSCAPE DESIGNS INC

This was my first experience hiring a contractor, so maybe I was a little naive. Paul, the owner and main contact, seemed very confident and knowledgeable. He suggested I hire a drainage engineer (one he would recommend) to confirm the plan we came up with. The engineer came by for an hour and agreed with Paul's plans and made suggestions. I felt it was a waste of $200 because Paul did not follow all of the suggestions. No notes were taken from Paul during the entire time I explained what I wanted or when the engineer made suggestions. Truthfully, I just trusted that Paul knew what he was doing so I didn't worry about it and wrote off the $200. Trenching began very quickly and his crew is very hard working and punctual. The problem is that only one of them speaks English (and very broken English). When I noticed a problem with how they were installing the system, they didn't understand me, and Paul did not provide a cell phone #, only his desk #. Every time I called his desk I had to wait until he responded to my call via email. He never called me back (even though I always left my cell #). I would give an F for communication skills. Also, they did not provide a perforated pipe in the South side trench/French drain, and Paul said that it was not needed. I guess I have to trust him. I am weary because all French drains have a perforated pipe about 24" deep. The sump pumps installation was very fast and completed when I was away from the house for a day, so Paul installed this the way he felt was best, but not the way the engineer or I explained it - water discharged from and outside the house. Instead he has one pump, discharging into another, and then discharge to the new drainage ditch. This is a problem if the 2nd pump fails because it will flood the area I am trying to move the water away from, and will flood the house. When I asked him to correct it, he suggested I just give it a try and see how it works. Later he offered to partially make it the way I wanted, but I declined (see below) Good things JPC did were to optimize the drainage from the house by installing water basins and reworking some of the substandard drain lines that discharged below the house. I thought that was part of the bid, but he later told me I would have to pay an additional $400 for the drain line rework they did. The $400 also covered a drip line repair that I did not want. I asked him to check the sprinkler lines for a crack because water was seeping under the house when sprinkler were on. He never wrote that request down and missed it, and instead fixed an unused drip line. In addition, Paul suggested an electrician to install three receptacles for the 3 sump pumps. The electrician was at the house for 2 hours and said Paul would bill me the amount owed later. Paul said I owed him $580 for the electrician (2 hours? work, 3 receptacles and 50' of romex.) When I told Paul I would not pay that much, he later said he would give it to me at what it cost him ($378). He marked up the electrician $200 for no reason at all. And I still don't believe that 2 hours of work and materials cost that much. This was the one item the pushed me over the edge. I felt I was dealing with a used car salesman. At the end, when he tried to charge me an additional $1000 (20% markup) with no warning, I told him "no" and explained what problems I felt still existed. He came by to discuss them with me the next day. We agreed that I would pay him $578 in additional costs to cover the electrician and the additional drain rework he hadn't anticipated. He said he would rectify my sump pump issue that morning; his guys would be there in 10 minutes (no warning or pre scheduling with me). Also, he had not brought enough PVC to modify the sump system the way I wanted. I had guests sleeping in the bedroom adjacent to where the work would be started so I just passed on the offer. I decided that I would redo the sump pumps and PVC routes myself. By then, I had had enough of JPC landscape. Overall, they made a great rock filled ditch, and partial French drain system. They installed the sumps pumps in the locations I requested, but did not put the discharge in a location to prevent flooding. I?ll find out how the trench works during the next storm. If it fails, I will not call them back to rectify. I?ll find someone else. Next time I?ll ask if the workers speak English, I?ll request a cell phone # to the general contractor, and I will get an agreed upon quote for exactly what I want (e.g. I want a 24? deep French drain with perforated pipe and 3 sump pumps that discharge outside and away from the house). This is probably partially my fault for assuming he heard everything I requested and not getting eactly what I want it in writing in the quote. Maybe this is the way it is done for all contractors, but next time I'll be more prepared. Because I?m falling on my sword (blaming myself), I give them a C overall. But I won't use them again because of their poor communicatino skills.

Paul was awesome - I rarely do reviews - but the whole experience was great. Our backyard looks phenomonal! We interviewed 4 landscapers and he was the only one who I felt really understood our vision and could come up with something great. He did a great design; when we had a few changes, he made them and suggested small things during the project that added a lot of bang for the buck. We did end up going over budget - but we knew what we were doing (no surprises) and are super happy with the result. Another friend is using him based on our experience.

JPC Landscape Design did a great job in every way! Paul, the owner, is very professional, knowledgeable, an excellent designer and nice to work with! His crew were punctual, reliable, and did a quality job. The river rock patio is beautiful and we were very impressed with how well they matched it to the existing patio. This was the first stage of our yard makeover. We are very pleased with the work! We have three more stages to go and we will definitely continue to work with JPC Landscape Design!

We are fairly pleased, but not wowed, with the final result. The process stayed on schedule. The concrete subcontractor he used (Creative Concrete) did an absolutely wonderful job. We wish Paul had been more open to reusing some of the plants that were originally in the yard. Some plants and a small tree that he said would be reused got thrown in a corner of the yard and were never potted, as promised, and so they died and were tossed out. Additionally we agreed on a plant budget for the backyard of $4900, and were surprised after the plants were in to get a bill for plants that was over $6500. We were told that he 'upgraded' some of the sizes, but we would like to have been consulted first. The arrangement and choice of plants was okay, but nothing special. We will likely add some shrubs to the front yard to add some color, which is lacking right now. They did resolve problems for us with the sprinkler and drip system and everything is working well now.

We are fairly pleased, but not wowed, with the final result. The process stayed on schedule. The concrete subcontractor he used (Creative Concrete) did an absolutely wonderful job. We wish Paul had been more open to reusing some of the plants that were originally in the yard. Some plants and a small tree that he said would be reused got thrown in a corner of the yard and were never potted, as promised, and so they died and were tossed out. Additionally we agreed on a plant budget for the backyard of $4900, and were surprised after the plants were in to get a bill for plants that was over $6500. We were told that he 'upgraded' some of the sizes, but we would like to have been consulted first. The arrangement and choice of plants was okay, but nothing special. We will likely add some shrubs to the front yard to add some color, which is lacking right now. They did resolve problems for us with the sprinkler and drip system and everything is working well now.