G&L Design Building & Landscape Inc

I did not like them. They did a very poor job. I did not watch them because they came from Angie’s list. I should have followed them around because they did a very poor job. I would not recommend them. In fact, I had to call my own landscape person to do the job after them. I had to pay extra because they had identified a bunch of stuff that needed to be done. I paid them because I relied absolutely on them, and it was not working properly. I would not have minded it if it worked, but it did not. I had to call on my own person to come and do it. I was not really happy with them. I felt like I was scammed.

We got an excellent product for the price. We didn't end up hiring the firm to do the landscaping, but were impressed with the qualifications, professionalism and product of our landscape design.

My husband and I hired G & L Design to create a Tuscany inspired backyard which is comprised of pavers stone patio, custom outdoor fireplace, and soft landscaping. They beat out several other landscaping companies because their willingness to work with our design vision and preset budget, as well as their stellar reviews on Angie's List. Rick Shadley, the landscape architect/designer, worked all of our aesthetic inputs and personal styles into his ultimate amazing artistic yard design. He truly captured our wish of reliving the Tuscany trips we took by giving us a Tuscan inspired garden that looked like a page torn out of a landscaping magazine. He was one of the most humble, gracious, and talented designers we have had the pleasure of collaborating with. The only drawback my husband and I saw was the company's decision not to involve him during all the construction phases of the project. I am sure that he would be more than happy to help if he was called upon -- we just hoped his involvement was already part of the built-in processes. Dee the project manager showed up not once but sometimes numerous times a day to monitor and guide the progress of our project. He was very knowledgeable and easy to work with. He decided to deliver us a custom built fireplace (much sturdier than a pre-fabricated version) after discovering the windy nature of where we live. Based on our experience and observations, the company also hires reliable and hardworking workers. Since the completion of our yard, we have received many compliments from family and friends alike. As with all projects, there were challenges. The company would have received all five stars if it were not for the minor time delays (partially it was caused by holidays and weather challenges). My husband and I will undoubtedly host many parties and spend a lot of free time enjoying the garden and be virtually transported back to our favorite Tuscany spots. I would definitely recommend G & L to our family and friends in the future!

It went very well. I had a tight deadline the job needed to be completed by and they were finished well ahead of that date. I liked working with their designer, Liz. There were some things that we had talked about in the design process that didn't exactly make it to the final product, but I attribute that to my not following up on some things as well as I could have. I enjoyed working with Dee. He provided some good solutions to some tricky problems. And Sharon is very responsive to emails and questions. The team they sent worked fast and clean and were respectful of me and the property. Overall a great experience and of course we love our new backyard.

I called to schedule the appointment and they were able to come by within a week or so. They were very professional and arrived on time. They drew us designs and provided them in the projected amount of time. The design was great! It was fully detailed and to scale for our home. However, we decided to not move forward with the project and it was not because of the company.

They seemed all right. However, I did not move forward with the project.

We went from an unsightly, unusable awkwardly sloped backyard, to a resort-like place to relax and entertain. Overall my husband and I are very pleased with the end result, but the project took a lot longer than originally estimated. Rick came to the house to discuss the project. I gave him a professional landscape design created by a different company (purchased through an Angie's List Big Deal). Based on these plans Rick created his own drawing and provided a bid and time frame. Couldn't find a company that would handle everything who could work within our budget. Chose G&L based on price, reviews and handles almost everything except electrical or plumbing. Work began quickly once the contract was signed. The owner, Dee, showed up each morning with a supervisor and one or two workers. A portable toilet on a small trailer is left at the work site plus any materials delivered for the project (at the curb). They did a great job installing the paver patio and walkways (compacting a sand and gravel base) with retaining wall and drainage lines to direct downspout water away from house. Also installed a small area of artificial turf and a walkway with large blue stone slabs set in gravel. They installed drip irrigation and planted 4 baby queen palms, and later on I separately handled the rest of the softscaping to stay within our budget. The project was a little behind schedule, then got further delayed because I had to separately hire and coordinate this job with getting a fence installed. We wanted some landscape lighting too, but G&L doesn't do any electrical work. (Now I regret not taking the time to get some landscape lighting installed.) Communication is mostly via email with Sharon in the office who coordinates with Dee. Things go smoother if you make time to talk to Dee (or the supervisor) as often as possible to get it done to your liking. There were a few minor hiccups, but went pretty well overall. Dee has good ideas, but has a tendency to make decisions to do/buy something without consulting anyone. But if we didn't like something, he changed/replaced it to our liking at no additional cost. They stayed within the contracted price and wrote change orders for additional items (the 4 palms and polymeric sand--grout for pavers-which I recommend so no weeds grow). However, the estimated 2 week timeline turned into 2 months....Job started in September and was finished by end of October/early November. They worked every week day for first 2 weeks, then sporadically until completed. It took some prodding to get them back to fix a leak in the irrigation system, but they did. Dee stands behind his work and we're happily enjoying our beautiful backyard.

