WinSol Groundworks

After reading reviews on Angie's List, my husband and I requested a landscaping bid from Winsol Groundworks and two other vendors. We received the quote from Winsol quite a bit later than the other two bids. Although that was initially frustrating, after reviewing it, it was obvious that Winsol knew exactly what they were doing. In contrast to the other two bids, their quote was very thorough and detailed. We very much wanted to use Winsol but ultimately decided that the cost was too high for us and chose another vendor. Looking back, I don't think I would make the same decision. The landscaper we chose was cheaper, yes, but he cut corners, did not communicate well, delegated most of the work to others, even had difficulty reading the professionally prepared landscape design plan. We did not use Winsol so I can't vouch for their work. I can, however, vouch for their preparedness and professionalism and suggest that maybe the old adage is true....you get what you pay for!

Initial work was done in 2/2013 with landscaping backyard, including DG pathways, new patio, drip irrigation while maintaining the water runoff drain system that was built for the house in 2001. From the outset of the bid process the need to maintain the integrity of the drain system was made clear repeatedly to Will Solinsky our point of contact and part owner in the business. When the crew arrived and did the work much of the drainage tubing was removed in order to complete the patio, pathway and other work. Unfortunately when the drain was replaced and rerouted four of the new drains failed to move the water out of the backyard. In moderate rain we noticed obvous puddling that eventually dried up. In the more severe rainstorms the backyard flooded with 6-8" of standing water. We called Solinsky and they finally fixed the worst of the drainage problems which was four failed drains the company installed. In addition we found that another original important drain had been filled in with dirt and concealed from view. That was very concerning as huge amounts of water pooled in this area of the yard. All the repairs described were made last month. Yesterday I discovered another runoff drain plugged with dirt and concealed from view. This time the drain serviced the gutter/downspout for water coming off the roof of the house. Since the work in 2/2013 this drain had overflowed spilling water around the foundation of the house. Not only did the Solinsky installed drains fail but the work crew plugged and covered up at least two of the important existing drains for the runoff system. We are worried about what issues will pop up next. Although Will Solinsky finally fixed the four failed drains and unearthed the 1st existing plugged and concealed drain, we found him less than professional and at times contentious. This company does some landscaping and concrete work well enough but what good is it if your backyard is underwater?

Will showed up immediately to look at the job, and then had a formal bid to me in less than a couple hours. I was amazed. The work was done on time on budget and looks fabulous.

They were horrible. I ended up paying $7000 and got nothing for my money, really. I won’t recommend them unless you have a lot of money. Their estimate I got was $32000 and I ended up having it done for $12000, that’s just ridiculous. It took forever and I started to pay him $7000 for him to take dirt out of my back yard, I paid him $7000 just to leave me alone. They didn’t know what they were doing. They build the pipe and covered it up with duct tape and I had to go there with my brother and friend just to check but my daughter said nobody came out to fix it. I wanted to see if he fixed it so I dug it out and it had duct tape on it, he said we would have fixed it before we poured concrete. He already poured wax on top so that didn’t look like he was going to fix it. He already put the gravel down to pour concrete on top of it and we had to dig up the whole thing to replace the whole pipe because there was also another clean up and he was also going to put concrete over the stucco. He didn’t even know it was there and he wouldn’t have discovered it unless we discovered it and it was a mess and I just didn’t feel comfortable with him. I liked the guy and he was nice guy. They broke my garage trotter and he said it was the bad capacitor and generally we were getting new garage door but I was not happy with them. The price was high. I believe the quality was good. They cleaned up after themselves and I appreciate that.

He came out late. He said I'd have estimate that evening & I never got one. That was months ago.

Nice meeting - but no follow up.

We called Winsol on 6/24 to make an appointment for an estimate for a raised concrete porch extension and re-landscaping of the area around the existing porch. The appointment for the afternoon of July 2. The morning of July 2, the provider called to ask if he could reschedule. Luckily, we were home and got the call and rescheduled for the afternoon of July 9. No one showed up; no one called to cancel or reschedule. The following morning I wrote an email to the company's website asking if we had gotten our signals crossed. I never received a response to the email. I would be very reluctant to use a provider who doesn't keep scheduled appointments and who doesn't respond to customers' communications.

Projects went fairly well, a couple of problems arose with the air conditioning unit and wall on side yard. Both problems were handled very well and worked out perfect. Everyday the crew showed up on time and kept us informed all during the day and at the end of the day they asked us if there were any problems or anything we wanted to ask. David and Will came by often to see if we were happy with the project and was there anything we wanted to change during the project. Will was told what things we needed and we left it up to him to design fron and back yards to what ever he thought would look best. We are extremely happy with both front and back yards.

