Earth Wizards Inc

Shelly came out to do an estimate. After a while she just stated a price and asked me if she was in the ball park of the other bids. We mentioned she was in the middle. She asked if she had any chance at the job. We stated yes and would like a bid. She told us she would write a bid and send it via email. We never received one. The time spent with Shelly was a waste of time given she didn't hand us an estimate. Some estimates may be higher than others, but price doesn't guarantee the job. Earth Wizards could have sealed the deal with good customer service etc. People pick based on price and how they feel about a contractor. What a waste of time!

My new driveway looks fantastic. I had the work done last spring (2017) and am very pleased with my driveway. The only downside was when they replaced my driveway they cut into my grass and left about 6 inches of exposed dirt causing my yard to begin eroding. This was unexpected and it cost me a bunch of extra money getting my yard regraded and re-sodded.

Shelly came out in June to provide a bid. The amount was higher than the other two bids I got, but what really impressed me was the detail that she provided about what exactly would be done and why it needed to be done just that way. The crew, headed by Jeff, did a great job on my driveway. The men were friendly and informative, as well as professional and hard-working. They did the prep work on a Thursday and by the time they finished my drive already looked so much better I was thrilled. They uncovered some "interesting" details about the old driveway and fixed everything that had been done weirdly or for reasons it was difficult to fathom. ;-) I had friends over Sunday evening and everyone was impressed with how good it looked. The edges were clean and the surface area was even increased slightly, the grading was set up better than the old driveway had, and they even hauled away a pile of yard brush that I'd stacked at the edge of the drive. Talk about "above and beyond"! They returned on Monday and, again, very focused on the job, while also friendly and informative. The work progressed quickly, but I observed their consistent attention to detail, which I appreciated. The finished job improves my driveway 150%. I know the picture I took looks photoshopped, since there's not a flaw to be seen, but there was no "trick photography" involved! (see below) Gary called the day before each job to make sure the timing worked for me, and the crew was right on time both days. I feel confident that this is a company I can trust if there are any problems, but I do not anticipate that there will be. I simply could not be more satisfied!

In our case, removal of the old driveway revealed foundation cinder block that extended beyond the garage floor a couple of inches. That made a "shelf" the new asphalt would rest on. While the rest of the driveway moved with Minnesota's freeze/thaw cycle, the asphalt on the "shelf" didn't. After the first winter a large crack developed. I sent photos to the installer and they let me know the problem described above. Their fix was to "put hot rubber crackfill across the top of the crack when the guys were in the area." They also said it would need to be applied annually and to blend it into the new driveway, should also do sealcoat each year. Given the professional response I had from Earth Wizard's during the bidding process, I sent them photos of the crack and the contractor's description of the "shelf" problem he saw during our installation. Earth Wizard's said they always cap and fill on any exposed block under the garage door to eliminate the shelf. Installing a control joint between the block and the new asphalt driveway creates a slip surface that minimizes the stress that creates the crack. Without this, more cracks develop as water freezes, which leads to more water infiltration, more heaving, then sinking and failure of the driveway as the photos show. When you get your bids ask what the company does if they find foundation cinder block extending beyond the garage floor after excavation!

Called this company on the morning of 8/22, left name and contact information. They said someone would get back to us by the end of the day, we still haven't heard back. Needless to say we went with another company.

We are currently stuck in trying to get a variance to the city. All paperwork has been submitted, but we need the city to approve it. Nothing to complain about on the part of Earth Wizards though, they have been professional and prompt in getting back to me.

Great water problem solved. Cost me more money but it was solved.

Wonderful job. There was some miscommunication about when the job would start. At first I was told it would start two weeks earlier than it actually began. This was due factors beyond their control (asphalt plants had not opened yet for spring work).

Perfect! And a little more to make it more than 10 characters.

When they came for the initial appointment, they asked us what plants we wanted, they could not tell us what plants they had to offer. They did not have any illustrations of any plants. Next they came to spray the area to kill off everything that was there. Then they tracked that herbicide into the lawn and left dead footprints in the lawn. They came back for a second spray and did the same thing, so two sets of footprints in the lawn. They put a material down that was organic that was to hold the slope, but it turned out to have a plastic webbing. Here it is, five years later, the organic material is done, but the plastic webbing is making it easy for the weeds to take over and difficult for us to pull them out. They planted some invasive species in the area, but they didn't get rid of the invasive species that were there before they planted. They really messed up in a lot of ways when they did that landscaping project and it was a big one.

