To start off, I previously found Edwards Landscape Management through Yelp late last year. I hired…read morethem to do front yard landscaping (grade dirt, install sod, install rock, install flagstone pathway, plants, and irrigation) and I had a great experience. Luis did a fantastic job of getting the work done for me and I was very happy. I decided to hire Luis again to do a much larger project in my backyard since I was happy with the first round of work his crew performed.
My backyard project consisted of the following: Digging out 11 yards of dirt, replacing approximately 90 linear feet of retaining wall to a height of approximately 4 feet, installing 350 sq ft of concrete, installing 500 sq ft of sod, fixing all the backyard drainage, installing rock all along the top of the retaining wall and down the sides of the house, and putting in plants along the top of the wall. We planned a start date and when it came around, the work began. The following topics are breaking up the different sections of work and I'll be describing the pro's and con's of each.
Timeline:
Overall, Luis and his crew definitely struggled most with the timeline. Originally, the project was quoted to take about 4-5 weeks. The project in total took 7 weeks. When Luis typed up our contract, he planned on taking 4 weeks to complete the project. The weeks were supposed to be like this - week 1 was digging dirt/prep work, week 2 was retaining wall, week 3 was concrete, week 4 was irrigation and sod. In actuality, it was more along the lines of weeks 1-3 were digging, week 4 was retaining wall, week 5 was more prep work, week 6 they only showed up for two days, and week 7 was concrete, irrigation, and sod. I definitely feel like if towards the end, I had not pushed Luis to get the project done, it would've gone longer. Luis kept saying that his crew "paid attention to detail" and that's why it took longer (remember the phrase attention to detail).
Retaining Wall:
The retaining wall, at a glance, looks nice, but upon further inspection it has some minor-ish problems. First off, the wall wasn't straight. It has areas where it bows inwards and the top of the wall highlights this (pictures attached). Second of all, the crew glued each brick down so it definitely isn't going anywhere, but glue seeped out of the edges that has to be chiseled away. In the real world, if you're not staring at the wall and looking at it, it's not really noticeable. Also, Luis did try to offer me solutions to try and fix the wall, but I decided against it. The solutions were more-so band aid fixes and I wasn't interested in that. I figured I'd just live with it.
Drainage:
This is where Luis deserves props - he didn't charge me at all for any of the drainage work. Most of the trenches had to be dug for sprinkler irrigation, but he ran drainage down both sides of my house to the street. Drainage was a major problem for me and I'm happy this got taken care of. This was a major plus.
Concrete:
Concrete is where the project really slowed down. As we entered week 6, it was my expectation that concrete would be done that week. It wasn't until Friday night of week 6 as I'm driving home from work when I called Luis. His reasoning for concrete being delayed is that his sub-contractor wasn't responding to him, but that he had others he could call upon. I will say, by the end of week 6, my patience was starting to wear thin, so I did tell Luis that if he was unable to get concrete scheduled, then I'd hire someone else to do it. Ten minutes later, concrete was scheduled for Tuesday on week 7. The concrete work turned out very nice. I'm definitely pleased with how the concrete turned out.
Lighting:
Lighting is a sore spot for me. Luis recommended that I should get hardscape lighting installed and after some research I was definitely interested. Luis sent me a quote with descriptions and after googling the descriptions, I agreed to do the lighting. It was to my understanding (after googling exactly what was on the quote) that lighting was supposed to be installed inside the retaining wall. The day before the wall was complete I called Luis to verify the lighting would be installed and he told me he would send me "ideas" and the lighting wasn't put in the wall like I wanted. I know we explicitly discussed this in a phone conversation so I ended up canceling all lighting work due to this.
Overall, I'd say the work was mediocre at best. It's almost sad to say that I was excited for completion of the project and I don't feel excited anymore. I'm glad the work's done, but I'm not happy with the outcome. The attention to detail was not there. I've found water bottles tucked behind the wall, string that the crew threw rocks over, a fence panel that Luis agreed to throw away in a dump run and it never was (he did offer to, but only after I mentioned it), glue seeping out on the wall, and a wavy wall. After my experience, I'd have a hard time recommending Luis and his crew.