Best Landscape & Construction

We hired Best Landscape & Construction to remove four large disintegrating timber planters and replace them with a combination of timber planters and a loose-stone wall. They did an excellent job. Company owner Abel Rivas responded promptly both to our request for an estimate and to several additions to the estimate, both before and during the project. On the second day, for example, we realized we had overlooked a small patio in the back of the yard that needed a rehab. Late in the day, just when his crew could have been packing up and leaving, they launched into that project, rebuilding the timber frame and re-laying the flagstone (cutting and fitting excess flagstones we happened to have, resulting in a much sturdier and more attractive raised patio). We were very impressed by the promptness and responsiveness of both Abel and his workers during the entire process. We would not hesitate to hire Best Landscape & Construction again.

Excellent Services. They provided outstanding services, timely, very detailed. Very happy with services.

It was terrific. They did a great job. I paid $130 more to do something extra. They did what they were supposed to do and told to do, they did it well. The workers were terrific.

They really did a lot of work. There must be at least 30 bags of lawn thing. The thing about it is I needed some other work done. I called the guy outside of Angie's List. I was like, I need a quote for a thing, you guys came over. I started running through the things that I didn't want to see the next time. I said to myself, maybe I didn't like the service. I though it was okay. It was the first time I ever had a yard done. I have nothing to compare it to. I feel the price was pretty good. They were right on time. They came a little bit earlier. I think they came within the same week that I bought it. I called them and then I thought against it. I thought I'll try somebody else.

He did an excellent job building my stone patio. He was very patient and went with me to different stores to get stone design I wanted. His prices a very reasonable

Work was done on-time as expected and agreed to.

Scheduling was a little bit complicated, but once that was settled, Juan and Antonio arrived and went right to work. They worked non-stop from 9am to 5pm, aside from a negligible lunch break and did all the work that we had wanted done, and removed another bush that had been bothering us. They bundled all the brush and the county picked it up with no issue. I was very pleased with the work!

Best Landscape & Construction was excellent. The people that showed to work, were wonderful to work with. As he was leaving, I let him know that I would be getting back in tough with him for future projects.

We are a military family, and as such, we hire a lot of contractors (we move a lot, and there is always something to do in a new home). What we have learned is that the best work comes from the best people. Abel Rivas, who started and runs Best Landscape, has a small, loyal crew of workers who are exceptional. He treats them well, and they give their best. Working with Abel's crew made a huge project a pleasure. When I wanted to move some trees after they were already planted, the guys did it--and kept making any adjustments until I was 100 percent happy. They didn't grumble about the extra work, they clearly just wanted to do the job right and meet my expectations. The work took longer than expected which I did not mind because I made a lot of changes along the way, adding quite a bit of work, and I wanted everything to be perfect. One or two of his guys might seem to work slowly at first, but they will then stay until 8pm to get the job done right! The work ethic and desire for excellence is something I rarely see in contractors. Just let these guys work their way and you won't be disappointed with the results. I really appreciated Abel's approach. He is a nice guy, and the back and forth with him was easy. Good communication is so important for projects to be successful, and Abel was great about checking in and being flexible. I felt like I had a real collaborator, rather than some hired hands. He has a great eye, and wonderful ideas. His prices were fair and his estimates beat the others! I've uploaded before and after photos below so you can see the beautiful work they do.

He failed to show up to 2 appointments for an estimate.

They gave me an appointment but failed to show up. I was able to get in contact with them. He claimed he had forgotten to put it on the calendar. The second time, a week later, they didn't show up because an employee had failed to show up. They ended up coming the next day (a Sunday). When they finally arrived, they were excellent. The two workers understood exactly what they were supposed to do and did not slack off. I was very satisfied with the actual weeding. So, the work was great but the management was not good!

The 2 men did nice work. Looked like they knew what they were doing. They didn't dig up some "good" plants that I wanted to keep. Used sharpened tools for edging and pruning. Cleaned up after they were done. Did a good job spreading mulch, not too thick.