A great encore performance after last year's work. Will is great with designing lines for plantings and walkways. The crew leaves things spotless. Had expected the orange tree to be taller, but I guess that's a common thing for landscaping clients.

Overall I am happy with the way our backyard turned out. Was the process smooth sailing and stress free? No. But everything was taken care of in the end. Our old yard was poorly planned, overgrown and did not suit our needs, so we had a landscape plan drafted last year (by another company). This year after getting bids from different contractors we decided to go with Winsol Groundworks. Will was our initial contact and he gave us a detailed and itemized estimate, and worked with us to fit everything in our budget. He seemed polite and courteous and very professional. Their estimate was definitely on the higher side, but we felt comfortable with Will, so gave the green light and started the project. Positives 1. The estimate was itemized, so we could exactly see what we were paying for and Will was mindful of our budget and helped us fit what we wanted within that. 2. The ground crew was efficient, polite, responsive and cleaned up after themselves. 3. Will was very efficient in spotting plants for the most part, that helped us stay within budget and yet cover lot of area with minimum plant material. 3. Will and David (the actual boss and in charge of concrete) responded to any complaints or concerns over the course of the project and always tried to resolve them. 4. We are happy with the end result. Problems/ negatives: - Will is late for most appointments! - He kept using the tape measure on our landscape plan to measure areas when he was giving us estimates and we asked him if it was accurate. He assured us it was. But in the end he had missed measuring almost 100 sq ft of concrete area which he realized only after the crew came and marked it out. This almost cost us an additional $1000. (he ended up giving us a small break on the price for that missed sq footage area). - He ordered the wrong list of plants and that delayed work by 2 days and even then the crew came with the wrong plants and had to make another trip to the nursery to get the correct ones. He also did not communicate certain things we had discussed to the crew and those things had to be corrected (like shape of flagstone pathway, sod area). Luckily I have the option of working from home that helped me keep and eye on certain things and correct them then and there, otherwise we would have come home to some surprises. - He came to some appointments unprepared (for example to discuss planting choices) so it was not as productive. I had sent him an email with pictures of plants that I wanted but he never bothered to even open the email prior to our appointment citing his slow home internet connection! This was extremely unprofessional and frustrating to say the least. I asked him to take more time to get prepared and reschedule but he insisted he was fine. His planting suggestions were very limited. Once he suggested a set of plants he seemed reluctant to change them or work further to give different options. I had to do quite a bit of research and make suggestions myself. - Consistency of concrete color: The color of concrete in their top 20, vs regular catalog Vs small tile samples, vs the big 12X12 samples Vs the actual product after pouring were all different! No two look the same! This made our choice of concrete color very hard. But we are fine with whatever the color it turned out to be, and we were mentally prepared for it to be different, so no complaints there. -There was an issue with concrete scoring. We did not realize that they had changed the original scoring design that was on the plan (because some of the measurements were incorrect in the plan), but they failed to communicate that to us. They do tend to make assumptions without discussing changes with customer. The chalk outline looked something similar to what was in the plan and we did not notice the subtle changes they had made. But once they finished pouring the concrete and laying the pathways leading off the concrete area, it was all off because they did not make adjustments in the pathways according to changed scoring design, even though it was very obvious. We had to complain and get it corrected. -We had some gap in communication with David with one line email exchanges, that led to some confusion in certain costs etc. Also sometimes they sent men to appointments (that required my presence) at times when I specifically said I would not be unavailable, which caused some inconvenience. -They charged us $200 for installing an electrical conduit in the final invoice and many days after installation, we had never discussed this cost at any point prior, so it was a surprise for us. Again when we mentioned that to Will he took care of it. -Finally when we asked them about the 3 months free yard maintenance deal for projects over 10k hat currently shows up on their Angies' list website, they said that deal was for last winter and should have been taken down and they are no longer offering it, yet as of posting this review that offer is still up on this site (as of July 29 2013).

I had called Winsol after researching Angie's List and talked to the owner of the company. He is a pleasant Christian man who arranged to have his son come out and talk with me about my landscaping project and ideas and to give me a quote to start on Phase One of my quarter acre backyard landscape remodel. The son came out to my home as arranged and talked with me and said he would get back to me the following Monday (this was the Wednesday before July 4th and he was taking the rest of the week off). I said that was fine since I was getting another bid on the job and that gave me time to talk with the other landscaper about the project. Well, I never heard back from anyone at Winsol. Not a voicemail or missed call or anything. I figured that I shouldn't have to chase down someone to do a job and make money, plus if that was any indicator on how they respect their customers, than just forget them. Which is what I did.Still have not heard from them!

