The Garden Design Studio

DiPietro comes in and promises a beautiful job in a short time. I believe he knows from the beginning that he cannot deliver. He lied at the drop of a hat. I know the contractor is guilty too, but DiPietro is the con man that woos and sweet talks the client. DiPietro intially contracted the unlicensed contractor, he then contracted two "workers" after I locked the contractor off my property, and then he presented a list of "issues and solutions" to correct the problems, using himself as the general contractor. In the end, when things started to go sideways fast, he got "sick" and his phone "did not work." He is listed as the "defendant" on several court cases in Santa Clara County. You can check it on-line. Also, look at YELP. There are some seriously negative reviews. There are a few good ones too (they are filtered for some reason). I did not do any background on him because of the reference I got from his son-in-law (who is in law enforcement). DiPietro also is a religious man and talked about an extensive military background. I was too trusting. Do Not hire this man!

My experience is eerily similar to the other review of the Garden Design Studio. I am out $1500. Poor communication skills, no follow up unless I called him everyday. I never knew if his worker would show up. John promises and promises and nothing happens. I did get the step almost finished and the bench almost finished and I have cow manure mix in piles in my back yard and a cut off sprinkler pipe. Now I have to start all over. This time I will only hire qualified, licensed landscapers. I wish I had joined Angie's List before I started this project. After looking into this further I realized that John is not licensed at anything. He is not a contractor or a designer. It is mandatory that a license number is printed on a business card. John's business card states that he is a proprietor. He owns a company that is not licensed to do anything. I just gave up and fired John Di Pietro this week. It was easier to lose $1500 than to deal with him. I think he counts on this. It would not recommend him.

The subcontractor hired by Mr. DiPietro, the owner of the business, did not build the stairs correctly and Mr. DiPietro failed to supervise him. The stairs had to be torn out three times at Mr. DiPietro's instruction when he finally did come out to our home to see what was going on when we complained of problems. This meant that the subcontractor began working for free in order to repair his work, he had to take other jobs to make ends meet, he failed to show up, he did shoddy work, and he took some of our personal materials (tarp, shovel). We found a beer bottle in the yard which we assume was left by the subcontractors brother who he brought to our house without the permission of the contractor, Mr. DiPietro. When we finally fired both of them we had to pay another contractor $2400 to complete the stairs, lighting, watering system, and planting. We also had to repair the brick patio ourselves because Mr. DiPietro's subcontractor failed to properly cover a water pipe under the deck and it leaked and blew out part of the brickwork. Mr. DiPietro has an artistic eye and can do good garden design. But if you use him find your own subcontractors.