I wanted more of a thorough service to assess whether I need more sprinkler heads , which parts were getting too much / too little water and he had an underling 'test' each sprinkler while he tried to sell me on their company and other services.

This was not an easy job given the challenges of the slope of the yard. The design was outstanding and overall work was also great. The fountain in particular which consists of 8 metal trays filled with rocks is the centerpiece of the backyard and is nothing short of spectacular. We have gotten many compliments and I am quite pleased with the outcome. I will be including more photos shortly. The only small issue was the job took longer than anticipated however it was well worth the wait. Quality and price were both excellent.

I was not satisfied with the service provided by this vendor. The representative's input was minimal, mostly providing a rubber-stamping my own existing plans. He provided fairly accurate measurements for the front yard and less accurate measurements for the back yard, a color plan, and recommendations on plant placement and how many of each type to purchase. He said he would return to provide recommendations for back yard plantings, but has not. Overall, I felt that the service provided did not merit the very high cost.

Overall, very positive experience. Rick drew up some great plans, and we ended up going with G &L to execute the plans after receiving a few bids (not the lowest bid, but Dee and Rick inspired confidence and we liked knowing that Rick would be involved in the entire project, since we liked his plans and his POV so much). It was a huge project, and many things could have gone wrong, but didn't! 1) Rick is a complete pleasure to work with. He has great taste, is great about sharing his recommendations but is totally amenable to your choices if they differ. 2) Dee is just a great guy, totally professional and trustworthy. Sharon was very responsive. 3) The crew was extremely hard working, arriving early and staying late, and left a fairly clean work place. We are very happy with the results. The only real hiccup was with the security system person who Dee contracts with to install cameras and key pads, etc for security gate. Somewhat frustrating experience, but very minor compared to the rest of the fairly huge project which turned out great. And the follow up from Dee and Sharon has been great as small things are needed to be tweaked, post-project. Will definitely be reaching out for future projects.

They gave me an outrageous quote for $400.00 to fix a sprinkler head or two. I did not go with them and will not use them in the future.

While I had to call twice to get a response, someone did call me back after the 2nd call. However, I was told I was too small of a job for them as they have a $10,000 min. While this is fair for them to say, I wish they would have been some notice on their profile that says there minimum job amount was $10,000 or when I called them the 1st time so I did not waste my time tring to reach them.

Provider did not respond to my initial and subsequent calls for landscape estimate. I was told my calls would be returned however never received any call back. I attempted three times in three weeks and no response. At last call, I advised the Call Center of my concern and the "no response" from G&L Design and was informed the messages are being delivered and if the call is not returned it is because they are very busy and there is nothing more than can be done. This is unfortunate as this directly reflects on this business and the degree of professionalism represented.

We had purchased a big deal and the service was great. The design was beautiful and we ended up using a lot of what they did when we landscaped the backyard. They gave us a drawing of the recommendation. We couldn't use them because of the price.

After they left, we discovered that one section was not working. Getting them back to correct the problem was difficult. After they left the second time, we found our that an old irrigation line under our patio was leaking profusely. That station should have been turned off permanently because it was wasting water and costing us money. All in all, an unhappy experience.

He came and spent a few minutes to look at the sprinklers. He said everything looked good. He spent 5 minutes to earn the $59 and left.

I don't really remember. I'm just sick of the survey prompt.

