Affordable Ponds LLC

Long review but I wanted to provide lots of detail for people considering Affordable Ponds I found Jeff's name at a local pond shop, and followed up on Angie's List. He replied to my initial contact within a day. We agreed on a time to meet for a no cost estimate. Jeff listened to my vision for a backyard pondless water feature, including a waterfall, small stream, and a basin. I told him my priorities which were, I did not want a fountain, I wanted something natural looking. I was surprised because Jeff felt that my idea in execution would not match my vision of something natural looking, and recommended we install something much smaller and less complicated. Usually a good sign when a contractor tries to sell you something smaller and less expensive than you ask for. He provided an quote via email that same day. Quote was broken down into cost of the pond only, and additional quote for landscaping and lighting which was $600. Jeff recommended an undergravel filter which saves quite a bit on expensive equipment. Pond nerds on the internet will probably argue about this all day, but I'm comfortable with undergravel having seen it work in fish tanks over the years. I'm not keeping fish in the pond, so undergravel and some pond chems will work for me. Again, I like it when a contractor looks for opportunities to keep costs down. The cost was pretty much what I expected, which was somewhat high end based on my research, but honestly I can't say for certain because I only got 1 bid! I was sold by Jeff's honesty and over the top enthusiasm for ponds. Dude loves ponds OK. I wish I liked my job as much as Jeff likes his. Jeff got us on the schedule in a couple weeks. Day of, he showed up quite early with his entire crew, ready to work. Crew was not the typical cast of characters. Very clean and responsible looking guys. Jeff had a brand new truck and trailer which tells me he's investing in his business. Looked professional and made me feel good about having it parked in my brand new driveway (no oil leaking). Jeff took the time to introduce me to everybody. They got to work unloading stuff right away. Day one they dug and dug. By the end of the day they pretty much all the excavation completed, and had the liner installed with some concrete and rock. He stopped on his way out to reassure me that tomorrow the rough rubber lined crater would be a pond. I wasn't worried because everything to that point had been quite efficient and surprisingly clean considering how much dirt had been removed. Next day I had to go in to the office which was a bummer because I really wanted to see the pond come together but I trusted Jeff to get it done without me needing to supervise. I came home around 3pm and was staggered by what I saw. The most beautiful backyard pond I've ever seen no joke. I snapped some pics and sent them to my wife who replied "is that our backyard?". No joke, this thing is jaw dropping. Jeff went way above and beyond and ticked every single box right down the decoration around the pond. Moss, lighting, plants, rocks, it was exactly what I wanted and more. Everything was working and the thing looked like it had been there forever. Jeff even put bark dust around (which was not in the quote) because he wanted it to "pop". Nice touch. He stopped by an hour or so later and showed me the pond and how to maintain it. He told me that the mossy logs scattered around the pond had been hand picked at the crack of dawn by him and his daughter. Wow. Jeff showed me a receipt for the plants and lighting (which was installed at cost of materials only per the quote) and it was $50 less that quoted. Job was completed ahead of schedule, in perfect working order, and under budget. Site was clean and I was blown away. Jeff's incredibly positive attitude was a pleasure to work with. He is very professional and responsive. Just a great guy who loves ponds. If you have ever seen a pond built, you probably walk away thinking "I can do that" and you probably could. But it wouldn't be as nice as my pond. Jeff has a great artistic eye, and knows what looks good. There is an art to pond building and Jeff has it. FIVE STARS

Great service. On time arrival at 8am Saturday, very friendly, hard working and he gave me lots of advice on future upkeep. Beforehand, emails were answered promptly and phone calls were regular when needed. Having inherited the pond in our new house, it was great to find an affordable service to help us get it up to standard for the addition of fish.

We had a custom-built stream installed some years ago in our yard. Over time, It became filled w/debris and had developed a hidden leak, so wasn't being used. Our original thought was to have the stream reconfigured into a smaller water feature to perhaps simplify things. We called Jeff @ Affordable Ponds to come out to give us an estimate/advice on what to do. He advised that we keep the stream, due to the high cost of re-building it - just clean it and determine where it leaked. Jeff said he'd charge for cleaning, but wouldn't charge for finding the leak, because he couldn't guarantee it. In a half-day, he and his employee did a fantastic job of cleaning the stream out, pressure washing the streambed and removing a lot of moss from surrounding rocks, and locating the leak. To look for the leak, he removed some flagstones in the patio area adjoining the base of the stream, and dug into the area where the tank was buried, found a few minor problems that he fixed, and then found the major leak at the other end of the stream and fixed that. He then came back in a few days, confirmed the leak was fixed, filled in the hole where he'd dug, and replaced the flagstones as they were originally set. Jeff didn't want to charge us for finding the leak(s), in keeping with his original agreement, but we felt it only right to compensate him for his excellent work. Jeff's attitude, work ethic and professionalism is remarkable. His long-time experience with water features is evident. He enjoys what he's doing and goes all out to satisfy the customer. We'll certainly use him again for maintenance/cleaning and wholeheartedly recommend him to anyone who needs water feature repair, installation or maintenance.

