Barkley Landscapes

Amazing. I now have a beautiful John Kramer home on a lake that is entirely stone, a terrace with large pillars. I would recommend Barkley Landscapers and design in a heart beat! So pleased! They also laid my stone driveway as well as stone retaining walls with driveway pillars and landscaping. My home was in the parade of homes. Love my home!

It went fine. They delivered the countertops within their estimated time of delivery and installed, caulked and cut holes for stove top, sink and faucet. There were a couple of scratches that happened enroute and a problem with a seam. Jake was here today and will get both taken care of this week. The installers were great, courteous and very professional. I would highly recommend Barkley Landscaping for any of your stone work or landscaping needs.

We were referred to Barkley Landscapes by our designer, who used Jake Barkley's company for his own new construction the year prior. As you can guess from the ratings, we had issues. First, the good: Barkley Landscapes built some great retaining walls on our property. There are 4 separate retaining walls on our property, ranging from 4-9 feet in height. Built with large blocks of cut stone that Jake cut himself. In discussion with other landscapers, we were told that we got these walls done for a great price. So, really happy with the walls. Now the rest (the bad): we ended up parting ways (I guess polite way of saying and quot;firedand quot;) with Barkley Landscapes midway through the process. We had to scramble to find other landscapers and stonemasons to finish the project. Mistakes were made, and I felt like we gave him every chance to redeem himself, but the frustrations kept coming. I like to say that we gave him and quot;4 strikes and you're outand quot;. More than generous. Strike one: Our house construction began in March 2013, it was slated to be done by 9/1/13, so that the house could be in the parade of homes. Due to our idiot builders (another story), we were delayed. We took possession late January 2014, but as we speak (June 29, 2014) the builders are still in our lives finishing the project. Anyway, the driveway: Jake was going to create a nice concrete driveway for us. He had ample opportunity in the summer of 2013 to get this done. There was 2 month period in summer 2013 where NO WORK was being done on the house because of our idiot builders. So, ample opportunity to pour the driveway, but he didn't. We met with him late October, near Halloween. We asked when he was going to pour the driveway. He said that (paraphrasing here) and quot;if the concrete doesn't have a month to cure at above freezing temperatures, I can't warranty itand quot;. We asked him why the h*** he was telling us this for the first time in late October in MN. We reminded him that he had months to alert us of this issue. He didn't have an answer. We asked if he could pour a cheapo temporary asphalt driveway just for the winter, to be torn up in the spring. He refused. He said, and quot;I think it's going to be OK, the chance of it cracking is low.and quot; We said, and quot;well, if you're so confident, and given that this situation is entirely your fault, why don't you warranty the driveway?and quot; He refused. We were left with the choice of a) pouring the driveway in November and crossing our fingers that it didn't crack (not having a warranty with Barkley), or b) waiting til spring 2014, and having to park on the street all winter. We chose and quot;aand quot; and given the snowy winter we had, thank god we did. So far so good with the driveway, but still this was a gross breakdown of communication and and quot;looking out for the clientand quot;. He knew that the house was going to be habitable sometime in the winter 2013/14, and he wasn't proactive about getting that driveway done. Strike two: initially in the designer's plans, there wasn't meant to be a retaining wall between our house and the neighbors. Once the construction got going in the spring 2013, we, and the designer, and Barkley Landscapes had a walkthrough of the property, to look at the grading and such. It was clear to the designer and Barkley that indeed a retaining wall WOULD need to be placed between our house and the neighbors. That was the extent of the discussion at that time, and the topic was forgotten by us because we had some separate drama with the builders that took our attention. Fast forward to summer 2013. My wife stops by the building site, and there is a massive 4 foot high retaining wall dropped from the sky, running the length of the property, built from gigantic stone. My wife called Jake Barkley, and said (paraphrasing again) and quot;where the h*** did this wall come from?and quot;. To which Jake Barkley said, and quot;Remember when we talked about the need for a wall?and quot;. To which my wife said, and quot;yeah, but we never followed up on that brief conversation. Why wasn't I involved in discussion about how big this wall would need to be, what it would be made out of, and more importantly, HOW MUCH IT'LL COST? Why did you make that decision for me??and quot; Jake Barkley then said, and quot;It was a game day decisionand quot;. To which I said, and quot;Oh yeah, well how much does a and quot;game day decisionand quot; cost?and quot; and quot;$9500and quot;. and quot;OK Jake, so you think it's OK to do nearly $10,000 worth of work to a client's property without talking to them or getting any sort of approval??and quot; and quot;It was a game day decisionand quot;. So my wife and I talked about it. We did NEED a retaining wall, and we LIKED the retaining wall, but we were damned if we were going to reward bad behavior by rolling over and paying the $9500. We could've told him to get lost, but then he would've had the legal right to take the wall away. We offered to pay him half of the $9500, and he accepted. So again, apparently we got a deal, but the lack of communication and professionalism is staggering. Strike three: We found out this spring (2014) that the multiple retaining walls that he built, were built without a permit from the city (Golden Valley requires permits and engineering reports on any walls higher than 4 feet). Nor did he get engineering reports. I told him that we needed engineering reports on these walls to ascertain that they were safe stable structures. We reminded him that this was our legal right. He dug in his heels initially, but ultimately he paid for the engineering reports. Strike four: Our front stoop/terrace is, per the plans, supposed to have a stone wall around these structures, with 2 pillars acting as corners of this wall. Because he screwed up in his placement of a sonotube, he created the wall such that it went AROUND (not through) one of the corner pillars, so that this pillar was just sitting there all by its lonesome, with no role. It looked ridiculous to have this pillar floating in the breeze, not connected to anything. We told him that we expected him to change this wall, as it was not built to plan. He refused. He said that he had a meeting with my wife last fall where she approved this wall. I reminded him that there was no written proof of this, and if my wife approved it, why was she fighting so hard to get it done per plan now?? I again reminded him that he has an obligation to build our stonework per plan. He said that he could move the wall so that it was per plan, but he wouldn't do it for free. He expected an additional payment to do what he should've done in the first place. After these 4 strikes, my wife and I decided that we had given him ample opportunity to redeem himself, and we told him that we were severing our relationship with him. He had cut a lot of stone for our house, custom, and of course we didn't want him to eat that cost. On the other hand, we had also prepaid him for things that he hadn't done. So we sat down and hashed out who owed what to whom, and I thought it was a constructive meeting. Jake had the last laugh, though, because most of the stone we paid for, turned out to be unusable as it was not cut to proper size. Our new stonemason showed us where things weren't right. For example, there were cut limestone that was meant to be driveway edging. The stone was cut too tall in that when you added mortar to the equation, the edging stone was significantly higher than the driveway. Jake didn't take that into account. That's just one example. So we paid for all of this cut stone, because we wanted to respect his time and labor, but it was useless in the end. Given that I took the time to write this War and Peace length review, I think it's clear that I would NOT recommend using Barkley Landscapes.

Recently we used them to do sod, more retaining walls, natural stone step, more paper patios and extensive landscaping projects. They are very hardworking and diligent. They start a project and don’t leave until it is finished. They are professional and prompt, and their work ethic is phenomenal. Their prices are worth the work they do.