The initial meeting with Abel and the estimate was great. He was very detailed in his quote and read each item back to me as he went over his estimate. The work was another story. The first day just 1 guy showed up. He seemed hardworking enough but had no real idea what he was supposed to be doing. I explained and he seemed to understand but things didn't go as planned. I reached out to Able so said he'd come the next day to clarify. However, the next day a 2nd guy came in Abel's place. Like before, he seemed clear on what needed to be done... but not so much. Examples: The raised bed that was to be rebuilt was 1 timber row lower than the original. It looked like the first rain would wash everything out. I had to ask for the 3rd timber to be installed, but so much dirt was removed and not enough mulch added that it now looks sunken. The hedge trimming was less than stellar and incomplete. Even after multiple attempts, there are still dead/cut branches in the hedge and tall sections that were missed completely. The mulching around trees was done "volcano" style which is a no-no. It should have been done like a mote without mulch being piled up against the tree trunk. They guys were also unprepared without a string trimmer and no straw to put over the seed. They wanted me to provide it but I refused and said it was specifically included in Abel's quote. The worst part of this whole experience is the waste dumping. My home backs up to woods and while I've done some strategic placement of natural brush over the years, I've made a very conscious effort not to trash up the natural landscape. The guys clearly knew I'd said some things could be put in the woods but they never asked for clarification (and regrettably I never though to approach it further). I found the majority of the old raised bed and flower bed wood thrown haphazardly over a retaining wall. It looked like a dump site and in full view of my deck. I reached out to Abel and asked that the guys not come back and that he comes to see where we are and what needs to be done. We walked though everything and he directed his guys on what to fix/ finish. The raised bed got an additional row of timbers although is still low on mulch, the hedges were trimmed further... sort of and an attempt was made a clean up. I'm not sure what exactly was cleaned up but I'll know for sure when the leaves come off the trees. What I can see leaves me much less than satisfied. By the end of the 3rd day I'd had enough and the guys clearly thought they'd done enough. I wrote the check just to be finished with the whole mess and it was cashed immediately. I hired Best Landscaping because of the reviews on Angie's List. It's unfortunate that I'm not one of those folks who is able to give an A rating but it's not right for me to say great things when it was not a good experience.

I was moving out of a rental home and needed to take of the backyard, which was constantly overgrown with weeds in a way that made it too daunting to try to tackle myself at all, so I had let it go and it was ridiculous. I couldn't find anyone to do the work on short notice until I finally found Best Landscaping from a list of deals on Angie's List. Ricardo came out to look at my yard on a Friday and said he would be able to take care of everything and remove the yard waste as well for $600. We ultimately added some hedge trimming in the front yard for an additional $25 and he also installed a replacement screen window in the side porch (I already had the materials, tool and spline for it) for another $25, bringing the total to $650. The $600 for the yard really was a fair price. You would have had to see the weeds and overgrowth to believe it. :) Ricardo and his colleague got there before 8am, and I didn't stop by until about 9:00, when they were already very well into the yard work and it looked incredible. In the end, they removed ALL weeds, even the stuff that was literally eight feet tall and as thick as a small tree! There was a huge amount of yard waste to take care of, and Ricardo and his colleague took away all of it, which was very helpful on top of the initial work itself. I was particularly impressed that, with sooooo much overgrowth, Ricardo recognized the few plants that were actually nice and not weeds, and he checked with me about keeping those rather than just hacking them, too. The screen installation was perfect as well. It was so much better than I would have done it. I highly recommend this company for yard work and handyman work. In fact, I have now hired them to do my lawn at my new home, just five blocks from the old place, on a regular basis. :)

They did a really nice job working a variety of tasks. Unlike some other contractors I've worked with it seemed like they did not rush and the final masonry and framing work did not have mistakes. There price was much better than the other estimate I received and they still did a great job.

would work with again I would just recommend a thorough walk through afterwards

Absolutely fantastic. They have done work for 3 other families we recommended them to wroth the same results.

Abel Rivas and his crew were punctual and completed the work in lesser time than I expected. It seemed to be a full day job, but they finished early. I also asked the crew if I could get my mailbox installed, which I had purchased at Home Depot. They asked me to check with Abel, I sent him pictures of the mailbox, along with the post. They erected the post and mailbox for me for $50. That day, I didn't check the weather but it was a thunderstorm warning for that late afternoon, and the concrete step they made was still wet, they covered it up with a plastic sheet. The next morning when they came to take out the scaffolding, the plastic had left ugly marks on the wet concrete, as it dried overnight. I noticed that later on, but as soon as I called him again, Abel acknowledged the issue and asked me to wait a couple of days to see if the marks would go away. Then he came over, in a couple of days and fixed the problem. I was really happy with the overall results, and the service quality. They offer quality services, we will hire them again this year for some more yard work!

