Gibson's Grading And Construction

A recent home inspection alerted us to the possibility of mold in the crawlspace. The same report had two other items listed that required a professional opinion. David was able to come to the house within a couple of days for an assessment. Much to our relief, he found us to be mold free and provided advice on how to proceed with the other items. This is the second time we have enlisted his services, and I'm sure it won't be the last. He is excellent to work with.

WOW! We were impressed! David went above and beyond what was called for in his contract. He treated our property and made suggestions as if it were his own. He not only installed the French drain, he ran additional lines to make sure they wouldn't be over loaded in heavy rain. Even though it wasn't in the contract, he built a retaining wall around the heat pumps to keep run off away from them. He re-graded the bank where he ran the drain pipes as well as the whole back yard, seeded and put down straw. He was very conscientious about not damaging the lawn with his equipment. And the nicest thing he did was repair a part of a retaining wall that I wanted to be left in place. In the basement he tore out the minimum drywall to assess the amount of mold. He located all areas with mold, removed it and treated for such. He aerated the basement for two days. David gave us suggestions for moisture control in addition to stopping the water coming in. We purchased a de-humidifier as he suggested and it shut off automatically after two days without filling as there was so little moisture in the entire basement. Success! I wish David could clone himself into other tradesmen. He is the best example of honesty, integrity, hard work and caring we have seen in all the many contractors we have hired in the last three years.....and there were many. I feel more confident that this job is probably the better value for our dollar than any that we have put into our home so far. I wouldn't hesitate for a minute to recommend David and his helper Dad,

I was very pleased with the professionalism, knowledge and price. We were set to go a head and have the work done but then had an unexpected expense come up and had to use the funds elsewhere. I still hope to have it done sometime. I would definitely recommend Gibson's. Their price was very fair.

We couldn't ask for a better job or person to do it! David is very pleasant, professional, honest and hardworking. He is an incredibly skilled equipment operator. It was impressive to watch someone with such finesse. Above all is that he sincerely cares about the job he delivers to the customer - the hallmark of any good company.

Problem all started one day, when our cable TV installer told me that he had noticed a significant accumulation of water in our crawl space -- located under the main part of our home. Without hesitation, I knew the man that I wanted on this job-- David Gibson (Gibson's Grading and Construction). David came out to the house within a day or so. After a thorough examination of our home and property, he gave me the diagnosis. Due to improper drainage of our backyard - coupled with an improperly installed & faulty Gutter System, the ground in and around our Home's foundation was completely saturated with water. In fact during periods of prolonged rain, a small pond would develop in our backyard. Over time this problem resulted in a significant amount of water forced its way into the crawl space under the main part of our house and the crawl space under sun room). Further, the high moisture content (in the crawl space under the Sun Room) resulted in a significant amount of mold to build up over time. (Fortunately, because Dave is a licensed and certified Mold Remediation Specialist in North Carolina, he was able to completely eradicate ALL Mold under our Sun Room.) Note: David also pointed out (during his initial inspection) that the water buildup in the crawl space under the main part of our home, had also resulted in the ground under the foundation's "Footing" to significantly erode to the point that a complete "reinforcement" of the footing was needed. The bottom line- A. Upon Dave's strong recommendation, prior to Dave's arrival, I had a Gutter company replace and relocate our downspouts so that the water was properly channeled away from the house. Summary of David Gibson's Work: 1. Dave and his wonderful 'dad' installed an "Engineered" drain system in our backyard. Important- while this more 'robust' drainage system was NOT initially quoted, after Dave began his work, he discovered that our backyard's soil was much too 'sandy' for a standard drainage system. And because Dave ALWAYS has his customers best interest in mind- "at his own expense" he installed the more expensive "Engineered" drainage system. Something else that I want to mention. While some contractors may opt to run the downspouts into the "same" backyard drain system (to save cost and time)- Dave believes that there are times (during heavy downpours) that the water flowing from the downspouts could easily overload this drain system configuration. As such, Dave ran a TWO separate Huge (10 inch- I believe) Drain Lines- one for proper backyard drainage and the second for the downspouts. Very impressive to say the least! Time to install the Backyard "Engineered Drain System" -- about 5 days. 2. After Dave had finished the work in the backyard, he began the work in the main part of the crawl space. ** Good news, thanks to Dave's outstanding professional expertise --- our crawl space under the main part of the house (which previously had in one place 3-6 inches of standing water) was now Completely free from all traces of standing water! This then permitted Dave to begin the work on reinforcing our foundation's 'footer'. He completed this "extensive" work in approximately 5-6 days. I must say, that when you are dealing with your home's foundation-- obviously since a successful job is crucial --- it is essential that you find a contractor who is absolutely 100% TRUSTWORTHY . The point is this- it would be very difficult for an average homeowner (who is not a structural engineer) to determine if the job was correctly done. As such, I no choice but to put my complete and absolute trust in David that the job would be done Perfectly - Period. I will tell you this -- after having worked with Dave over the first week -- I had determined that David was a man of exceptional "character"-- someone I could completely Trust. Whatever the problem (even if it was a unforeseen problem that needed to be taken care of) -- I was absolutely confident that Dave would take care of it -- and He would do it --- AT HIS OWN EXPENSE. This is just the type of guy Dave is. Truly, he is One of a Kind! ** (side note: I believe that he has been an answer to our prayers and as a result David Gibson has been unquestionably a Blessing from God ). I would give David Gibson ( Gibson's Grading and Construction) my highest recommendation. )