They gave us a quote and then upcharged us $1000. extra because of extra fill needed.The first time they paved it did not turn out well.There were dips and seams that held water in the tar.It looked melted in the middle of the driveway from where they took a torch to melt and spread the tar.The workers worked hard and were frustrated with the result after they were finished.I did not appreciate getting a bill within a couple days after this when the work was sub par.I called Shelly who gave us the quote and asked if there was an error in getting the bill .She said as far as she knew the job was complete.I told her that my driveway looked terrible.I told her that she should communicate with the foreman on the job and find out when they were coming back and that the job was not to our satisfaction.I got a call almost a week after the initial job was done to come back out to redo the tar. They tore out the tar for the lower half of the driveway.They redid it and it looks great.Gary was the lead guy and was good at calling before he came out to start the job or to do the paving.I do not understand why they would send out a bill when the workers knew they had to come back.I think that is bad for business and the customer gets upset.I gave them B because of this.

Worked with Shelly for the quote, the quote was right in the middle of my other quotes (I had one for around $3,000 and one for $4800). I felt comfortable with Shelly and felt that the company would do a good job. Once I made the commitment, the communication went downhill. Shelly just advised that Gary would call me when he was ready to schedule. My yard was marked up for utilities immediately and after a week or so I checked in to see if there was an estimated date so I knew if we could mow. They still couldn't give me any estimate. About a week later, I received a call in the evening that they would be trying to come out to remove the old asphalt the next morning, weather permitting. It did end up raining for a brief time that day so they did not come out, but I didn't hear from them until around 9:00 that night to tell me that they didn't come out (duh) and they would be out the next day. Final work was done about a week later and the same way, a call the evening before to let me know they would be out the next day. I prefer to know what's going on so this was all a bit stressful for me. The work was average, I was impressed by the large friendly crew and speed that they worked but I feel like I could have gotten the same driveway from the cheaper quote, there are tar streaks on the concrete by my driveway and on my curb, there are a number of pits that weren't smoothed out, Gary didn't have the amount that I would owe for my city permit so I received a bill about four days later. With the bill was an insert on how to care for the driveway which really should have been given at the install. Also, I would assume that since they handled the city permit that they would follow the requirements but after never seeing the city come out, I called and found out that they were supposed to inspect the base and the final but were never contacted. I am also disappointed they angled the edges but just left a six inch gap from where they removed the sod. It wasn't until I received the insert that I learned we need to build that gap in, it would have been nice to know and prepare that. I would really expect better follow-through and communication considering how many employees that they have and was overall disappointed. I did not share these feelings with the company as there isn't really anything they can do about it.

I think maybe our job was too small for them, and they didn't want to do it. Despite this, it is poor business conduct to never call or contact us, even though I called back twice to find out about the estimate.

The sales person identified all problems, without my input, with the existing driveway and what they will do to correct them plus how the garage floor situation will be corrected with cement. We discussed design enhancement to the width to match the two sides. A project manager reviewed the overall plan on a Sunday morning to ensure information and measurements were correct. When they removed the existing asphalt they found the original driveway had not been completely removed which resulted in extra time and effort on their part of the driveway prep. They also found there was a weak area several feet below the surface in which clay was shifting and would not support a heavy vehicle which would destroy the driveway. This resulted in the need to dig up completed work and place a tarp with stones to secure the base then redo the base driveway effort. These two problems required an addition 3 works which kept them from another job. The added expense to me was very reasonable. During this process the project manager kept me informed of status and the two problems and fixes. The final paving went very well and again the project manager kept me informed of status.. The $7200 includes the additional charge to remove the original asphalt that had been covered by a second layer plus the tarp and stones for the shifting clay. They follow up "How to maintain" book is very good.

Great. The team was punctual and courteous. They not only did exceptional work, but they were very clean. This wasn't necessarily a fun project, but they did a great job. While I felt the price was fairly expensive overall, they delivered what I consider to be top notch quality.

