O'BRIEN & CO LANDSCAPE

We were preparing to be married in our home in Skokie last fall when a storm knocked two huge trees onto our house, taking out a good part of the roof and wiping out all the landscaping in the front of the house. In a panic at the thought of our wedding looking like it was taking place in a war zone instead of our picturesque Tudor cottage, I called O'Brien. I had seen some good reviews of their work, and they're located not too far from our house. I got an answering machine, on which I left a detailed message about the work we needed done, the special circumstances of our wedding being held at the house in just a few weeks time, and the rush/panic nature of the job. No response. I called again, left another message. No response. I emailed. No response. I called AGAIN. Guess what? No response. So I'd love to be able to tell you that O'Brien came through for us in a crisis and did an amazing job, and that we're planning to use them for all our landscaping needs in the future. But, unfortunately, these folks couldn't even be bothered to return a phone call and let us know they were too busy to help us out of a jam.

We had them come out to give us a design and construction quote to redo our backyard. The design was beautiful and it was very thorough, and we felt that they were very knowledgeable and experienced with hardscapes, materials, plants, etc. The design incorporated everything we talked about with them so felt like they were very good at listening to what we needed during the initial consult. We ultimately have decided to not use them at the moment because we were frustrated by their lack of timely responsiveness in the planning phase. We were told a number of times that it was a busy time of year for them. Phone calls and email were returned days later, if they were returned at all. They were also late for appointments, and cancelled an appointment at the very last minute. It made us nervous about being able to get a hold of them in a timely manner if we had them start the work and there was a problem, or if we could get the work completed in the time needed. We got some competing quotes for portions of the work and felt that the price they were quoting was fair.

The job was done on time and in budget. A followup repair was performed due to settling from new construction free of charge. I've had many compliments from neighbors and passerby's.

They were really easy to work with. They listened and really tried to provide what I was looking for. They didn't just come in with their own opinions but incorporated what we wanted .

Didn't use them.

I was interested in using these company as they were recommended to me. I left two messages to complete a renovation of a small yard (plantings, new grass etc)...expecting the project to be in the 5-7,000 range. They never returned my calls, which was frustrating!

We have had some seepage problems in our house since we moved in about a year and a half ago. When I first met Jim, I found him to be extremely personal and professional. He was the only contractor that suggested to seal the foundation and his recommendation to put crushed red brick gravel on top of the washed gravel was a great aesthetic touch. It did take Jim awhile to get back to me a few times, but when his men came to do the work, they worked hard and fast completing the job in a day (the estimate was for a day and a half). I did ask Jim to come back and make the swale a bit deeper to ensure that water would run away from the house and not toward the foundation. They came back and did so at no extra charge. The great news is that we have no seepage in the front of our house and the side seepage has been significantly reduced. I asked Jim to take a look to see if we needed to re-dig the swale again, but he recommended that the water may actually be coming from the roof based on the location and type of leak (made sense to me - I got our roofing contractor to fix that problem).

The work done was done on time, executed as planned, plants and sod provided were great, and installation was superb - from the stone work, concrete work, and plantings.

The work done was done on time, executed as planned, plants and sod provided were great, and installation was superb - from the stone work, concrete work, and plantings.