Immediate response to my request for a consult. Fair price for what we wanted done. We chose another vendor due to scheduling issues.

The estimate was reasonable. They arrived on time and did the job in a week. The transformation was nothing short of miraculous. I've uploaded pictures to show you how beautiful it is. I also put some before pictures in as well. I had quite a few trees taken out and painted the fence but the rest is all Winsol. Armando was the crew chief and he was great. They did a lot of extras at no charge. I had two dirt patches in my front yard due to having two trees removed. They patched both areas with leftover sod from the backyard. I had a couple of broken portions of my landscape edging and they rebricked it for me. Again at no charge. The crew was careful as to cleanliness and making sure they put everything back better than how it was originally. They had to take a gate down to get the baby backhoe in and when they replaced it they made it more stable than it originally was. I didn't ask them they just saw I needed it and did it. Nick and his crew are a true class act!! I recommend them highly.

We hired Leah Bray to provide plans to submit to our HOA and she did a great job. Will Solinsky was our contact for the initial phase of construction and David Winn took over later in the process. Our job was not easy sailing. We did not reside at the property at the time, and did not have day-to-day communication with Winsol or the crew at the time. Initially, construction went very smoothly and fast. The yard was prepped for concrete, sprinklers and drainage pipes were installed. All systems were well engineered and tested. Then, the City of Roseville did not issue a permit for our concrete for 9 days. During that time there was limited contact from Winsol. We didn't learn about the problem for a few days after work had stopped. The delay pushed back our plans for moving into the new house. During this delay, we asked for an estimate to widen our driveway. An estimate was provided, but the preparation work was started without our approval. We had to scramble and submit plans to our HOA. Once the City approval was secured, concrete was poured, and the rest of the landscaping was completed. The concrete turned out great and the driveway extension was finished to perfectly match our existing driveway. The shade structure was installed about a week later, after the concrete cured. The subcontractor who installed the shade structure left metal shavings all over the yard. Not Winsol?s fault directly, but a lack of oversight. There were minor issues after the job was finished that were dealt with promptly by Winsol to our satisfaction. The total cost of the project was a little more than$18,000. Not cheap by any means, but a very good value for the high quality of work.The quality of the work performed by Winsol is beyond compare. Given the expansive soil conditions of our property, I was happy to see the extensive drainage system installed. Concrete work by some of our neighbors who used less expensive contractors does not measure up to the quality of Winsol?s concrete work. The yard looks great, and the shade structure looks better than we imagined. For our job, however, better and more frequent communication by Winsol would have helped us better understand the delays and prevented unauthorized work. Overall, we are very happy with the finished landscape and are glad we hired Winsol for the job. Our rating would be an A-, if allowed, as there is room for improvement, but the company's quality work is unmatched. We have no hesitation recommending them for any concrete or landscape project.

We found Winsol (Dave and his crew) to be very professional and hard working. We negotiated with them on items to include and the price for the work. In the end we had $3,100 dollars for the planned work, but they discovered a broken sprinkler system pipe (that had been concreted over before we bought the house), and we paid an additional $500 to have about 10 sq ft of the concrete removed, the pipe repaired and the contrete replaced. This was a critical problem and we didn't mind paying the extra to get the problem fixed correctly. Overall we felt the price for all the work we had done was reasonable (but not cheap). Overall, their work was very high quality. Valentino (the crew supervisor) really knew what he was doing, and went the extra mile to check with us during the work on details. For example, in digging out one of the drains in the backyard, they actually discovered another drain that had been covered over and they also discovered the drain pipes had been cut, so the water wasn't really draining from the corner of the back yard. The replaced the problem drain piping, and didn't even charge us extra even though it wasn't part of the original estimate. In another instance Valentino suggested round the corners in the cut out in the turf for a large fountain, rather than using square corners that we had previously. We agreed that it looked much better with the rounded corners. Finally, one of our concerns was that we were putting in new grass which would need to survive the hot summer months. Dave said the grass came with a 3-month warranty, but when I raised the concern, he agreed to a 6-month warranty (taking us into the fall) on the turf. I believe this reflects Winsol's commitment to customer satisfaction!

I was very happy with the quote - very low and reasonable. A change in financial situation prevented me from moving forward with any work on my backyard. Would use them again when ready!!

It went incredibly smooth and stress-free from beginning to end. My only concern was what color to choose for the stamped concrete on our front walkway. Thankfully David was very patient with my waffling, and I am totally pleased with the result. Our finished front yard has far exceeded my expectations.