Job went very well. From contact to scheduling to actually having everything taken care of, I couldn't have been happier. Sometimes life gets in the way of taking care needed yard work. So glad to have found Best Landscapes & Construction to help me get everything back in order. I look forward to hiring them again.

Thorough job with excellent results.

It took two days and went well. I did not like that they parked their work truck on my grass.

Abel Rivas is just a great person to deal with. We had a couple of miscommunications along the way, but Able would not allow us to end this job unhappy. We met with Abel up front to discuss the job. He gave us a fair price and was able to work within our schedule. Removing the wall and path went seamlessly. His crew showed up on time and did exactly what they were supposed to do. I've worked with contractors in the past who do the job but can be a "handful," for lack of a better term. This is NOT how Abel's guys operate. They come in talk with you, work hard, clean up, and leave. One of the guys didn't quite understand something I told him, so he got Abel on the phone to translate. It was very easy to work with the team. The guys were respectful and responsive. After the work in our front yard was done, and it came time to put the wall back, we did not really have a second discussion on what the wall was going to look like. Again, Abel's crew showed up on time and worked incredibly hard. However, at the end of the first day, although the guys built a very high-quality wall, we were disappointed in its look (the way the stones were laid was not what we had expected). We let Abel know, and given past experiences with other contractors were thinking we were going to have a problem. Abel's text to me that night was that he would figure out a way to make it right. Abel came out the next morning, we both acknowledged that we could have communicated better with one another. Abel then offered us several options including leaving the wall the we did not like (which technically fulfilled his contract) at a greatly reduced price, working with the wall to make it more what we wanted, or tearing it down and starting over and building what we expected and making us happy for the original agreed-upon price. We chose the final option, and the guys finished yesterday. The wall and path are exactly what we wanted. Abel came by to check on things again, this morning, to make sure we were satisfied. We have hired contractors on various properties over the years, and sometimes things don't go well the first time. I cannot recall working with a contractor who cared so much that his clients were happy. I wish every person I had to deal with had Abel's level of integrity and customer focus. He is a great guy, and I would recommend you hire his company for whatever landscaping/hardscape you need. Best Landscaping does great work, and Abel Rivas stands behind it.

We hired Best Landscape & Construction to build two wooden planters and install a medium-size crepe myrtle and five nandina in the back yard of my daughter and son-in-law?s DC row house. They also tore out a weedy patch of grass in the front yard, replacing it with mulch, and dug a new bed for seven azaleas. We provided the plants and Best Landscaping provided the lumber, leafgro, mulch, and labor. Abel Rivas?s landscapers are efficient and skillful. They arrived promptly on the scheduled day, and had finished the project, cleaned up, and departed by mid-afternoon. We are very pleased with their work. We were also impressed by Abel?s responsiveness during the entire process. He quoted a price immediately, despite the fact that it was pouring rain that day and we couldn?t spend much time outdoors examining the site. Perhaps because of the rain, I did not communicate well enough what we wanted done, necessitating an email exchange that went on for the next two weeks. Abel responded quickly to all my messages and accommodated changes to the plan in a way that was very fair and considerate. We would not hesitate to hire Best Landscaping again.

The workers showed up quite early, but waited for the company owner to show up. We walked around the property to prioritize the work. He then passed the instructions to the workers and left for another job. The workers worked really hard, even in the light drizzle we had for most of the day. They did an amazing amount of work in the 8 hours they were here and filled about 26 leaf bags with the weeds, vines, and tree branches. The only issue was that the workers did not speak a lot of English. Nothing came up that was a problem, but it could have made things interesting if I'd had to explain something.

In the deal it says that Debris will be bagged or bundled and left at customer's house for regular local pick-up. They charged an additional $125 to haul it away because they said it would be very difficult to bag and and bundle the debris. They sent 2 workers who didn't speak English, so communicating my needs was very difficult. I would have to call the owner, tell him what I want and have him translate and vice versa. They did not manage their time very well. They were very slow and they took a long lunch break even though I provided them lunch. They took a long time breaking down debris in the back of their truck. One guy took a long time to fix a chainsaw that was not working. One of the designs of the flowerbeds does not look good. They didn't do it how I asked them. They took too much in certain areas and not enough in others.