Red Dirt Landscaping

Horrible experience from start to finish. The system had multiple leaks, some of the pipes he buried so shallow that you can see them just laying on the ground visible. He threatened to out a lien on my house if I didn't pay him even though his work was terrible. Please save yourself the trouble and do not hire this guy. He is a complete joke!

He has not finished. He came out and never came back. He emailed me a bill which that I turned into my lawyer. He never finished. I would not use them again.

Again, I bought a LIVING SOCIAL DEAL for Red Drit Landscaping. I phoned Erik, the owner, August 16, 2012,(yes 2012) and let him know what I needed. I only needed 3 flower beds edged with decorative brick and rock edging, and minimal bushes and trees. He gave me an appointment, and came by to measure the lenght of the beds, and spoke with me about what he could put into the flower beds. He said I neede to use the Living Social Deal in one day, and that he could get my job completed in one day. When he left he said he would get back to me. A couple weeks went by and I had not heard anything from him. I phoned his cell, texted his cell and e-mailed his web site. No response. After a couple monthes and a complaint to Social Living, he texed me and said he sent out samples and a diagram. I never received anything from him and sent back that I had not. I have tried to contact him numerous times with no response. Today is August 12, 2013, my coupon expired August 16, 2013 and I am out $249.00. I would NEVER use (not that I did use him, he did nothing but take the $249) recommend him to anyone.

Erik came out and talked with us about what we wanted done and then said he would draw up a plan and get it to us. After several weeks and us pestering him, he finally sent us a very confusing quote with options, but no visual design as we had discussed. There was no quote for the patio, nor were the trees we had discussed listed. We contacted him again several times to clear up some things and finally decided to just have the trees done first and go from there. We said several times that to begin with we would just like the trees planted and that we were unsure if we would like him to do the flower bed. So much time passed that summer had begun, so we emailed him and said when you come please just plant the trees and we have left a spot in the flower bed for the cedar, but do not mulch or weed mat as we have already planted several plants in the area. Well a few days later they came out without so much as a call, t illed up over $50 worth of flowers and planted the cedar with weed matting and the wrong color mulch to boot. The trees that they planted were puny, in the wrong places (we had discussed strategic placement to block the sun and make the most of the large front yard space). We were very upset and called them numerous times. All through this almost year long process they have been just impossible to get a hold of. Very frustrating experience all around. To make matters even better we're currently in process of moving (already entered into contract on another home) and he calls to say they came out to put in the sprinkler system and ran into problems with our water meter!!! Very unprofessional and unreliable. UPDATE: Mr. Love has now contacted us after being completely unavailable to collect his money that is supposedly due. He received a $250 from our living social deal, which was to entitle us to $2000 in labor, design, etc. We never received the design. He quoted the trees talked about coming and planting them and then several weeks later with no notice planted them how he pleased and so poorly that they had to be replanted several times in a month period. Upon doing it a little research it seems that Mr. Love is currently on probation for Embezzlement and Concealing Stolen property. He also has several suits against him recently and almost a dozen complaints through the BBB. Not someone I would have felt comfortable trusting to do work on my property unsupervised. I wish I had looked into this prior to purchasing the deal and it would have saved us a lot of hassle. As it stands now I'm afraid we will end up in court over the deal (where it seems he finds himself frequently), which is just silly. All we wanted at first was for him to apologize for destroying our flowerbed, possibly offer to replant some similar flowers, and to replant at least one tree in the correct area and stake them. Then after he made it very clear that he would do no such thing we asked him to just come reclaim his trees. He demanded immediate payment, saying he would not charge us for the sprinkler system he had not even begun to install (hopefully because we had never hashed out the specifics, etc) and would knock off a 100 dollars for the trees not being staked and therefore having to be replanted several times in a month long time frame, or he would place a lien on our home, which he knows we are trying to sell. He never apologized for being unreachable, never addressed our concerns or offered to make it right at all. We finally wrote him the check because we just can't afford the hassle right now. I've never felt so scammed, he'll do or say just about anything to make an easy buck it seems and the sad thing is if he would have just come out and fixed it we would have used him at our new home as well to install some drains and a sprinkler system there. Save yourself a lot of heartache and money, do your research and look elsewhere. This company does not appear to have a license (expired business permit and no other licensing that I could find through the state agriculture department), has terrible customer service and will resort to petty, criminal behavior to intimidate you into paying money that they didn't earn in order to make a quick buck. This is probably one of the worst decisions I have made in a very long time.

