Ground Affects Landscaping Inc

Our experience consisted of both good and bad. The Good: We interviewed several contractors, and Bryan, by far, best understood what we wanted, and provided us with a detailed concept that matched our needs within our general price range. Bryan is very personable, provided excellent ideas regarding stone types and design concepts, and was willing to work with us to tweak the design to our liking. His company started the construction the week that he originally anticipated. He was responsive to several small issues/repairs that were needed to the work during the initial construction process. The overall patio was done well and turned out beautifully. The Bad: During the interview process, we stressed how important our landscaping was to us. To put things in perspective, we have over 600 different perennial flowers in multiple gardens spread throughout our yard. We specifically asked about how they were going to protect the lawn between the driveway and the back yard, where the patio was to be installed. Our understanding of that conversation was that they would lay plywood down to protect the lawn from the construction equipment and general construction area. The crew arrived while we were at work, and laid two pieces of plywood down to protect the edge of the driveway. The short story is that our yard looked like they held a monster truck rally in it for a week, destroying the grass in roughly two-thirds of our back yard and one side yard. When we finally agreed how this was to be repaired (excavation of compacted and rutted areas, depth of soil, etc.) we found out, because we came home before they were finished with the repair, that they did not excavate the compacted and rutted areas as agreed, and only spread soil across the top of the damage. I protested, and I believe that they repaired the yard as I requested the next day, based on several stakes that they put in the yard showing the excavated depth. Although Bryan said that he did not charge for the repair labor because of the misunderstanding of the requested lawn protection, the lawn repair cost us an additional $1,000. The other bad part of this was that the dirt that they brought in had an unusually large amount of stones and weeds. I spent many, many hours during the rest of the summer continuously removing these. Also, because the dirt settled, and the seed did not come in evenly, near the end of the summer I ended up bringing in my own dirt, spreading and leveling it across the entire repaired area, and then over-seeding. We also had issues with the water feature losing water (far beyond evaporation or spray). I did multiple controlled experiments, and found that the water feature would lose about 15 gallons every couple of days. It took two and a half months and multiple communications and visits by their subcontractor to finally get it and quot;betterand quot;. I still think that it can be improved, and will work on it myself in the spring.

We had three companies quote our landscape project in the fall of 2011. Ground Affects was very competitive, and we really liked the level of project involvement from the company owners. The design was exactly what we wanted, and we are very pleased with the results. Most specifically, Brian is professional, conscientious, and extremely responsive. This is especially notable as Brian has continued to communicate with us on any concerns in the past 18 months since the project was completed. Excellent provider and highly recommended!

I would highly recommend Ground Affects Landscaping. Of all the bids we received Ground Affects had the best plan at the best price. In the planning stages Tom made several trips out to our house to meet and discuss the plan. I really liked that he managed to keep a beautiful bush that we had on the corner of our house and because our steps were in good shape he kept them as well but covered them so that the whole area flowed together. Tom took the time to meet with us to ensure we had exactly the stone and color scheme that we wanted. We spent a whole evening at Ground Affects picking out the stone and laying out the pattern we wanted. Bill was our foreman and I can't say enough good things about him and the entire Ground Affects team. Very accommodating and listened to our concerns and were very hard workers. Always on time and cleaned up the yard and driveway before leaving each evening. Always extremely polite never asked anything of us while they were at the house and finished the job on time. Love the satellite timing system for the lights. The lights come on automatically at dusk every evening and turn off at the designated time. Each column and step has its own lights and it is beautiful. I've recommended the Ground Affects team to friends and family and I will continue to recommend them. I plan to bring them back in the future to update the backyard.

We met our designer at a trade show at West Allis State Fair Park. Bryan was very professional and we immediately felt comfortable with his non pressure approach, friendliness and ease of conversation. We scheduled an appointment for an onsite evaluation and quote. Bryan eventually developed 2 diagrams and we settled on our design. We put down a reasonable deposit and our work was scheduled for early spring. Next, Bryan came back a few weeks before construction for brick paver color selection. In scheduling the work Bryan was HIGHLY communicative and responsive. The work crew arrived right on time and on the date promised. We were lucky - we had the weather in our favor and the work was completed in a weeks time. The work crew assigned was VERY professional, experience, polite and responsive to questions and concerns. We had Bill and Cory for our service crew. They were superior in every way. They worked very hard from start to finish and put in very long days. The quality of the workmanship is superior. We're very happy. These two fella's are like artists - very fussy about their work and paid great attention to every detail including daily site cleanup. When they left the project as completed - it was perfect. We're very pleased. And we highly recommend this company. They're coming back yet this summer to do some more work for us. And we plan on having them back next spring again to do even more work. How refreshing to run into a well managed company with good people.