After the work was completed 3 weeks later there was rain storm the driveway washed away. I attempted to contact Mr. Gibson and he refuses to come and look at the driveway. He did not stand behind his work and will not come back and fix it. His will not accept responsibility and in my opinion $2,500 should last longer than the first rain storm. The new driveway did not even last a month.

If we could give David Gibson and his father 10 stars, we would! Never in our experience with having any kind of work done have we had such an incredibly positive experience. Due to heavy rains and other factors, the gravel road that runs behind our house collapsed. We knew of David Gibson through neighbors so another neighbor and I called him to look at this very dangerous situation. After looking at the road, David, a civil engineer, declared it unsafe. We are just grateful that nobody was hurt or killed when the road collapsed and totally agreed with David's assessment. David notified his other customers of the situation and they graciously understood that this was a job that needed to be done as soon as possible (thank you all!) When we purchased our home, we understood that we had to provide an access road through our property in case of a situation like this, so we already had a rough area cleared and wide gates on our fence. David and his father came to work immediately and put in a wonderful new road for our neighbors to get out. (At the time of writing this review, David is working with other neighbors who have lost total access to this new road because of their proximity to the collapsed road.) But the story goes far beyond excellent work and professionalism. I have never met anyone who has cared so deeply for the safety of everyone and has done everything in his power to work with the seven of us involved in this unfortunate situation. At one point, David was ready to begin a fundraiser to help with neighbors who couldn't afford the work to be done! He stayed in touch with us daily prior to the job through emails and phone calls to all involved. He and his father were punctual, professional, friendly - in short - outstanding! The job that David and his father did on putting in the new permanent road was excellent. Several large trucks have already been up the road with no problems. We needed our driveway graded and he and his father did that for us too. We will continue working with Gibson Grading on having the road maintained over the years, but hopefully will continue the professional relationship in friendship.

I was very pleased and grateful for the work David did. My driveway was just about impassive due to erosion and overuse. I was getting married and several guests were arriving. David came and gave me an estimate quickly. We arranged the date but due to issues out of our control, the date was backed up to the day people were arriving. David was very gracious and got the job done before anyone came. We are VERY pleased with the work he did!!!!! Rain has done some damage and I plan on using Gibson Grading again to fix it. I also want to pave the driveway when we can afford it. I will definitely use him to do the job.

David Gibson and his dad were very responsive to our email with a request for a bid. Their bid was competitive and they have very good reviews on Angie's List. They were able to perform the work within a few weeks of contact-- had to finish up some prior jobs due to rain delays. They were able to get our job done in about 2 1/2 days. They cleaned up after themselves and replanted grass in the area they had dug up. We have NO leaking in the basement now with normal rain. We have had some leaking with the flooding rains of late, but we have discussed this with David and believe that we also may need to install a sump pump on the wet side of the basement. Good job done overall.

David was very responsive as always by e-mail. He replaced the drain lines in sections in case there should ever be another incident with these lines and my neighbor's dogs (neighbor has promised they won't be in my yard again). Pop-up valves worked well in the rain last week and will only require my removing snow and leaves. I think this is a good solution that he suggested. The ground is still quite soft due to all of the rain we'd had prior to the work and after, but grass is growing due to same and David did a nice job grading over the new lines. A small tree was snapped near it's base beside one of the pop-up valves, I'm guessing with the digging equipment, but that is not a problem as I had asked him to put the lines a little bit deeper. The lines run alongside my septic field so I was glad to have David do the repair work as he was familiar with my land and leech field and has always done good work for me. I am hoping this is the last time I will need David to come do repairs for me on my drainage system, but I will call him again should I need his help!

went fine except I still have a drop off from road to driveway and the mix was mostly gravel and has not packed down as well as previous work done..