Will and associates were very professional and punctual. We did have a few trees that died possibly due to the hard winter. Will responded to my email and came out in a few days to assess the trees and suggest hardier replacements.

At our first meeting, owner Nick Winn and Landscape Architect, Leah, discussed possible options, within our budget, for our completely unfinished backyard. About one week later, Leah and Nick got back to us with an unofficial plan for the hardscape and landscape, based on our ideas and our previous discussion. Nick presented a detailed estimate, Leah came up with a beautiful plan for the softscape, and after our approval, the work began. Start to finish, the process took about three weeks. Nick was great to let me know what would be happening each day and who would be working in our yard. We were pleased with everyone who was part of the process and very happy with the final product.

The workers were efficient and hardworking and got the job done in 2 1/2 days. They installed an irrigation controller that works with moisture in the air so the system only comes on when necessary and adjusts seasonally. The system costs more than a regular Rain Bird but is so convenient and efficient I think it's worth the extra cost. The drainage for the front yard brings water to a low spot where too much water killed a small shrub. They immediately replaced it and revised the drip to reduce the water in that area. A second shrub, a small rose bush, also died for no apparent reason and they immediately replaced that as well. I am extremely happy with how the front yard looks and several neighbors have commented on the great improvements. Winsol provided excellent service in the overall design, implementation and follow-up. I would highly recommend them.

They were fine. They submitted the quote pretty quickly. The price was fine and in line with other quotes that I got. I think we are going with someone else and we are only going to have parts of the work done. The quote from another company was a little bit easier to understand and it was more detailed. I felt I could work with the other person better as far as rapport and understanding. It was easier to take what I wanted and didn't want from the other estimate. I would probably use them in the future.

My project was a small job in my backyard. Will Solensky, owner, responded quickly to my initial contact. he was on time for our walk-through of the project and provided planting suggestions based on the how I wanted the backyard to look. The amount of time it took Winsol to get back to me with an estimate was disappointing, I finally had to contact them and ask if I was going to receive an estimate. In their defense, Winsol was in the process of combining two companies to establish Winsol Groundworks so I'm sure I was lost for awhile in the mess created by the work involved to establish the new company. Once the subsequent contact was made work commenced on the date I requested and was completed in one day. The crew was at the front door at the agreed upon start time but the foreman and the owner were about a 1/2 late. The owner was on-site at the beginning of the project to provide direction to the crew, then the foreman took over. The crew was fast!! they had the old plants out and the new plants in the ground in record time. When done, the site was completely cleaned and the only trace that work had been done in my backyard was the new plantings.

Will and his crew were great and arrived on the agreed-upon time and date. Will took a lot of time with us to plan the project and pick out the plants. During the job, he made sure we agreed with the plant placement and made adjustments with our approval. The execution of the job was professional and thorough, and included some work we weren't charged for. I especially appreciated that the entire length of the drip lines and lighting wires were secured with wire staples.

This is what I got when I worked with Will Solinsky and his crew: integrity, a good plan well executed and a pleasant experience.As new first-time homeowner, I was frustrated with my untamed landscaping. Not only was I was concerned about budget, but as someone with little acumen or interest in gardening, I didn't want to add to the time or dollars required for maintenance.Will Solinsky was timely in setting up the consultation to get the project rolling. He was sensitive to my concerns. He identified problems (e.g. privacy screening and shading) and offered sensible solutions. He showed me lots of plant and tree choices that met my goals and answered all my questions about how the project would be done. I really appreciated seeing material samples ahead of the project start.He mapped out a good plan, provided an itemized budget and revised its scope as requested. He was generous with his time in planning, oversight and follow through. He didn't hit every appointment time on the mark. but he called ahead to let me know. It wasn't the only time he was one time, but the morning start day when I needed him to be, he was. I wanted to offer flexibility because I appreciated the time he devoted to my modest project. The crew was hard-working, pleasant and respectful. They left things tidy each day and cleaned up after the work. A special shout-out to Dale!The flexibility in the process gave me a lot of confidence. During the actual work, we swapped out a tree, changed the location of one and decided on ground cover. On a modest budget, I chose to focus on the backbone of my landscaping. As I said, Will was sensitive to my goals for the project and the budget, but happily, he pushed a little bit with his expertise to help me make better decisions. I regret that I didn't have the vision or a little more budget to follow his ideas a little further. But landscaping can grow, right?Overall, I count the experience and the results among my new joys of homeownership.

They impressed me by their willingness to take time to get the colors exactly as I wanted. They did a wonderful job and I would definitely call them again because they paid attention to what was important to me. The patio looks wonderful and we are enjoying it very much. I would definitely recommend them.