Finishing Touch Landscape Co LLC

Overall, I'm quite satisfied with the results. The retaining wall that Tom and his crew replaced was failing and looked very shabby; the new retaining wall is a more pleasing color and shape, and the final result is a marked improvement for a reasonable price. As other reviewers have noted, my project did take quite a bit of time between initial contact (June 6th) and job completion (October 27th), but I kind of expected that based on what I'd already read here on Angie's List. I was only in a hurry in the sense that I wanted my yard to look nice, but I had no hard deadline in mind by which the work had to be completed. As long as I'm not in a hurry, I would not hesitate to have Tom and his crew work on my next project. Overall project timeline was: 06-JUN: I called Tom on the phone number listed here. He said he was driving and asked that I send him an email, which I did (and included pictures of the project area). 11-JUN: Tom replied to my email with an apology for the delay, and said his next opening for a consultation was 18-JUN. 18-JUN: Tom met me at my house to discuss what I had in mind, he made a few suggestions, took some measurements, and said he would send me a bid. He did note that he was quite busy, and warned that it may take "a couple of weeks" to get the bid finished and sent. 17-AUG: I received the bid from Tom (after 4 weeks) with another apology for the delay. In the meantime, I'd reached out to another service provider and decided to wait for the other bid to come in before making a decision. 29-AUG: I mailed the deposit check to Tom and emailed him to let it know it was on the way. 26-OCT: Tom emailed me (after nearly 8 weeks with no communication - partially my fault, as I could just as easily have contact him if I were really anxious) to say his crew would be at my house the next day to perform the work 27-OCT: Job completed

My original contact with Tom Watson from Finishing Touch Landscaping Co. was in late May 2014. I met with him to to talk about a fairly complex patio and retaining wall design I was interested in having built. I let him know the job had to be finished by 9/13 because I was hosting a wedding rehearsal dinner the evening of that date. Tom was very easy to talk to and we spent a good amount of time looking over the site, answering questions and discussing options. He assured me he could finish the job on time. Tom came back a few days later and did some measurements and marked the basic layout. Due to the complexity of the job, he said it would take a couple of weeks to get a bid together. After exchanging a few emails about questions and schedules, we finally met the second week of July to go through his bid. He is very busy, so be prepared to wait longer than you might expect for feedback during the early stages. Once he started the job, he was very good at keeping me informed about execution plans and quickly answering my questions. After some difficulty selecting the specific material types and colors to use (my fault), the patio build finally got started on Monday, 8/18/14. There was about 6 guys on the build crew (give or take) and they were all very polite. The lead guy, Marcellino (sp?), was very good at using my concept drawing and designing a layout that would ensure proper water shed and could be built. There was a particularly tricky intersection point around the deck post that both Tom and I had difficulty visualizing how to do it, but Marcellino came up with a way that turned out working great! As it turned out, the crew started the build about the time the weather turned brutally hot and humid, with heat indexes in the 100's for the 1st two weeks or so. The crew worked tirelessly through the heat in order to hold schedule. During the last couple of weeks, we had quite a bit of rain, but the crew covered everything with giant tarps to keep the site dry and allow work to continue once the rains stopped. As the deadline approached, we ran into a problem when I didn't like the placement of one of the patio floor 13' diameter circle packages. Tom didn't think they could pull it up and relocate it in time to be done by the wedding party. He suggested finishing the build as it was in order to be ready for the party and then offered to come back after the party and relocate the circle pkg where I wanted it (at no additional cost to me), so that's what we did. They finished and got everything cleaned up the DAY BEFORE the party. We used the patio for the party and it looked/worked great! The Monday after the party the crew came back, pulled up the circle pkg, relocated it and was completely done before I got home from work. The whole build took just under a month and it turned out awesome. We couldn't be happier with the results. We've had multiple people stop and complement us on how nice it turned out. I would definitely recommend Tom and Finishing Touch Landscaping Co. because of their quality workmanship and commitment to customer satisfaction.