Earth Wizards knows their stuff. I got about 5 bids for this job and they were the only company that proposed a complete solution to my problem that made sense to me. Other companies either left something out that Earth Wizards recommended or proposed to do something that seemed inappropriate for the job. I wasn't home to see the work being done, but two of my neighbors who are home during the day went out of their way to comment (unsolicited by me) on the quality of the workmanship. They both commented on how particular the work crew was about getting everything level and just right. One said, "I've never seen a crew roll a driveway so many times!" Real nice people too. I had this collection of walking stick sized tree limbs out back that I use to tamp down leaves. The guys left me a similar size pole from my fence that they ripped out. I never mentioned a word about what this stick collection was all about! They must have just thought I'd appreciate having it. The driveway looks beautiful and now when it rains, I can see the water flowing in the right direction. They are not cheap, but I think they charge a fair price for the quality of the work. They were in the ball park of the other highly rated, well established companies who bid. I also got bids from some bargain priced outfits too just for comparison in terms of the solutions proposed. All in all, I highly recommend them.

Nothing but good to say about them. We had added a 3rd stall to our garage so they removed the 30 year old driveway to the former garage, regarded the area and installed an appropriate sized driveway. They were sensitive to my plants and the area I wanted a new planting area by the street. Previous other venders had tried to talk me into just a big rectangular slap of asphalt. The resulting shape from Earth Wizards will direct the rain water into the new planting area and it just looks more interesting.

They did an excellent job. We are very happy with everything they did. Very professional.

It was excellent and went very well. They were friendly, direct, easy to deal with, and our best experience with a service provider last year. our yard looks so much better and we are now able to use our driveway.

It was good. We didn't have much interaction with them, we were out of town when they did the work. They are easy to work with. They have innovative ideas. I guess what I am hesitant about is that a year later, they did some concrete work for us as well and the concrete is already cracking. We are waiting for them to get back to us on what is going to happen. It has been over a week now since we have been in contact with them so I guess, my satisfaction on them is going to depend on whether they fix the problem.

They were very personable, interesting in meeting my needs, and the professionalism was best.

Representative showed up on time and provided a quote on the spot. They were very professional and the quote was very competitive with the other bidder on my project. In fact the Earth Wizards quote was EXACTLY the same as the other quote I received. It was more or less a coin flip on how I chose the other contractor. I would have recommend Earth Wizards and definitely ask them to bid on any future related projects.

Shelly came out and talked about the job and provided an estimate. I told her we were getting a lot of work done and would have a dumpster for a bit and that I wanted to wait until that is gone to setup a time. Once I had a firm date on when the other work would be completed, I setup a date to have the old drive way removed. I knew it was in really bad shape because of the clay under it and we were playing on removing 4-6 inches and filling with proper fill. This ened up having to be 10 inches, but we had discussed that it might come down to that. They wanted to let the driveway settle for a month with us driving on it before they would come back to finish. Once they were happy with it, they came out and knocked the driveway out in about three hours. It is great to have a nice smooth driveway and we are very happy with it.

Extremely professional group and friendly as well. What helped give me additional confidence in the crew was that one of the crew knew one of my relatives and I didn't think he would disclose that unless he was proud of his work and company. Gary Anderson is fastidious in details, accuracy, overall quality and appearance of driveway. (He even asked me to redo the brick edge before laying the asphalt.) They delivered, showed up on time and worked quickly. They accommodated my schedule with no objections. And fortunately I benefited from 11 inches of rain on the base before asphalt was applied. They even asphalted a cavity in the curb to make the ramp seamless. There's no longer a bump-up when driving into the garage Detailed estimate was clear, concise with a caveat for unknown subsoil conditions. Because we live in Plymouth, MN, Shelly, the estimator, was aware of the clay soil conditions and noted in the estimate that adjustments may have to be made based upon these subsoil conditions. Shelly was the most knowledgable of the 5 estimators we contacted. She knows the business well and did not double talk or throw out fancy terminology to make the sale. The final price was fair and competitive and the results so far are much better than expected.

They were great to work with, no pressure sales and did a great job communicating the process of putting in a new driveway. I thought the quality of the crew and the workmanship was excellent and was very happy with the finished product. Several months later I experience an issue. To their credit, they resolved the issue at their expense and fixed the issue at no charge. The original reason we choose them was quality and integrity and they proved it was a good choice as the issue could of happened to anyone but how they responded was the right thing to do. Thanks Earth Wizards to living up to your word and reputation.