Technician was very punctual and did a great job. Have called them to do the job again this month.

Job was completed as agreed, on time and for the amount agreed. The only hiccup was some pump wiring that was not removed Once we made Jeff aware of the problem it was adequately addressed. Voicemail/email were returned promptly.

Jeff came out right away and had his crew come the next morning; very fast and affordable. I thought I was going to rewire everything but that wasn't necessary. Sold me a more efficient pump at cost. works great.

It took a day for them to do it. They were very punctual and they did a good job. The thing is I have seen their work in other yards; brand new installations and they were really good. Mine they were just kind of fixing one that already existed. Their price was on the high side.

They do an outstanding job. Jeff (owner) put up w/ my many email questions prior to service. He also gave me tip on waiting until after the leaves have fallen to get the most "bang for your buck" out of pond cleaning. That was nice, and meant a delay in business for him, since I was ready to have him come out over the summer. Honest person. When his 2 guys came out to clean the pond, they were on time and worked hard. They took good care of my 30 or so fish, being careful not to hurt them during the removal, draining, cleaning, and refilling process. His 2 guys also put up w/ lots of questions from me during the cleaning, and me hanging around worried about my fish. They were pros. Price was reasonable. 4 hours of work or so, $450 for full pond cleaning. Water went from terrible to great in 4 hours. They also monkeyed w/ my waterfall and made it work better for no additional charge. They also removed just the right amount of pond plants, which was included in the pond cleaning fee. We've been using Jeff and Affordable Ponds for several years now, and have had multiple experiences with them. Always excellent. Highly recommend!

I volunteer at a community, botanical garden and the pond in one of the gardens had a leak. The owner doesn't appear to have a regular office staff to answer phones so I left a voice message. He called back in the later afternoon and I missed his call. We played some telephone tag before settting a day/time for the rep to come out. The rep couldn't find a leak in the pond liner around the waterfall area so asked me to not add water and let the water get so it's lowest level. We scheduled for a week later. Yesterday, the rep checked out around the pond waterfall again because the water hadn't gone down much. He found the liner wasn't raised enough along one edge so water was leaking over the liner. He adjusted the liner. Took about 15 minutes and he said he wouldn't charge. Very generous of Affordable Ponds to come twice and not charge anything. As a small, non-profit, botanical garden, we really appreciate their generosity and they were friendly, professional and very helpful. I've hired them, personally, to clean our pond when we moved into a new home. They did a wonderful job and gave us lots of information on how to keep it clean. I highly recommend this company.

They were professional from start to finish. They came on time for the estimate. They came on time for the repair and cleaning appointment. The appointment took 3 hours, which is what they communicated on the estimate. They honored the 5% Angies List discount. After 2 weeks the water feature was not functioning properly- the water flow had dropped more than 50%. They came back withnin 2 days when I was at work, found the pond nearly empty, fixed a leak and filled it back up. The pond, however, had an auto-fill feature so even with a leak it should have stayed full, so an empty pond indicated the autotfill was malfunctioning. I called and they came back, again, within two days and found the autofill feature stuck off, which they were able to easily fix. I am a happy satisfied customer. I feel taken care of and will use them again.

Affordable Ponds Jeff came out to check our waterfalls/catch basin. Extremely nice. Scheduled cleaning within a very reasonable time period. PriceIng was very affordable. (True to their name!). We did need to put off the cleaning - our own personal reasons. I do feel bad when I have to cancel an appointment. Basically the lady that answered the phone asked for a call-back number. I did automatically think of "pressure" because of canceling. Lol. Then, basically, she abruptly hung up on me. Dang. Will I reschedule when I can? Yep. Because of Jeff and his crew

After our original meeting, Jeff has made a real effort to explain his reasoning to us in detail. He realizes we are hiring his expertise, but are the ones left with knowing what to do if something doesn't go right in the future and need to know how things work, so he gave us the "Pools 101" course. About a week after they had been here, we did have a glitch and knew what to do, thanks to our newly gained knowledge! So, we are very happy to have used this company and can recommend them highly.

