Hoffman Landscapes

Description of Work: Before I give my review of Hoffman Landscaping, I want to share my credentials. I have been heavily involved in varied building trades for many years and I have gained a keen eye for quality craftsmanship usually found with contractors who take pride in their work. Many contractors take advantage of their customers in many ways such as; • Inferior workmanship • Not following contract/agreement specifications • Over charging • Using inferior materials • Taking shortcuts usually resulting in poor workmanship • Substituting materials without clients knowledge/approval • Rushing workers to get the job done quicker All too often, I have pointed out mistakes to various contractors; a common response is "The customer will never know". In this review, I will share our unfortunate experience with Hoffman Landscaping so others will not fall prey should they be considering Hoffman for masonry and/or property work. We hired Hoffman Landscaping in July 2014 to handle our grounds maintenance and to expand our existing patio. We chose Hoffman Landscaping because they had a reputation of delivering high quality work for which we were willing to pay the associated higher price. We were looking for a reputable company so that I could take a hands off approach since I had several other projects that needed my attention. In our particular situation we dealt with Matt Biron (Hoffman Landscape Sales and Architect), Kevin Begnal (Hoffman Outdoor Construction Director), Jay Trottier (Hoffman Property Maintenance) and Mike Hoffman (Hoffman President). At our initial meeting I provided Matt with detailed patio plans as well as discussed all aspects of the job in great detail. There were challenges from the start, often because I did not agree, with Matt’s approach to certain aspects of the job, as noted below in my letter to Mike Hoffman (dated 03/04/16). On the first day of work I marked on the patio surface where pipes were located underground and sure enough as they were digging they hit and broke two of the pipes. At this point I realized that I would have to oversee the job. Below are excerpts from my letter to Mike Hoffman about the difficulties I experienced throughout the job. • I discussed and showed Matt, Kevin and workers where pipes where buried below the patio surface so they would not be hit during patio excavation (drainage, caissons and firepit/planter footings). Immediately after the digging started two of the well pipes were hit and broken. • Matt agreed, both verbally and in an email, that all patio Belgium blocks would be hand picked (consistent size/color and having straight sharp edges as was done for the front walkway and driveway border when the house was built). When the blocks were delivered it was obvious that the blocks had not been hand picked. One of the workers confirmed my suspicions. The head mason called the office to explain the situation and was instructed to take me with him to the stone yard and hand pick the blocks needed for the job. • Purchase Agreement stated three surface catch basins were to be installed and would drain into the existing 6” gutter leader drainage pipe. I challenged Matt about the necessity of any catch basins and Hoffman ultimately installed only one for which I changed the discharge location to a more suitable location. I made Matt aware of his design flaw since the leader drainpipe is higher than catch basin drain outlet height. The new mason (hired post Hoffman) determined that catch basins were not needed and removed the one installed without any adverse consequences. • Matt had the masons lower the height of the Belgium block for the patio border from its original height without my knowledge; he could not provide a reason when I asked why this was done. Matt insisted that the lowered perimeter would not affect the existing Belgium block reveal as noted in the Purchase Agreement. As a result of his decision, the reveal was lost between the patio border and lawn area. Additionally the lowered Belgium block border and patio height reduced the patio pitch substantially and has forced us to build two new staircases at a significant cost. • Fieldstone veneer for firepit and planter were to match existing rear yard stonewall as discussed with Matt at time of initial quote. Hoffman delivered the wrong color stones resulting in an upcharge totaling approximately $3,400 to correct the color due to Hoffman’s mistake. (Hoffman worker told me the stones were leftover materials from another job). In addition, the 2” Bluestone caps for the firepit and planter were never installed even though we were charged for them and paid an additional amount to substitute granite (never received) for the bluestone. • Sides of firepit and planter walls were to have deeply recessed, cemented joints. Mason’s assistant completed the planter sidewall without recessed cemented joints. Per Matt “nobody will notice it”. • Matt was constantly rushing the masons and in one situation he told them to install the firebrick on inside firepit wall one on top of another, not staggered, as it should be. I disagreed and it was ultimately done correctly. • Firepit and planter footings were be 6-inches