I thoroughly enjoyed working with Rick Shadley and Dee. They were fantastic at executing all the elements that were involved in this major project. Rick took all my thoughts and and created an incredible plan that served as an excellent guide as we embarked on the re - working of my front and back yards. Dee was effective in every aspect of the implementation of the plan. He was awesome when I called and wanted to alter things, he provided great options and was helpful every step of the way. The scope of work. Front yard removed all grass added proper dirt and mulch to nurture ground cover and local plants. Re designed sprinkler system and put up a hedge along the front of my wrought iron gate. Also built a concrete walkway from the driveway to the front walkway and widened the drive way with concrete. Front median - removed all grass, lay proper dirt and mulch to nurture ground cover and water friendly plants :) Backyard - removed all grass and several overgrown palm trees, reconfigured backyard with concrete and concrete cut out planters. added beautiful plants and cactus also water friendly. rebuilt two large garden planters and lay a stone walkway in between. Ran power and gas to my new BBQ island and planted 4 trees. My only concern was the sometimes last min communication from the office of when the crew was arriving etc. I would ABSOLUTELY work with this company again. UPDATE May 2013 - I had a sprinkler malfunction I THOUGHT. I emailed G and L and Dee came out discovered it was something completely different and Dee helped me with that. I really appreciate G and L for all of their hard work and continued dedication to making sure their products are quality and continue to grow and develop as promised.

I was not very happy with them because I felt that they were mostly an up sell. They charged me $1,500 to put new sprinkler heads in. I had to go around and show them what was wrong instead of them turning things on and figuring out what was wrong. They were not terrible, but I would not recommend them to anybody. I felt like I got the hard sell. They did their work and tuned up the sprinkler heads but I was not terribly pleased with the quality of the work. I am up in Castaic and they were from far South, so it was hard for them to finally get something at work. I am guessing they had to drive an hour to get to my house with the traffic and everything. When they finally came home they were there in on time. No matter what anyone is trying to do, I don’t like the hard sell.

It was pretty good. They did what they said they would but they told us that they would replace a plant that did not grow and they never did. Other than that, they did a little bit more than what we expected. They said that they would fix our sprinkling system as well and they did do that. They were pretty prompt when they came. I do not have any bad feelings about it.

We used G&L Landscape Design to completely design and install our front and side yard landscaping, which was nothing but plain dirt before we started. The Landscape Design artist, Rick, was extremely personable and inspired. He listened to our ideas, took notes, discussed possibilities, and then came back in a week with a beautiful design that we loved instantly. He was very conscious of our budget and one thing he did well was make choices that could help us reduce costs with sacrificing the overall beauty and qualify of the design. Next step was to put the design in place. Dee and his team worked quickly and efficiently, and the quality of the plants was excellent. They have a 3-month guarantee on all plants and sod, which is very comforting. They installed irrigation, a beautiful green front lawn, neat pavers, clever trellises, well-chosen lighting, beautiful hedges and presto, we had an incredibly beautiful front yard in the making. Of course, the plants need time to grow in order for the full design to really shine, but it is already obvious that everything looks great and we're getting compliments from all of our neighbors - even strangers! The thing that really pleased us most was that we tend to be perfectionists, and when my husband would bring something to Dee's attention that perhaps had been accidentally overlooked, or we had a question about something, Dee worked until we were 100% satisfied. He is a really nice guy and obviously very experienced. I wouldn't hesitate to use these guys again. I think that they offer a very good value because it isn't easy to find this level of professional quality for the price we paid. We're beyond thrilled with our results and so glad that we were able to find someone who could really provide the kind of yard that we hoped to obtain.

I think a week is enough time to allow someone to get back to you...right? After contacting G&L and getting an initial response from Sharon, my request for a significant job (quote) went unanswered. Maybe they couldn't do the work I was requesting or maybe they have too much business, but relaying that information to me would have been appreciated. I waited several days for the conversation to continue, but nothing!!!! Unprofessional is my review.

The company came with 3 guys and "tuned up" my sprinklers. They moved a couple of them and tweaked them. I didn't notice any difference after they tuned them up. In retrospect, it seems like a waste of $59.

Dee, Sharon and their designer, Allie, were really v. good. I thought the design and execution were just right and what we wanted. We have gotten compliments from many neighbors, gotten 2 unsolicited inquiries into using our house as a TV show "front", had a relative who had seen the house before the work then drive past after the work and missed it entirely, recommended them to four friends with new builds (one hired them, two are waiting on finishing their houses, and the fourth is decision-challenged). We have a no-standard look that sets the bar in the neighborhood. Five months later we are still happy, the plants are growing in, the minor things are being addressed, and we would hire them again (we have an issue with the vintage driveway). Dee's guys are really quite good and are a hard-working lot, they did some extra things that I saved me some effort. Dee was always good with other landscaping advice too. Only negative caveat is that it is tough to talk with Dee or Sharon on the phone directly, texts work fine. I hate answering services. Allie was great and responsive with any form of communication.