I'm not sure there is anyway to explain to anyone the quality of work Gibson performed. They are talented, patient, honest to a fault and worth much more than they charged for what was done. Originally, only french drains were to be placed, create the area for the fire pit, replace the piers and remove the cracked cement. We were doing to use pavers on the patio and the entire yard area. Obviously, that's not what happened. David was so patient with us - changing our minds about what to do (daily) and helping us understand what the final outcome would be. It was obvious to us how creative David is with the work he does. All items used were top quality. The sod, the dirt under the sod, pebble river rock for the fire pit, only grade A piers...everything used had to be perfect or they weren't using it. I can assure anyone thinking about using Gibson for any job...you will only receive top quality work. They do not cut corners for any reason. They are proud of what they do and care about each client they work with...whatever the job may be. This becomes apparent when you work with them...their character and work ethic is impossible to beat. Whatever the price you are given...it's an honest price. You will only receive excellent work and be more than happy you made the choice to use Gibson. Oh, by the way, this is the second time they have completed work for us. the other job, a year ago was also completed with excellence.

I had a 10 year old, 3-story deck that the previous owner took shortcuts when building. It had become very unsafe to the point that I didn't want my family spending time on it. David stripped off all the old decking and railing which had become very unstable, and replaced it with quality lumber. They added joist hangers which where missing with the original build and re-enforced the post and joist connections. The deck pitch was also corrected since the original pitch was too much. David also expanded the depth of the second story deck from 8 to 11 feet to give us more room. This work include adding new posts to support the expansion that was 14 feet above the ground. I could not be happier with their work. David even took the initiative and got rid of a major wasp nest that was under the front porch. This is the second major project that David and his father worked on for me and I would not hesitate to use them again. I trust him to do quality work!

The work went well considering it rained a lot, slowing down the project. David did a great job regrading the road to allow better drainage. He added the right kind of crushed rock material to prevent future problems. He listened well and gave good advise. One big thing for me was that each night during the project David would send me an email detailing what was accomplished that day. Since I didn't live at the site those messages were very helpful. We are very happy with David's work.

After I left a second voice mail message the following day, he emailed me that he was out of town and would get back in touch with me the following week. The following week he emailed me that he was booked until January! So if you need any work done this year, I would recommend you find someone else!

It?s frustrating to us that we never got the opportunity to see any of David?s work. After initially accepting our road project, he failed to communicate with us efficiently regarding his timelines, continuously delayed and pushed our project back over the course of 3 months, and was inconsiderate of the time we had invested in him. While we do respect and understand that this type of work has delays and setbacks, we expect to be updated and given reasonable projections for a start date that will be adhered to. In March, David came out to give us an estimate, after initially trying to cancel the appointment the day of. He seemed knowledgeable, and provided us with a reasonable written estimate. The summary of the work was outlined pretty well, but was not professionally written and required editing before being presented to the HOA. This was the first red flag, but we decided to move forward based on the positive reviews here on Angie?s List. Approximately a month later, we had gathered the necessary monies through our neighborhood HOA and contacted David to officially commission him for the work. That was April 20th, and we were told it would be late May/early June before the work could be done. As late May approached, we contacted David to confirm he would start on the agreed upon date, but he told us it would be early July before the work could be done. If we hadn?t contacted him, I?m not sure when he would have let us know about this significant delay. David told us that the delay was related to weather and issues on other projects. While we were frustrated that he hadn?t communicated this to us, the contractor ASSURED us that he would start July 8th and that the project wouldn?t be delayed any further. We contacted David once more on June 29th to confirm he would be starting the 8th of July, but again, after we contacted him, we were told (to quote his text) ?I am not sure yet [related to the start date]. The group I was going to get to haul backed out, I am trying to find a new group to haul that way.? By this point we were really frustrated, as once again we only found this out because we contacted him. We expressed our frustration and that we were losing faith in him due to the poor communication, to which he accused us of ?attacking? him and claimed that he had ?respected on communication.? He then proceeded to tell us that he was ?going to pass? on the job, and then shortly thereafter told us he ?got another hauler lined up.? We were stunned and weren?t sure where we stood on the project! Ultimately, in the end, we did not feel comfortable moving forward on such a large job with someone that seemed so disorganized. While it is entirely possible that this contractor would have done a good job, his business practices were questionable at best. I anticipate a spirited and defensive response to this review, where he takes no responsibility for his unprofessional behavior. We are of the impression that customers should be treated respectfully and considerately, but the contractor did nothing but deflect fault and his text messages finally spiraled into a weird, incoherent diatribe that left us wondering what was going on. We feel if there were delays, we should have known about them right away. Additionally, we felt he kept pushing us off because he didn?t want to do the job or valued other projects over ours. Our road is currently in terrible shape and is unsafe because of all the time wasted trying to organize the project with this contractor. Initially, we didn?t want to leave a negative review, but felt compelled to illustrate how frustrating this process was, specifically because of David himself.

