Our backyard had holes and divots from cutting down several trees over the years and needed…read moreleveling. We also needed a drainage system on one side of the house. I had three candidates come out to give us estimates. Green Escapes sent out Jose' on a Saturday morning. I was impressed already. I liked Jose's approach, which was to save as much of my grass as possible. Another company wanted to remove all grass, grade the yard, and install new sod. Jose' did not want to bring any more sod than needed and wanted to wait until the spring to do that. I was gathering quotes in October or November. He was afraid of the sod dying over the winter before it could take root. He proposed having the drain empty at the street, which was my preference. Another company wanted to stop on my side of the sidewalk with the water flowing over the sidewalk. I did not like that idea. I thought it was tacky and inconsiderate of those using the sidewalk. This other company also proposed a much broader network of drainage, which I felt was overkill. This company and another I had come out, gave estimates of close to six thousand dollars. Green Escapes gave a quote of just over three thousand. The only issue I had with Green Escapes was the time it took to get the quote. A couple of weeks passed between the time Jose' came out and the time the company sent me a quote. By that time, I had hired one of the other companies even though I was not comfortable doing so. I was not going to call a company to beg for a quote. The other companies delivered a quote within one or two days of coming out. As it turned out, I let the first company go after the first day on the job. At the time I still did not have a quote from Green Escapes. I felt I would be doing the job myself with some rented equipment. However, unbeknownst to me, my wife called Green Escapes the day after I let the other company go. Green Escapes called me that day with a quote and followed up the same day with the quote in writing. They were apologetic about the delay in sending a quote. Honestly, I was glad to hear from them since I did not know exactly what I was going to do about my yard after parting ways with the first company. I had a better feeling about Green Escapes from the time Jose' came out. I liked that they were a bigger company, owned a nursery, and I liked Jose' and his ideas. Of course, when I saw the quote I could not believe it. The quote was far more detailed than the ones I got from the other companies and, as I said earlier, was almost half as much. I jumped on agreeing to the contract. They contacted 811, the call before you dig agency, which came out within a day to mark utilities so Green Escapes did not hit anything. I paid a portion upfront by mailing a check, but felt fine with paying some upfront. I sent the payment via certified mail with signature. You can deliver the payment to their store in Prairieville, but that was inconvenient for me. Green Escapes let me know when they would be coming to do the work and said they would arrive at 7am. They were true to their word. They showed up somewhere between 6:55am and 7:05am the day they said they would. The crew got to work immediately with no wasted time having coffee, etc. They worked non-stop except for a short lunch break. They leveled all the high and low points of the yard and began on the drainage system. They continued working until 5pm or so the first day. The second day a two-man crew showed up to finish installing the drainpipe from the back corner of the house to the street, which is a considerable distance in my opinion, especially considering the entire pipe trench was dug with shovels. The drainpipe was PVC schedule 40. The sections that were in the area to be drained were constructed of perforated 4-inch pipe with solid pipe connecting the perforated sections to the drain at the street. They do not use the black corrugated drainpipe, because they say it collapses over time. That was the material the other companies planned to use. Schedule 40 PVC pipe is the same material my main sewer line is made of. Although not in the contract, Green Escapes put out several squares of sod over the area water would be flowing into the perforated pipe and around the area water would be flowing out at the street. Very nice of them to do so I thought. I am very pleased with the work. The main question most people ask when considering a contractor is, would you hire them again. My answer to that is, absolutely and I wouldn't bother calling anyone else to give me a quote on landscape work.