Mr. Watson was wonderful and we would recommend his company to anyone. When Mr. Watson and I met to discuss the project, he provided several suggestions that we hadn't considered and that would save us time and money as well as make the property look even better. From material to final landscaping ideas, he was great in our initial meeting and we were very comfortable knowing we would be accepting his bid (which was also the lowest we received). We accepted his bid in August and due to weather and other projects, we didn't get on the list until mid-September but Mr. Watson stayed in contact and let us know when his crew would be out. His crew got the job done in two days and were meticulous about daily clean up. They were respectful and left our property looking neat every evening. The wall looks fantastic and is even better than we expected it to look. We couldn't be happier about the quality of the work and the way everything looks - significantly better than before. We will definitely be using Mr. Watson's company for any work like this in the future and have already recommended him to our friends and family for any projects they might consider.

I knew that it was going to take some time before Tom could get to my job since I contacted him in the spring, and he was quite busy. I received a bid promptly after he came out and discussed the job with me. I took advantage of the messaging feature of Angie's list to stay on top of things and ask questions about when my job might be started. Tom always responded promptly and was honest about where I was on the schedule. I was willing to wait because I believed the work would be well done, and I would be happy with the result. The guys working at my home were courteous, friendly, professional, and conscientious. Tom took care of another small unrelated task for me as part of the job when I asked if it could be done. I am very pleased with my new patio and confident in the quality of the work.

Once the team got started they worked quickly. The project was finished in a timely fashion and turned out more beautiful than I could imagine. What originally sold us on Finishing Touch was their ideas and the ability for them to provide us with a drawing of what they were going to create.

The overall project went very well. The first meeting was between Tom, Karen and myself. They listened to my requests and needs...low maintenance, deer resistant, COLOR. Karen then drew up plans and made an appointment with me to go over her vision. She was extremely knowledgeable and experienced. I appreciated her plant choices as they weren't just the standard. There was some variety to them. She took into account the different seasons and approached it from that standpoint, making sure we had color throughout the year. At install, Tom and his team were professional, hard working and attentive to details. Tom was able to work in a change to our original plan and rework some previous decisions. At the final walk through, he provided information about pruning, watering and fertilizing for now and in the future. What I liked most about Tom was his excitement for my project. He has multiple projects to tend to but I only have one. Mine is the most important to me and I felt Tom understood that. It's good to work with a contractor who likes his job and is interested in the end product. Karen was extremely knowledgeable and experienced. I most certainly would work with both of them again.

I first contacted Tom in April to provide a bid. He promptly responded and came out to discuss the project. Several days later, I received the bid. He informed me that he was already pretty busy and we were looking at a late May start date. I put down 1/2 of the price as a deposit and waited. As other reviewers have said, he is extremely busy and the project did not get started until late June. However, Tom communicated the delays (or responded to my emails when I inquired about start dates) and most importantly (in my mind) did not deposit my check until the week the services were performed. The crew arrived on time the day of the project and were extremely professional during the entire 4 day project. Overall, the project looks amazing. My husband and I were both very pleased with the detail of the work, the responsiveness of Tom (especially during the actual project - where we had some questions each night as we returned home from work), and the professionalism of the crew. We hope to add a small patio next year and will definitely use Finishing Touch again.

I asked Tom Watson from Finishing Touch Landscaping to bid on a couple of related projects at our house. Tom's initial visit was to look at the areas in question, he took some measurements and we briefly discussed what I was looking for. He sent us a formal quote in a reasonable length of time. My wife and I compared Tom's quote with several other quotes from others landscaping companies. We asked Tom out for a second visit to discuss his quote and answer a few questions my wife had. During his visits Tom was very courteous and professional, explaining what he would do and even offered a few suggestions. After some serious discussion we decided to go with a different company this time but would not hesitate to have Tom bid on future projects.

My wife is super happy with the final product. We have used Tom Watson before and he continues to give super results in ALL respects. Price was fair. Showed up on time. Completed work on schedule with no leftover mess. I have recommended him to my friends and neighbors due to him and his team's superior performance.

The crew showed up on time on a Monday morning and immediately started the removal. Due to heavy storms they had to stop early that day. Unfortunately, the rock that was delivered was dumped too near the curb and the water coming down the street washed into the yard eroding a good portion of it. They were back on Tuesday morning and finished the removal, From that point on the job went pretty quickly and they finished up on Friday with the seeding and cleanup. I inspected the job with the owner and gave the okay before the crew was done thinking they would put everything back in place. However, the crew just left various yard items, including a heavy deck box, sitting where they moved them. I contacted the owner and he brought the crew back Monday morning to finish. Overall, I am pleased with the new wall and have gotten compliments on it but I think the job would have gone smoother with a little more supervision.