This project was delayed by 2.5 mos secondary to weather conditions affecting completion of his previous projects. Once on our job, David Gibson and his associate showed were punctual, efficient, and personable. David Gibson replaced the basement sump pump and rerouted its drainage. David had planned to cut the slab to insert a larger pump, but elected not to so as not to damage the basement floor membrane. David had to find a pump to do the job that fit into existing opening in basement floor and was able to accomplish the task. David and his father worked on the exterior project. His father ran the back hoe. They worked well as a team. The exterior project was completed on schedule. The trenched areas were covered with dirt. All the areas were sown with grass seed and covered with straw. David did install sod over the work in the dog run area to help minimize the house mud. We have already begun discussions with this team to work on grading and construction of patio area as a fall project.

David kept us well informed via phone or email prior to coming out so that we knew when to expect him to start and he gave daily updates on the job as it progressed. We have a steep, curvy drive that is difficult to keep gravel on and with hard rains, it ruts and becomes like a washboard quickly. David came out to give us an estimate, he shared his plans to improve the water flow off the drive and laid a much heavier road bond/gravel on top of the drive. Everything from the estimate to the work itself was done in a very professional manner. David stuck to his estimate so there were no surprises. The only slight issue that arose (and that could have just been a simple break down in communication or misunderstanding ) was he came back to gravel a part of the driveway (a second parking area) that was not done initially, but what we assumed to be part of the drive. David came back and graveled this parking portion. The reason I rated the price as "fair" is that it was a fair price for the work he did and the amount of gravel he put on the drive (32 loads). It was significantly higher that other jobs we had done to the drive - but the quality of that work and the extent of the job was not on the same level as what David's company had to do. The quality is excellent - the drive/gravel shows no wear though we have had quite a few good down pours of rain. Thank you, David and your company for making the drive on the "beast" more pleasant.

They arrived in the morning and were finished by 3 pm. Our driveway had some drainage issues, so they dug out a path for water runoff while resurfacing. We are very happy with the work they did.

He went above and beyond the proposal he'd given, and was communicative and provided an exceptionally high quality of work.

David is a very responsive, professional and knowledgeable contractor. He was prompt in visiting our property and in providing a detailed and thorough quote for doing the needed work. He was attentive to what we wanted done and made helpful suggestions to improve on what we originally envisioned. He took great care during the performance of the work to ensure we approved of what he was doing and to make sure we were happy with the quality of the work when it was completed. We are very pleased with what David did for us and recommend him without reservation.

We have an old house that was constructed as a vacation home in the 1920's. Over the years, parts of the foundation began to crumble causing the house to become somewhat unstable, with visible changes in the floor, walls and doorways. We contracted with Gibson Grading and Construction to shore up the foundation and repair a cracked floor joist. Mr. Gibson is very competent and thorough in his work. He installed a number of new concrete block piers under the house to solidify the foundation, and repaired the cracked floor joist. He also rebuilt the back outside corner brick pier and one other outside brick pier that were crumbling due to inferior mortar. He worked hard to ensure that our house was stable and returned to as close to level as possible. He also kept us informed of the progress of the work on a daily basis. In addition to the foundation, he rebuilt and expanded the back porch/deck to more than twice the original size, bringing it up to code and giving it a great new look. We did not know at the time that we asked him to include this project in his work that the old back porch, which is up about 9 feet in the air, was very unstable and close to collapse. It is now solid and much more functional, and looks great. A third project that we asked Mr. Gibson to undertake was to regrade the front yard to keep water from flowing off the paved road out front into the yard and under the house. In addition to bringing in loads of dirt as part of this project, Mr. Gibson added a drain system to channel any problematic water away from house and down into a natural drainage area east of the house. He also built up the parking area in front of the house to channel water away from the front lawn, and installed a retaining wall to maintain the integrity of the parking area. We are extremely pleased with the outcome of all three of the projects included in this contract. Mr. Gibson is a perfectionist about his work, and does all he can to make sure that every he does is done right and has the maximum amount of improvement. I highly recommend him to others who may have similar projects.

It went very well. They did a very nice job. I have had many compliments on it.

Mr. Gibson did an excellent job with our driveway repair. He was very good to work with regarding our available budget for this project and went a bit beyond what we discussed to provide a job of the highest quality. He is punctual and professional. This is the second time i have used his services, and both experiences have been positive. I would strongly recommend him if you are looking for a quality job completed at a fair price.

David was great. Very professional. Worked with me on price to scope project within my budget. I was out of town while he worked and he was very communicative, sent pictures, punctual. Would definitely use David again.