I am a raving fan of Jeff and the crew of Affordable Ponds. From the moment that Jeff came to our house and spoke about what he could create in our yard to the finished product, everything has been exceptional. After hearing Jeff's "vision" for our yard, both my wife and I said, "Just give us what you are talking about!" In a little more than one day, the crew built a wonderful experience of natural looking rocks, plants, waterfalls, and ponds. They installed lights that brilliantly display the feature at night. We have found Jeff to be a man to have passion for his trade. He is professional and gave us more than promised. His price was substantially less than another bid we received for something that I know to be of inferior quality. If you want a water experience in your yard, Affordable Ponds is the best!

Jeff Reid called Saturday morning after reading my review which I had written post-appointment on the 5th. He was upset with my grading ("bad" = D) and wanted to know what he could do to fix that. I told him that he could explain the situation and what the issues were - really - and if I felt more educated by the "expert" he was purported to be on his website, maybe we could figure out what happened. Obviously, we were all upset, but he was willing to talk to both me and my husband and explain to us what he saw as the problems we were having with our water feature, as well as his proposed solutions - even to the extent of offering a nice discount on the first time back! Because he made good sense with his explanation as well as his proposal, we are going to have him back to do the work. Of course, the discount does sweeten the deal. I might be back with all "A"s after the 17th! This could all have been avoided if he had done the educating on the spot at the time he was at my house, but he thought I was not going to be receptive to his opinion. It turns out to have been a communication issue.

He took the koi out of the pond and put them in a small portable pond. He power washed the whole pond and got rid of all the sludge. Washed the filter system, treated the water, and put the fish back in. It took him 3 full hours. Really nice guy and he did a great job.

Jeff's team of two came in and totally drained and cleaned out our koi pond. They were very gentle with the fish and we never lost any. The pond looked amazing when they left and they even went the extra mile and helped us troubleshoot our leaking waterfall issues. They found and patched a couple of holes in the liner. WE are VERY impressed! They will be back!!

Jeff was prompt to respond to my call and also to come to the house and give e an estimate for the work needed. Jeff was very personable, affable, & courteous. The young man that came to do the job (sorry I didn't write down your name) was equally respectful, personable, courteous. The job was done on a timely manner, and findings explained at the end of the job. Very, very pleased

Joe has come and gone. Waiting to hear back from Jeff to discuss our options.

My pump started making a horrible noise and I called Jeff right away. The noise was so bad that my neighbor complained to me so something had to be done. Jeff ordered a new pump since mine was under warranty and Joe installed the new one. When Joe discovered that the pump was slightly larger than what I had, Joe called Jeff to verify the correct pump installation. Turns out, Jeff decided to go with a larger pump and his company absorbed the cost for me; the difference in cost between the pump under warranty and the new one installed. Within minutes, Joe installed the new pump, with the water flowing like it should and no noise. I just love these guys and kudos to Jeff! Joe also gave me a good tip for algae control since I have no fish in the pond, a chlorine tablet from Walmart or any store, 3" thick to take care of the algae that might build up- who knew? They did. Thanks guys

called for service and Jeff scheduled me for pond service with good news. He researched his data base and since I was a returning Angie's list customer he was able to tell me what I had done in the past and he remembered me as a valued customer. Joe was scheduled to work on my pond since he was one who had worked on my pond the first time and was familiar with the set up. He was on time and went to work right away. Joe drained the pond and cleaned the gunk from the winter's leaves and windy debris. Inspected the pump and the working order of the pump and cleaned out the skimmer box and found that the brushes had rusted leaving parts of the bristles in the skimmer box. Joe took his time and cleaned out all the skimmer bristles determining that that had been clogging the system! Yay. It took him about two hours and he carefully replaced the stones and my pond is up and running with clear beautiful water again. Thanks Joe.

They pumped it out and put the fish in a container while working. They dug it deeper, and made the waterfall higher and installed a sand filter and bigger pump. The new liner is made from a different material so should last a lot longer. They also brought in a lot more and larger rocks to finish both the inside and the outside of the pond and waterfall. Moss and plants were put in around the waterfall and pond. Looks good and the fish seem to like it better too!

The service provided was as expected and was punctual and well done.

Extremely pleased and all was done correctly and always on time.

No clean u,p and Jeff haled off the 2 old filters for free.

Very well - happy to have the water feature pumping again. $169 for labor and the balance for cost of the pump. Pump appears to be cheaper if we had gotten the same pump online (which my husband noted after the fact), but two very professional service guys were back and forth within the span of a few hours, had and had it fixed in a very timely manner with confidence and no issues - saved me time and further angst over what to do with it! I appreciated that they recommended to go with a smaller pump which did save some money as the one we had on the system was apparently overkill - installation a couple years back by a different company.