I received a visit for an estimate on May 29th. I emailed several time over the next couple of weeks requesting the estimate but kept getting put off. They knew the urgency of my situation. Finally, on July 6th I received the estimate. By then I had a mudslide into my brand new pool because of all the rain and no retaining wall. I am still working on getting my pool fixed and finally had a very responsive landscaper come and put the retaining wall up within a week. This was UNACCEPTABLE service!!

I hired Tom to complete some light landscaping work around my house ? mulching several beds, clearing an area where a tree was and adding sod, edging an established and a new bed, and expanding an existing bed and adding a new tree. Tom is very responsive when you contact him about a bid. He did provide that to me in a timely manner. He was polite and appropriate with our discussion; however, offered no suggestions to change or enhance my plan. I provided him with a deposit of half the total bid. He told me that he had scheduled me as the second job the next week pending weather. The weather was not good so he again scheduled me the second job the week after that pending weather. He then contacted me and said that it looked like Friday would be the day ? but then he did not call or show on Friday. When I asked what happened, he said he got tied up on a job and would be there the next week pending weather. His e-mail was a bid flippant. In my view, you said Friday and had already put me off so if you are not able to make it you need to call or email to let me know. He still would not me when he would start work. I was the first or second job the next week depending on weather and now also whether or not the job before me asked for anything additional. At this point I was a little leery as he was holding $900+ of mine and I felt a bit like I was getting the run around. So I contacted my bank and placed a hold on the check. Indeed he did show up late the week after the week after next J. So I released the check for payment. When I interviewed Tom, I asked if he would be present at all times on the work site while the job was being performed. He said yes. In fact, what happened is that he was there to drop off 3 employees, give them brief instructions and then left. Only one team member spoke SOME English. The team worked for about 2 hours on the first day and returned the second day. During the time work was being performed, my mother was present. She pointed some things out to Tom when he would stop by such as the existing bed that he agreed to expand was not being expanded and the team was placing the tree in the spot on the opposite side of the yard than was agreed on. In fact, they placed the tree in an area where Tom had specifically told me it could not go as it would die. She expressed concerns regarding the edgers under the deck ? their height and superficial placement that allowed movement and was a trip hazard. She also pointed out to him that the team had failed to place a pop up drain in the appropriate spot. I had hired him to put in two pop up drains in the back yard on the east side and one was installed on the east and one on the west with the most active drain to the east left unaddressed. He did agree to do the third drain at a cost to me ($70) even though it was his error. He told her she was wrong about the tree and he was not done with the edgers. When work was completed, I brought concerns to him regarding the manner the edge stones were installed. Some of the edger I had asked him to reinstall for me are located around an area that is greatly trafficked under my deck ? I have a walk out basement. The edgers were installed superficially, not sunk into the ground, and so high up they were easily tripped over and moved out of place. In fact they had been tripped over and the stones did actually move out of place. I was just lucky the person was not injured. The bullet edgers I asked him to install, while not in an area where there was foot traffic, were installed the same way ? superficially, not sunk into the ground at all and easily moved out of place. They were also not installed per spec as shown on the manufacturer?s web site. Further he charged me for 10 additional bullet edgers. When the job was complete there were about 28 bullet edgers remaining and stacked in my yard. I also brought up the bed that was supposed to be expanded and was not ? in fact it was obvious that this was part of the initial plan as there were about 7 extra Windsor blocks after the job was complete that were just stacked on top of other blocks. This was enough to have done the job as we agreed