HALLS LANDSCAPE

I posted an earlier review (F) for Hall's landscape and feel compelled to provide an update/postscript. After failing to resolve my issues (wrong color flagstones installed), I sued them in small claims court and won a judgment. The mistake I made was to sue Steve Hall as an individual and not Hall's landscape. Not long after my judgment, media stories surfaced about Steve and Marukh Hall. In particular, Marukh was operating a consignment store called "Red Cat Consignment" on Buckner in Dallas. Google and read it for yourself but the allegations are that the store closed abruptly and consignees lost their property. They then proceeded to declare bankruptcy so all us unlucky creditors got the shaft, financially speaking. Periodically I Google them or go to the Hall's website to see what they are up to. Now it appears that they have set up shop in McKinney doing the same thing again. Steve is very talented and is capable of good work but that seems to be interspersed with unprofessional and even deviant behavior.

WATERFALL: When the waterfall was being built, there was a fairly serious problem. The men working for Mr. Hall, or Mr. Hall himself, turned the wrong lever when testing the waterfall & ruined our pool cleaning motor which cost us $ $374.65 to replace. We were good natured about this when reporting the problem & Mr. Hall said he would adjust our final bill. We didn't feel that we had any choice other than to accept his offer even though we would have preferred that he pay us directly for the damage. There has been a far for serious situation since then. We only turned the waterfall on twice for short durations during the summer of 2010 & never noticed any problem. However, in April of 2011, nine months short of a year of it being built, we turned on the waterfall to discover that it leaked badly from its base after flowing for about 20 minutes, with water filling the flower beds & running down the alley & into the street. We called Mr. Hall who seemed disintered & said he was tied up with other jobs & would come out when he could. It was weeks before he came by, & he didn't stay long enough to see how badly the waterfall leaked. He was very vague about the entire matter & implied that it couldn't be his problem & that we should have our pool service check the "lines" for damage. We did this, & they confirmed that the waterfall was leaking from its base. They said the problem could well be that when water flowed into the pool, it was splashing back through areas in the lower rocks that had never been cemented. Some areas were cemented, but many areas were not & lots of the cement was cracking & falling into the pool. So, we called Mr. Hall again and left messages & after 2-3 attempts to reach him, he finally returned our call. However, he was again disinterested & stated that "If I come out again, I'll have to charge you." I was shocked at his attitude. It was clear that he assumed no responsibility & was not going to stand by his one year warranty/guarantee. Over the next month, we made several more calls to Mr. Hall in an attempt to reason with him & resolve this problem but he never responed. We then took photos & sent him a detailed email but he never responded to this either. In the meantime, we had another different problem occur with his work. On June 20th, 2011 at 6:30 AM, a neighbor woke us up to tell us that we had a major leak in our front yard. We had to call the City Water Dept. to come out and turn off our water. Then we called a plumber from Angie's List that has been very reliable in all of his work for us. The leak was in the exact area that Hall Landscaping had repaired 5 months earlier in Jan. 2011. The plumber had us look at the separated pipe before he repaired it and we took photos of the damage. He asked if we had a master plumber or someone with a master in irrigation to do this repair in Jan. as they had not used the required purple primer to prep the pipe, which led to the pipe separating over time from water pressure. He said the damage was not due to winter weather. The plumber also inspected our waterfall & agreed with what the pool company had said about the cause of leakage. He further stated that not only was there areas without cement, Hall Landscaping had also not used hydrolic cement in the areas they did cement which was what was required for that type of job. We tried calling Mr. Hall again without success. On July 7th, 2011, we sent him a certified/registered letter with more photos of the waterfall & the separated pipe, but the post office could never get them to accept it & it was returned to us unopened on Aug. 5th. That same day, we called Mr. Hall again & this time he answered. However, he wasn't the least interested & was very rude. He said "how do I know these problems were my fault?" He had no interest in creating good will between us or in trying to come to any arrangement regarding repairs. He ended the conversation by saying he was "not going to do anything as nothing he might do would be good enough for us" which was totally untrue. This contractor has not behaved in a professional manner, & it would appear that he does not guarantee his work as is stated on his Angie's List page. BEWARE of this company.

Steve Hall designed and installed new landscaping with his crew in the Fall of 2008. They were all exceptionally professional, courteous, and diligent. The work was completed on time, and now (7 months later) we are still loving and enjoying their beautiful work. Most importantly, Steve guaranteed his work and the life of the plants for one year. Two of the plants originally did not survive. When I phoned Steve, he came out before even speaking with me a second time, and replaced the plants AND added more flowers to the bed at no charge. This spring, one of the front plants did not make it, apparently due to a problem with our sprinkler. After leaving ONE voicemail that one of our plants was dying, we had to leave town for a few days. When we returned, Steve had already replaced the plant. Needless to say, we are beyond impressed with the level of service we have received. The Halls and their crew are wonderful to work with, and we highly reccomend their company. Steve is exceptionally knowledgeable, and MOST IMPORTANTLY, takes great pride in his work and is truly committed to the success of his landscaping projects. I highly reccomend them to anyone looking for a landscaping firm.

