HITT'S LANDSCAPE & MAINTENANCE

I had used Hitt's at a previous residence and was satisfied with his work generally though I was always concerned that he didn't pay close enough attention to detail, such as when they excavated for a new patio they broke one the irrigation pipes but didn't check them until after the concrete was poured. They then had to tunnel under the patio slab approximately 4' to repair the irrigation At my current residence I hired Mr. Hitt once again to do pretty much the same type of installation that he had done at my previous residence; install a patio with an Arbor and landscaping. In addition, they also installed a small water feature (a small pond of about 1500 gallons with a waterfall). I had gotten 3 bids for doing the work before I gave the job to Mr. Hitt. His bid was the lowest by about $5000 and I had used him before and thought he would do a satisfactory job. Unfortunately, we ended up with the very same problem as we had at my previous residence, broken irrigation pipe. It was worse this time because it wasn't discovered until they came to pour the cement, and the break was under one of the supporting post for the arbor. They fixed the pipe and went ahead with the pour. I have found out that you do not pour cement onto soaking wet dirt because it floats the dirt to the surface. When the job was near completion, Mr Hitt came to me with the news that they had made a mistake in their addition when they had bid the job and that the bid should have been $4636.00 higher. This increase put his bid in line with the other two bids that I had received. Not knowing if this was done by accident or on purpose, I agreed to pay half of the additional amount even though I didn't have any legal obligation to do so. His accounting error was upsetting and very disappointing. This took place a year and seven months ago. A couple of months ago the pond started leaking water. Though It was past the guarantee date I called Mr. Hitt to see if they could make repairs to the pond. Seven calls over a period of 10 days and no answer. No response whatsoever from Mr. Hitt or any person associated with Hitt's Landscape & Maintenance.

Overall, the trees and service at the delivery time were as expected. However, it took many occasions of phone calls and texts to get the service rendered. I wanted follow up to straighten a crooked tree planted but never received the followup as confirmed. Still awaiting contact by Mr. Hitt as I write this review. I have had him give me a bid for another renovation project I plan and found his ideas exciting. He ( Mr Hitt) is very good at landscape design but not very good at business/customer relations. He is a very nice man to interact with. Unfortunately, I will not use him further.

What a disaster this turned out to be! Hitt's Landscaping was our contractor's choice to pull together the existing yard and a new addition on our home. He was seldom on site and had no effective foreman. The job was handled unprofessionally and was interminable. Landscaping masonry was great, although the fountain he built for us leaked underground and killed a 20 year old oak that we worked hard to protect during building. Rather than actually investigate, he answered my concerns and protests with "it just must be evaporation." The beds he planted around our new addition were raised higher than the foundation and piled against the house-sides. The job, bid in February to take approximately 3 weeks, had at last reached the point of the plant installation in May. The heavy irrigation needed to sustain the plants seeped into the subfloor of our new addition, ruining our new wood floors and a 2' x 40' section of interior sheetrock.Our builder rectified this promptly (all new wood floors and sheet rock..what mess) and negotiated with Hitt's insurance for replacement costs. Similarly, as a direct result of Hitt's poorly considered and executed work, three 40' Live oaks around which we designed the garden were drowned: the tree trunks were buried 6-8" in a layer of mulch and soil. This material plus the heavy watering regime mentioned above smothered the trees. Maddeningly, I knew better and even told him I thought that the soil was too high, but Mr. Hitt assured me I was wrong and that the trees would be fine (he'd done the same thing plenty of previous times and the trees were always fine, he said [in fact, no one else I ever consulted could concur]). It took approximately one month before we insisted he take the soil back down to the original level, but the damage was done. And the trees we had repeatedly and specifically told anyone and everyone involved in the long and complicated construction process were a priority died within five months. Drainage was inadequate in patio area and needed tweaking at a cost of an additional $2,500 (he wasn't taking any responsibility and complained) To add insult to this HUGE injury to our back yard, we had to fight about replacement costs and responsibility. It got pretty ugly. Hitt was rude, unapologetic, became very defensive and bullying and, towards the end while "punching out" and finishing details, became very sloppy, unresponsive and forced us to ask for small service details that should have been completed w/o question to begin with. We eventually settled with $7,5000 for the total loss of 3 large oaks just to put an end to this bad business. This is an edited, so by no means complete, accounting of the inattention and incompetence that typified the Hitt's experience. This firm probably does a great business in tract-home and spec installations in this boom town, but don't let him near your home or garden.