on. My mother even talked to him about it while the work was being done and he blew her off. I brought up the tree placement being exactly where he said it would die and not even close to where we agreed. This was also something that my mother address before it was placed and he again blew her off. His response to me was very flippant and dismissive. I asked him about the situation 2 or 3 times. Each time he provided a bit more of an excuse regarding the situation. While not addressing my concerns about the placement and trip hazard just said the job was done correctly. When I pressed him, he said that the front bed could not be expanded without additional work from his crew and he would not have used the bullet edgers ? information that he never shared before, during or after the job. He only brought up when I complained and pushed the issue. He never addressed the issue under the deck. I did respond to him emphasizing my concerns, repeating that if they are just resting on top of the ground, wiggle in place and can be tripped over, they are not installed correctly. The following day, Tom called me 6 times. As I was not available, I was not able to answer. The day after that, a Sunday, he showed up at my home unannounced, repeatedly ringing the door bell and pounding on the door and waving through the window. I was not feeling well so my mother answered the door. I was shocked at the exchange I overheard as Tom was loud, talking over my mother and very argumentative and downright rude to the point of bullying her. She reviewed with him my concerns and let him know that she had seen all of the e-mails. She had even brought these same concerns up to him while his crew was doing the job. Rather than addressing the concerns, Tom said well there is an issue of money and told her my check had bounced. She stood her ground (poor mom) regarding my concerns. He said well I will just have to take another look. She said fine but not today and not without my daughter here. On Sunday, I contacted my bank to find out if there was a problem with the check. They indicated there was no problem with the check ? it was released as I had requested and there was enough funds to cover the check. I asked if they could tell if there had been an attempt to present that check where it had been denied and there was no record of that. In my 3rd or 4th e mail to him about the situation, I linked him to the company web site who actually manufactures the bullet edgers to show him how the company displayed the installation ? completely sunk into the ground with only a small lip. I again reviewed my concerns with him. I let him know the information that had been provided to me from my bank regarding the check. I also asked him not to show up on my property unannounced. After his last visit and how he behaved, I did not feel comfortable with him there without me to escort him or handle the situation. I asked him to contact me regarding resolution and coming back to appropriately install the edgers. Tom did finally contact me back and I scheduled a time for him to walk around the house with me. He initially started with a tone that reminded me of when he tried to bully my mother. I let him know that I would not tolerate that tone and he should change his attitude or the conversation was over. The rest of the conversation was certainly more appropriate. However, he tried to convince me that I didn?t want him to come back and correct the edging. He also argued with me about the landscaping fabric. Luckily I was able to produce an e-mail from him confirming that he would put that down. We discussed the stop payment on the check and I gave him the two options the bank had given me: 1) present the bank notice for payment as it is considered legal tender OR 2) give me the bank notice bank and I will replace it with cash, another check, cashier?s check. The following week he corrected the edging and attempted to cash the check at his bank and then my bank. He even had the bank manager at my bank call me to discuss the situation. My bank would not honor the check because it was written to his business and HE HAD NO PROOF THAT IT WAS HIS BUSINESS. I again offered replacement but he would have to give me the original bank notice back. We went back and forth about this several times until he finally gave it back to me and I replaced it with another check. As I write this, we are about 8 or 9 weeks since the job was complete. He laid the mulch so thin in some areas, such as around the new tree he planted, that it is no longer there. I went and replaced the mulch around the tree myself rather than having to call Tom back again.