wider on all sides to allow the proposed patio concrete slab to rest on as the Purchase Agreement stipulates. Not done; Per Matt “Forgot to do it, not really necessary”. • Install pvc sleeves (2) in planter for irrigation and drainage. Hoffman did not have materials on hand at time of installation; therefore I supplied and installed the pvc sleeves. • Matt said installing Belgium block stone around planter and firepit bases was never discussed; I have an email reminding him about our discussion • Matt said that Kevin discussed with me the cost for digging the yard test pits. Kevin never had any discussions with me about costs (as a matter of fact Kevin always instructed me to talk to Matt about anything relating to costs). I constantly reminded Kevin, Matt and the machine operator about digging the test pits when the excavator was on property so that I would not incur an additional delivery fee. Instead, the excavator had to come back to dig the test pits, incurring unnecessary costs. • Finally – It was very evident as to why Matt did not want me to be outside with the workers. He did not want me to pickup on any mistakes, wrong materials being used or to see that he was instructing the mason to take shortcuts and rushing the workers to work faster, causing me to lose confidence in Matt’s ability to deliver the high quality we were expecting and paying for. • On the positive side, I thought the head mason was excellent, having both the ability and desire to do quality work if/when given the chance. Background information • We experienced several delays in acquiring the correct slate for the patio surface because the stone yard we contracted with for the patio slate made a series of errors resulting in several long delays (no fault of Hoffman’s; we were providing the slate because of the slate type and custom cutting). This held up a major portion of the patio completion. Kevin explored alternative stone providers, but was unsuccessful in this effort. I found Connecticut Stone in short order, but at this point (August 2015), Hoffman could not get back to our job for at least two months, when it would have been too late in the season to complete the entire project. We ultimately terminated (mutually agreed) Hoffman’s services in an email to Kevin Begnal on September 1, 2015, since they could not get back to our job in what we considered to be a timely fashion and because of my increasing frustration with Matt’s management of the project. We suggested and Kevin agreed that Hoffman would provide us with a true up (we expected a refund for any uncompleted work/materials for which we had already paid).After numerous promptings to Kevin (each time with a different response -- 1st time Mike Hoffman was handling the true up, 2nd time Matt/Office was handling the true up, 3rd time he would follow up with the front office to find the cause of the delay) -- and finally a letter from Mike Hoffman arrived dated February 19, 2016 looking for a final payment from us without any backup material supporting the amount Mike was considering due. • While waiting for Hoffman's true up, I put together my own true up (calculated from the agreed upon Purchase Agreement and subsequent Work Scope Revision). By the time Hoffman was released from our job in September 2015, we had paid $59,938.10. After careful calculations based very specifically on our Agreement with Hoffman, outlining each stage of the project and what work was actually completed, I determined that we are due $23,260.32*. Please refer to the attached detailed explanation as to how I arrived at this figure. Please note that I have not requested any accommodation for my time and materials to keep the work moving along, nor for the up charges we paid for the stone veneer to be “upgraded” to match our existing stone wall, even though the Agreement stated as much. In addition, Hoffman also owes us $455.18 for yard services not completed, an amount agreed upon in an emails from Jay Trottier and Brendan Micik.

Description of Work: They mowed our lawn, planted plants, shrubs, grass, flowers and did some maintenance to our yard.

Description of Work: Not saying.

Description of Work: They did general landscaping and maintenance for us.

Description of Work: Pave driveway Install lighting Install drainage

Description of Work: Hoffman was our contracted landscape maintenance provider for over a year. They were charged with annual upkeep of our 1/2 acre property.

Description of Work: I currently use Hoffman Landscapes. They mow the lawn, they do spring and fall clean up, they attend to some of the gardens, and they trim along the driveway so it's a nice straight line. They also do design and other work.

Description of Work: I had Hoffman Landscapes to do quite bit of work from August to last month. The last time they were here was three weeks ago. I spent a total of $10000. They did a complete yard renovation for me.

Description of Work: They did some leaf removal.

Description of Work: They mow, trim shrubs, and general maintaince in my yard.

Description of Work: Stopped by after Hurricane irene to see if we needed anything. We did not have to ask, they proactively checked on existing customers.