We solicited several bids from contractors during 02/2008 for our Spring project. Steve Hall, owner of Hall's Landscaping, personally visited our home on 2 different occasions to provide ideas/insight on our project. He was attentive and was able to turn around his bid in under a week. My wife and I were both impressed with the attention we received in the "planning" phase from Steve and he also offered the lowest bid. One of Steve's strengths is the ability to find cost effective solutions - we did not feel like he was offering to sell us items/materials that we did not need. As a result, we awarded Hall's the project on Friday, 2/27. The dates are important to note due to an event we had scheduled at our home on 3/14. Steve stated that he would finish up the project that his team was currently on and that they would begin our project midday on Monday, 3/2. The project would take "4-5 days to complete." I received a call from Steve on that Monday stating that things had run behind schedule and that he would begin Wed., 3/4. Good communication - this was OK. On 3/4, the Hall crew began the project. On 3/5, I received a call from Steve stating that the materials that we ordered were delayed and would not arrive until Friday, 3/6. As a result, his team would not be back to work until Monday, 3/9. I was understanding at that point, as these things often occur. I reconfirmed with Steve that our project was still on track for completion by 3/14, regardless of weather, etc., and he stated that it would not be a problem in no uncertain terms. The crew came back to our house on 3/9 to resume the project. On 3/9, I surveyed the progress and called Steve to discuss my concerns regarding lack of progress, I also inquired a 2nd time about his ability to work in inclement weather as the forecast was not promising for the next few days. He told me that things were moving along and reassured me in no uncertain terms that his crew did not stop working during rainfall and did not express concern about completing the project. Needless to say, the rains came on 3/11, as had been forecasted, and Steve informed me that it was unlikely they would be able to work in the rain during those days. Clearly upset, I asked that Steve at least try to complete the pots and front bed where guests would be entering our home. This is a covered area. Steve stated he would go by the house and do what he could. Nothing was done to this area. Steve and his team resumed work on 3/16 and finished on 3/19. When we were contacted by Marukh Hall (very courteous) for payment, we were informed of additional charges that were not agreed to/discussed. We inquired about said charges and were nicely told not to shoot the messenger, though Steve never contacted us to discuss. We now enjoy our landscaping and it is high quality, as we had hoped. However, the means to achieve the results were much less than satisfactory, not to mention almost 2 weeks behind schedule.

I have an intimate area on the side of the house between the home and garage that is a bit intimate accented by mature crape myrtles with a path leading in to the back yard and pool. I love to enjoy evenings there, entertain and visit with friends, sipping margaritas and grilling. The patio was make-shift with odds and ends paving stones and bricks, and uneven, inherited from the previous home owner. I envisioned a natural stone patio, more level, with small plants accenting with some green and little flowers growing between the stones to add some magic to this space. I talked to several landscaping companies and took several estimates. Some were higher priced and some were lower. You get what you pay for. I chose Halls Landscape because they seemed to specialized in hardscaping, seemed more experienced with this type of work than most, and more importantly seemed to have the "passion" and "gift" for bringing my vision to life. I didn't dream it would come out so perfectly. They showed me several pictures of other similar work they'd done in the community and provided numerous referrals and I visited with most of them who all praised their work and professionalism. They laid out the schedule "day 1, day 2, day 3", the terms and advised the possible unseen challenges and surprises. They answered every question, and I had a lot! They went at my pace and schedule and accommodated every concern. The project came off without a hitch, from digging, leveling laying the substrate material to lovingly laying each stone and planting each of the many varied plants in between. They took greater care with detail than I expected. The work and plantings fit into the space and complemented the existing plants plants as if it had all grown there together by divine order. Halls Landscaping has the "magic touch" I was hoping for. The space is my favorite place on earth, providing such peace and serene beauty when I have it all to myself and such elegance when I am entertaining. I feel like a million dollars whenever I am relishing this divine place!

The whole process was pleasant and painless from start to finish. It was done with efficiency and in a timely fashion. There here no misunderstanding and communication was very easy from the get go. If I had any questions they were answered correctly and without any hesitation. The owner and I had an initial meeting to discuss what I had in mind and then he verified that he had understood me correctly. He called me once to clarify an issue and within a few days we met again to finalize the project. I had a few minor changes and they were implemented. The crew arrived on the date and time that was scheduled. Steve the owner came by several times during the installation, and the job was completed as scheduled. I was extremely satisfied.

The week before the work was to start, I confirmed the date and time for the project (after they got my 50% deposit, the start date went from "next week" to 3 weeks from then) & stayed home from work, but they didn't show. After I left a message, they called & said they were on their way. I saw them drive up, but they never came to my door & then I saw them leave. When I called again, they said they weren't coming until the next day. OK. Scheduling snafus happen. I could live with that. They came the 2nd day, but I had to go to work. When I got home, stone was installed, but it was not what I discussed with the designer, or what the proposal stated. My entire yard is done in traditional tan/orange/black colored Oklahoma flagstone (see pictures). They installed red stone. It doesn't match & looks terrible because its red & my patio, steps, planters and pool coping is a different color. When I called Steve, he seemed very agitated & denied it was the wrong stone. In fact he said I hadn't specified the color (implying I think that it was my fault if I didn't like the stone). He also said things like "You mean you're going to wreck this job for me" & "next thing I know you'll be telling me you don't like the color of the tree leaves" & "I personally went out to the quarry in the blazing sun and specially picked out these stones and now you say you don't like them?" After I read the proposal to him, his tune changed and he offered me a reduced fee if I would keep the "Santa Fe" stone. I declined as I want a consistent look in my yard. This might be fine for some people, but it's my yard & my money. They agreed verbally & in writing to a plan and I expected their work be "to spec". The next day his designer emailed me and admitted they installed the wrong stone and offered to correct the situation-I never heard from her again after I accepted. Also, he was supposed to use my (matching) stone that I already had. They took that and despite numerous requests to return them, never did. They dug up my violets in a garden that wasn't covered by the proposal. Steve later called them "debris". I wrote and called several times but received no response. Bottom line: I only paid 1/2 but now I have to pay someone else to remove and haul away the wrong stone, dig up the plants (he never did plant the tree), and lay down the correct stones, and replant the plants.