Erik seemed nice and very willing to help me but that was only until he had my money. Then he turned into the invisible man. Not long after he had laid the drains, the dogs dug out the pipes because I had asked him to put them deeper into the ground which he claimed he would do but did not do. The gutters LOOKED great but in only a few weeks and in a light rain, three downspouts FELL OFF THE HOUSE. We then discovered that there was no hole in the gutters for the water to exit at the downspout. Basically the water swelled up around the corners and the excess drained to the downspout so it LOOKED right. I asked him 7 different times in a year period to come fix these and he still has not done so. The drains in the backyard where the dogs dug them out (they were only about 3 inches under the soil) are useless... they are filled with dirt and congested. The ONLY drains that work are the side yard drains which the OTHER CONTRACTOR installed and Erik simply linked to the drains. I asked him 12 different times in a two year period to fix the drains. He has the NERVE to come to my house during a rain storm, take pictures of the drain and say "It's working fine in the front yard." I KNOW! The backyard is the problem but he refuses to make good on his work. PLEASE do not use this company. It will look great and fall apart before you pay off the bill.

8/6/2012 - I had requested pricing via email from Red Dirt Landscaping. I sent a detailed drawing along with pictures of sample work. I was contact back promptly. 8/9/2012 - I checked back a few days later via email and and received the following reply "I currently have 15 bids ahead of you as of this morning. I am getting about 5 -6 bids done per day, so iw ould hope to have a full write up available for you by Tuesday afternoon. Thank you" 8/21/2012 - I replied to the email 8/9/2012 email asking for any updates; received no reply from Erik 9/11/2012 - I replied back again to the 8/9/2012 email asking for any updates, and received no reply. Still no additional replies to date. Obviously I do not know the quality of their work, but it is apparent they didn't have the professionalism to reply that they either weren't interested in the project or to give a bid. It's frustrating to provide information to a contractor who simply cannot communicate back.

The work started promptly and seemed to be going well, but then the problems began. They ran out of the antique sandstone after about 20 feet and said no more was available. He purchased much smaller pavers of a different color. He never did finish installing them. I did it myself. Next, we noticed that some of the drains from the downspouts didn't just go downgrade - they actually went UP and then down. We insisted that they come fix them, and they did. Then I realized that a drain cut in my patio to chanel the water under the patio was just stuck directly into my patio! It was draining straight to the dirt under the patio! (Earlier, when I had asked why they didn't have to cut the patio for the drain, Erik had told me they were able to do it without cutting the patio. Lie.) Also, the caulking he had done was terrible! He had not cleaned the crack before caulking. It looked like a child had squeezed toothpaste all over - it wasn't even pushed into the crack. I called Erik, but he did not respond to my calls. I emailed and told him I would start writing bad reviews on his ads unless he came to see us to go over every piece of the project. He agreed to meet us the next night. Well, he was at our house at 8:00 the next morning. He redid the caulk and cut a real drain for the pretend patio drain. He never dealt with us face to face about these issues. The concrete work on that drain is badly cracked and another concrete patch has broken, letting water flow under our patio.In the end, we were glad to be done with him, and just chalked it up to experience. Then we had the super dry summer with no rain. The first real test of the drains was earlier this year in the big rains. The basement leaks as bad as ever, no improvement at all. Now, we discover the very worst part...our system is coming apart because Erik did not use the proper connections on our pipes. He used HVAC duct tape!!! (It says Nashua 557 on the tape, look it up) It is disintigrating and holes are opening up at the connections. It won't be long and our downspouts won't even be connected to the drains! I have emailed and texted Erik asking him to contact us, but he did not respond till I started posting reviews like this. I noticed a Kudzo.com reviewer that said much the same as our experience. Erik responded to that post saying they were mistaken and not his customers. He does however say in that post that he has a lifetime warranty. I sure hope he will contact me and honor that! I've communicated with other disappointed customers...they have given up getting him to respond. If anyone doubts my issues - I have a long paper trail of emails with Erik. My only contact with him now is asking me to remove these posts and let them resolve it internally. I have emailed back that I will remove every one when they are no longer accurate. The MOST disappointing part of this for us is that Erik makes a big deal about his faith. I think that part really sucked us in. Stay clear of this company.

The french drain has NEVER WORKED. It was like an act of God to get him to respond to my calls and emails during the year "warranty period". After the install he would hardly ever have a face to face conversation that i requested numerous times. He would "text" instead and would "supposedly" work on it when i was at work. Today, I had a different company come and look at it. They dug up the drain to see why it did not work and and found he did not place the drain 6" below the foundation (the minimum is 4-6" BELOW an area) nor did he place enough gravel. I was informed this drain NEVER worked because it wasn't installed deep enough and there was not enough of a slope for the water to get to the street. In addition, he placed a piece of flashing against house but did not attach it with tar to secure it.. (had the "appearance" but it was pretty much placed against the wall for looks) When flashing is not attached correctly water can and will get behind the flashing (which can cause more problems). Erik did not install a true moisture barrier which any professional dealing with a french drain is suppose to do. The excavation was already done this wouldn't have taken hardly any time . In addition, he broke my sprinkler system and had to come back several times "to patch it." I ended up having to have a professional sprinkler technician fix it. Since he does landscaping this should not have been a problem. He gave me a great education on how a french drain is supposed to work and how they are (supposedly) installed. However, I still have the same problem and he has my money and now I am having to spend more.. Save yourself the grief,headaches and money , call a true professional and get several referrals.