VIRGINIA GARDENS & HARDSCAPES LLC

DO NOT USE! they also go by CMS Contractors LLC out of 5011 gunpowder rd. In fairfax. Also check the reviews on porch dot com. Took a $2700 deposit and ran. Charles black seemed knowledgeable and I did much research but since they "borrowed" the name of a a company in virginia that is based 80 miles away, most research falsely raises these guys up when I now know that they likely did the name swap to gain people's trust because there is little or nothing about this fake CMS Contractors LLC available. Charles and Susan black will not return any call or emails and 2 months after there cashed the check for our 2 day job, NOTHING. I will have to pursue legally now since the money they took was for a wheelchair accessible walkway that I need. Want records or proof of this I will gladly provide! Bazketfrk1 at Gmail dot com.

WENT INTO A LAWSUIT WHICH I OBTAINED JUDGEMENTS..

I called the company's number twice and had to leave messages because no one answered. They also never returned my calls so I took my business to someone else who wanted to provide good (if not courteous) customer service.

This father & son (Charles Black Sr. & Charles ?Chad? Jr.) company, Virginia Gardens & Hardscapes (VGH) (now renamed Schwartz Industries) won our business with a low quote, professional act, & pictures (their website & binder) of magnificent work (not likely theirs) completed on grand estates. The son (front man) played nice/professional until I signed the contract & paid half up front. After that, it was a nightmare. They claimed the project would be done in abt. 1 month but 5 months later, it wasn?t (never was). Random workers haphazardly appeared on site with little/no supervision & no necessary permits were acquired. All work needs to be torn out & redone. Independent engineers/county inspectors agree it?s the worst they?ve seen. The 1st month ended with little progress & then VGH announced a name change to Schwartz Industries. Concerning b/c: a) our contract & supposed lifetime warranty on the work was with VGH, b) why use Schwartz if real name is Black? Likely attempt to ?launder? the old name due to # of prior upset clients/poor work. We had to chase after them for months for legal docs to prove our contract & warranty would stay valid. Polite inquires about project details, time lines, etc were met with hostile, un-businesslike response (bullying tantrum) from the son stating that we did not have the right to ask questions. This treatment evolved into a hot-cold-hot-cold, game playing. The father took over as POC to attempt damage control but things did not improve. Son contacted us to admit he had forgotten a small retaining wall in his design but demanded $1,200+ to correct it or else he would remove all workers/equipment & leave the mess until he felt like returning & at an even steeper $ penalty. We threw them half the money to get work moving again but this just encouraged them to keep messing with us. Instead of proper patio top flagstone, cheap/thin veneer stone (normally used for walls/indoor applications) was very sloppily laid (with huge, inconsistent spacing) further ignoring our requests & pictures we provided early on. After repeated pleas for the spacing to at least be corrected they hit us with the 2nd shakedown ? tried to charge us a huge amt. to pull up & correct. We protested so they just set them in concrete as they were (not even done right-all loose) Finally, wood steps (not to code) made of cheap, warped, knotty wood were slapped onto the deck. And refusing to meet for a final walkthrough, the father just showed up very early one morning, demanded final payment while standing on the still unfinished front steps. I politely refused to pay until an engineer evaluated the work. We had to contact the police a couple weeks later when the father and a crew were found trespassing. At first, they pretended to leave when asked to but I found the father's truck backed in the driveway while he and crew headed into the back yard when I went back to check. As the police car pulled up they got in the truck & fled. BEWARE! Chad is operating under the new company: element or 1 element - www.my1element.com.

Initially, the owner was very friendly, professional and very courteous. I told them that we are very picky and he was okay with it. The workers were very punctual and did the work well. But, after I gave them the last check, he has not contacted me. He also has not responded to my calls, emails and I just can to get a hold of them. There is some problem with the stairs that he made for me and I need to get it fix. I also visited their office but, no one answered when I went their.

The job itself is actually of fair quality however the additional modification for outdoor lighting was never completed. We paid in full, my mistake, on the lighting modification. The temporary transformer was delivered however the final product nor the final wiring were never completed. I have made several attempts to contact the owner, all of which have been ignored. Email address has now blocked all contact.