Met with John about landscaping a front fenced area to camouflage a shed we'd be erecting in the backyard. I thought we had a meeting of the minds, but that certainly was NOT the case. I thought we had discussed plants/foliage/greenery for the entire length of the fence and thought that's what the pricing included. I was also told that though they do not do curbing, they could add a border to very closely match the existing curbing. The crew was very good and hard working; however, either John failed to fully brief them on the job or I should have more closely supervised the work being done. The 'full fence' landscaping only went two-thirds of the way down the fence line. Honestly, a HUGE area at the end of the fence with zero landscaping! (Oh, and they were just about to add the permanent cement 'curbing'). We had them move a plant from the back yard to the empty spot and then finish the curbing around that. I expected a small charge (felt it was worth maybe $200 for time and materials) for the curbing, but we were charged an additional $600!! Also, John is not really a designer as a lay person would use the term. We needed a pad/foundation for 7'x10' shed - I said I was thinking a pad about 15'x15' so there'd be space around it. I showed him the area we wanted it (back of the yard where three sides would be surrounded by the fence). My fault, I didn't measure the area first - wish I had because rather than reassess the location when the crew discovered it wasn't 15', the crew simply moved the pad further out to the middle of yard and already had a fairly permanent foundation before I discovered this. This left a fairly large area behind the shed that is now completely inaccessible and unusable, and because of where they placed the landscaping in that area, it is impossible to use for storage. Oh, and because it would be difficult to mow/maintain, we ended up having the area finished with rock (at a cost of $1,600 or so).
So, the front of the house. . .there was an area under a window that had no plants whatsoever. John suggested some hedging type plants surrounded by blue my minds. One would naturally think the hedges would go under the window and the smaller plants would be evenly placed in the remaining area to completely fill the void. Nope - the hedge thing is under the window, but the twenty blew my minds are split with ten on either side and a 2-3 foot empty space right in the middle. Seriously, what is up with these guys and blank spaces/spacing of plants?
John did not render any drawings. I had a sketch I put together that had a semblance of what I had envisioned the space to look like that I used during my initial and subsequent discussions with John. I guess that's why I felt there was an understanding.
This was very, very expensive. It doesn't really look like it though - honestly, looks like something I could've done myself. So, so, so thoroughly disappointed. I would not recommend Albright because of the undesigned project, the excessive added costs, the lack of the crew to properly space the plants, the lack of the crew to stop and raise the flag when something didn't look right. Oh, and, after the excessive cost and adders, I see them loading up bags of mulch and pavers that I'm pretty sure were included in the price I paid. read more
