NATURE WORKS

One of the owners came out, eyeballed the project and produced a quote AND A CONTRACT for approximately $2300.00. I was skeptical that he did not bother to actually use a transit to shoot the fall. The day after the work started, he called, demanding an additional $1500 because, after shooting the grade they discovered that more work would be necessary than originally estimated. Because the work was already started (the yard was torn up) we agreed to pay him an additional $1200, and let him pile all of the dirt and rock they pulled out of the creek on the back of our property, rather than hauling it away (WHICH WAS IN THE ORIGINAL, SIGNED CONTRACT.) After that things fell apart. The workmanship was shoddy. They didn't show up for days to finish the project, often blaming the weather (the managed to miss all the sunny days.) We wanted them to match the rock that was currently in the stream bed, which is an expensive stone called New Mexico River Rock. He subbed that with Texas river rock which was cheaper and ugly (I admit I agreed to it because I by then all I wanted was to get rid of them as soon as possible.) Other things that were a joke: the bid called for replacing the heavy duty, professional grade weed cloth that was already there (it's like a canvas material) with new professional grade weed cloth. What we got was the cheap, flimsy c*** they sell at Home Depot and Lowes. They re-sodded the areas requested but were delayed because they didn't order enough so had to wait to finish installing it by about a week. A blind man could have laid the new sod better. They didn't bother to put down any dirt first (we're on clay like everyone else)- they just tossed it on top of the lumpy clay, leaving gaps as much as two inches between some of the squares they put down. Long story short- we didn't get the 1/4" per 10' of fall that was specified in the contract. They said it couldn't be done. Actually it could. All that was needed was a holding tank dug in our pasture next to us for the creek to drain into. Now we'll have to pay someone else to redo their useless work. They did have a couple of good workers- one in particular- but he disappeared towards the end of the project and we never saw him again. Final insult- the day they "finished" (means the day we finally got rid of them even though we weren?t happy with what they had done) the owner demanded final payment immediately. He called twice on his cell phone saying he was in our neighborhood and wanted to get the check. We had just left heading into town. He wanted us to turn around and go back and leave him a check. We did, asking that he leave a receipt. He took the check- no receipt. This guy is a California transplant- even his trailer has Calif. license plates. Judging from the other reviews, it appears he's pulled this "I need more money to finish" routine before.

The work was adequate, but the business practices were not. They charged me 20% more than what they initially told me. There was an estimate initially and the owner did not let me know that the final price was going to be higher than the estimate. I believe his business practices are questionable. I will definitely not use them again in the future for this reason.

It appeared that he did not have a big enough crew and had to hire a high school kid to work. The work was not done of high quality and it took a lot longer than I expected to get it done. He subcontracted the cement work as well which I expected, but the whole experience was not a good one. I was hoping for more expertise.