MIKES LANDSCAPING

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Overall, I am glad I wasn't enticed by this guy's promises and low estimate. It pays to do some research and meet with other landscapers to avoid being taken advantage of.

Initially it went good. Mike had some great ideas, he was very personable, and my neighbor went to church with him. After he got the hole dug, I felt bad about the price so I through in an extra 200. He then had the rock delivered, and I never saw him again. He left my front yard with a pile of dirt and a pile of rock and I was out a lot of money.

We initially contracted with Mike at the end of Dec 2008, he got started in January and it looked like things would go alright (although he never showed up at the time he stated, it was always at least an hour or more later). His mason laid a 30' long, 5' high block wall with a stucco scratch coat. His work was just acceptable. I wasn't there when they put the cap on and I have suspicions that they never put any concrete in the hollows of the block for reinforcement (which is what he had agreed to do). Then the same workman laid a small block wall for the water feature and this is when I knew that the work was substandard. The blocks on the each course were lined up with each other, rather than staggered (as they should be). This caused the wall to be very weak. Further, this wall was to be the backing for a large piece of granite, however, the wall was so out of plane (over 1/2" from corner to corner) and lacked strength, that I had to personally repair it with a piece of Hardibacker board to make the face of the wall in the same plane so the granite would be able to be attached. The worker that formed the stairs (7 feet wide, 4 steps with 6 inch risers) had each riser at least 1 inch different from the others (i.e. the first riser was 5 inches then the next two were 6 and the last was 7 inches). Had I not noticed this and brought it to their attention, they would have poured the stairs and had a complete mess!! It took them over 3 months to complete the job. More times than I can count, they said they would be on the job, and they never showed up. Didn't call, nothing. Lastly, when I finally told him how upset we were with his performance, he finally showed up and then for the last draw, claimed that I still owed him the sales tax. The contract was ambiguous and he had never mentioned it previously. But after I admonished him for poor workmanship and failure to perform the work in a timely fashion, he then makes this claim. I'm going to pay him to get him off my property, but he lost another several thousand dollar job and I hope that anyone reading this takes extreme caution with this company.