Tom is amazing. He knows his stuff and his crew is very friendly and do a great job. We are very happy with the service and the price. Tom will be doing our grading in the back yard coming this fall when we put down some new grass seed. We are very grateful we have found Tom and will be using them in the future. Wonderful company to work with!

Tom was very personable and understood everything I wanted him to do. He offered excellent suggestions as we walked around the property. He followed up rather quickly with a detailed written estimate along with pictures of plants and paver stones. His crew worked two or three days and did a great job - the results are better than I'd hoped for. There was one area that they were not able to work with due to lack of sufficient soil to plant some ground cover - Tom immediately removed the cost from the total bill. If I have one complaint, and it's small.... it's that when walking around the property after the work was completed, we did find things like water bottle caps and pieces of metal in the lawn that we had to pick up ourselves. When we wrote to Tom to report this issue, he was very responsive and apologized for the oversight. Otherwise, I would recommend Finishing Touch and Tom Watson!

I sent him an email and he responded a little snippy saying it has only been 3 1/2 weeks and I had to give them time. He has not even given me a quote. I am really disgusted with it. He seemed like he was a pretty nice guy but he was not good. When he was here, he was fine. It went okay. That was a Wednesday and he told us then that he would get back to us by Friday, but we did not hear anything. We actually left town for about 10 days and came back, and I still have not heard anything from him. I thought maybe there will be a message on the phone but there was nothing. I finally contacted him again on the 12 of June. It was May 4th for the initial contact that I made with them and we still can't get them to return our call or respond anything. I was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt when he said he was going to give it to me on the 12th, but we still don't have anything. My husband said even then he does not want to deal with him if that is the way he is. We can't trust that he is going to show up or do what he says he is going to do. He had good reviews. If he is doing this to us, I think he is probably doing this to other people too. Maybe somebody else will be a little leery about having him come out if he can't get back to anybody in a timely manner.

The project was delayed several months after the start due to improperly buried Ameren cables. An Ameren project to re-route electrical lines needed to be completed before the project could proceed. Tom was very helpful in managing the delay and altering the original plans to deal with the Ameren problems. The crew that removed the old wall and constructed the new was very professional and obviously knew what they were doing. I was impressed with how they handled the frequent rain interruptions and took extreme care in only doing what the weather would allow. I am very pleased with the look and quality of the final retaining wall. I was also impressed with the extra effort the crew spent with the clean up and agreeing to alter the final grade for my additional landscaping plans.

Not to good really didn't listen to what I wanted and pushed what he thought I wanted and sent me a bid doubled what others had bid for.. Not on my future contact list

It went well. Tom on a time knowledgeable and professional.

Tom did a great job, very happy with his work

Pricing was reasonable for the work required. The results are excellent - the yard looks fantastic. The dumpster service and sod delivery went smoothly. I would have preferred more communication leading up to the sod installation. That is my only critique - and is probably more of a personal preference. I would highly recommend Finishing Touch to others and would use them again for work at my home.

Not a bad experience, company is just very booked up. I went with a company that got the work done already. Tom was very quick with setting a date to come out and give me an estimate, unfortunately it rained that day so we had to reschedule. His time slots seem very small which is understandable if he has a rapidly growing business. I would probably use them if I needed something else done in the future that didn't have a specific timeline I wanted it done by. Thanks

I could not be more pleased!! Tom Watson was on the job with his people for most of the work. Mr. Watson understood what was needed in my yard - he and his team were professional, knowledgeable, economical, and got the job done in a timely manner. On top of that, Mr. Watson and his team put forth extra effort and creativity to make sure that I was happy and pleased! I'd recommend Tom Watson and his company, Finishing Touches, to anyone and everyone - but especially for people like me -, seniors in need of an honest, trustworthy, really excellent. proficient landscaper. Tom is honest, kind, and most professional in his field of landscaping. He is reasonable with prices and can be trusted to give you the best value possible. I cannot say enough good things about this wonderful young landscaper. Thank you Tom! My yard, back and front, is beautiful - thanks to you!

We have the same issues with everybody else, there's a lot of other reviews on Angie's List that they come out and say yes from it but then it took a long time before they actually starts the work. You have to wait for months. Time was an issue but he was a really nice person, the crew was very good and then the other issue my husband had was that, he doesn't think that they seal the finished project.

Third time hired. Third time this company provided top notch work. Tom and his crew have been there year after year and the service they provide is nothing short of outstanding. This year, they moved bushes, mulched all the beds, and cleaned up all of the yard that the harsh winter took it's toll on. I continue to be very impressed with this organization and will continue to have them back year after year. Thank you again for the terrific job, Tom!

I selected Tom's Landscaping business for two reasons: 1) He came highly recommended on Angie's list and 2) He was the low bidder. Although the job took almost 9 months to get to, he had told me up front that it would be about 5 months (late fall) before he could get to the job. I had agreed to that. When that time came, he was ready to start but at that time we had a trip planned so we had to postpone the work because I wanted to be there during the project. Unfortunately, after that, winter had set in and the harsh winter really put the job off until the end of March. The whole job took almost 3 weeks, delayed by a couple days due to heavy rains. When rain was expected, the workers covered the working area with tarps to maintain the condition of the work already done. Throughout the project, I saw things that neededbetter definition or improvement. These were things that were not specifically called out on my sketches. When it made sense to make the changes, Tom was quick to agree. Tom was very easy to get along with - very personable. I don't believe I've ever had anyone work for me that was that easy to deal with. I would highly recommend his company for anyone who needed retaining walls built.