I heavily rely on reviews, so I make sure to make mine thorough. Hope this helps anyone that is considering working with Elite Designer Landscaping (Eddie). It took me years to find the right person to take on a paver job. My house is quite unique in that it's almost 100 years old and has a basement, therefore sits on quite a steep slope. Although work was previously completed to help with grading, there was still a lot of Intricate planning and consideration for drainage and further leveling. The basement was flooding, and I had a pool built 2 years ago that was raised more than it should've been, so I had to account for that as well. I was referred to Eddie by my realtor turned friend. She knew of two separate jobs that he completed, and those clients were very happy with the end results. I texted Eddie October 30th, and he responded right away. Within the hour, he was at my house to discuss my goals for my backyard. I got a very good feeling about him and how he approached his projects. Mind you, I had already spoken to 4+ contractors and It just didn't click. Eddie was up for the challenge as excited about my project as if it was his own home. He made recommendations on pavers that may fit the aesthetic and even suggested I go look at the product in person to make sure I liked it (catalogue photos can look different). He was spot on and I chose 24X24 Porcelain pavers. Before moving forward, I asked Eddie if he would walk me through solutions for known problem areas - again, he was at my house within the hour. All my concerns were addressed, and I signed the contract. The quote was very reasonable for the work that needed to be done so I paid my 50% deposit, and scheduled Nov 6th as the start date. I won't bore you will all the boring details, but prep started right on time. My backyard was a mess (see before and after photos for proof) so it took a few days to get everything ready for drainage and pavers. Aside from some rainy days, everything went smoothly. Eddie's crew is amazing. The paver master Jairo was ridiculously meticulous. At one point, I communicated that the standard pitch of pavers looked too obvious, so we talked through it and decided to reduce pitch by a smidge (which made a huge difference). That meant they had to undo the work and redo it. I felt awful, but they had no complaints. I personally miscalculated the square footage, so I had to purchase a few more pavers, but nothing major. They had the job done within the timeframe discussed and the result is beautiful. See for yourself! For this project, my biggest concern was drainage. The pool is next to the house/basement so making sure water moved away from the house as well as away from the pool was top of mind. Being November, I assumed that I'd have to wait for the next downpour to see if everything worked as intended BUT lucky me, it poured on the 26th and boy was I happy. The drainage worked beautifully!! The channel drains did their job, and the gutters/downspouts were routed away from the property and pool. I will recommend Eddie and his team to anyone looking for a reliable contractor. I am very pleased. When I decide to do the side yard, I will be hiring him again for the work. Thanks for everything, Eddie! read more

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We intended to use Elite Designer Landscaping to do the pavers and landscaping for our lanai and back and side yards. We ended up contracting with them additionally to install synthetic turf and an eight-hole putting green, as well as drainage for our side yard gutters. The drainage was sufficient. The pavers turned out great. However, I am disappointed in the turf and green. The seam in the two-piece green is clearly visible. The cups are not seated properly. The top of the cups should be about 1/8 inch below the lip of the hole but most of them stick up an 1/8 to 1/4 inch above the hole. The green itself appears to only be attached to the underlying surface where they drove in staples. And the staple depressions are visible. As a result, a putted ball will skip and bounce along the surface instead of rolling end over end. I give the paver work five stars, the drainage four, and the turf and putting green three, for an overall grade of four stars. Highly recommend for paver and landscaping work but would not recommend for turf and or putting green installation. read more

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Eddie and his crew installed a patio, sidewalk,porch flooring with paving blocks and a french drain for me in 2021. They did an excellent job for me then. I recently had tree roots dislodging some pavers on my back patio and sidewalk. Plus I needed the french drain extended another 15 feet. Eddie was very responsive and provided me with up front cost. He sent a young man by the name of Nick to do the work. Nick worked hard, alone for a day and half getting the job completed in a remarkable fashion. Everything looks great like there never was any damage. I saw the negative reviews but I can attest from both of my experiences that Eddie and Elite Designer Landscaping do outstanding work and I will be using them again when and If needed. Thanks again Nick, great work! read more

When we consulted on November 14 we said we had a December 8 deadline. Eddie assured us he could have it done by then. He said materials would be delivered November 26 and the work would be done within a few days after that. That was a big lie. When the materials were finally delivered much later, they sat for weeks. I contacted Eddie multiple times and he always had an excuse. The job was not completed until January 2. Almost a month after the agreed upon deadline. All that being said, they did what I asked for and the yard looks much better. read more

Elite Designer Landscaping - a view of a patio area - Landscaping Near Me

Please don't do business with this company. Predatory business practices. Eddie takes a down payment. Then never provides a clear date and time. Made a deposit of $2000 for front yard landscaping and side house paver walkway installation, Estimate start date was for 13 Aug 21. Date came an no work done. Requested a refund after over 60 days (from down payment date) of no work starting. Only received half in January 2022. Been patient since January 2022 to now. Patience has run out. If you do decide to do work with them... DON'T!!! Do yourself the favor and find a more reputable company that can do the work first and request payment later. Still no refund of remaining $1000 as of 9/22/2022. read more

AVOID THIS COMPANY! We agreed to have Elite Design Landscaping install a drainage system over the summer since we had a lot of rain in Tampa. On July 4, we coordinated with Anthony (Eddie) one of the Owners to come and review what was needed to prevent water from entering a structure in the back yard. After review of everything, he quoted us $1600 for the job and we agreed to a date of July 27 for the installation. He asked for $800 deposit, which we gave him. When the date came, we did not hear from him and no one showed up. I called many times and could not get him to answer the phone or respond to a text message. After about a week, I was able to speak to his foreman (Shane or Shawn), who said he would rebook us for to do another review since he wasn't sure what they were going to do for us, and he never came either, I know this because we have a Ring Camera. That date came and still no one showed up again. Many calls, text messages and emails later, I finally got that guy to answer the phone late at night to get some answers, and He had nothing but a bunch of excuses and shocked that such an easy job wasn't just done in a timely manner, but then said your last "F" you by then it was ugly. Now, at this point we were just tired of the run around we got from them since we went to the BBB, and my wife did not want them to do the work anymore since they were not reliable or trustworthy, so I asked for a refund of my money. They refused to give us a refund. We contacted the Better Business Bureau, without the resolution of a refund. If you review the google reviews, you will see several unhappy customers within the same time frame. My next step will be to move forward with small claims court just out of principle. The quote we have in writing does not state that it's not refundable. I truly believe in KARMA. read more

Eddie is an upfront and honest guy, and i appreciate that. I have NOT had great luck here in FL finding people to complete home projects. The price was fair. I had a french drain put in, and connected my gutters into it. Eddie was very knowledgeable and explained things well. The guys worked hard, and we had minimal bumps in the road. Everything worked out well, and i just had the pleasure of seeing the drains in action. So A+. I would recommend this group, and i will use them again for any services they can help me with. read more

We worked with Eddie. Initially he was responsive, but once we got the materials it took another nearly two weeks to get the job started. The crew was careless damaging our fence, killing a good chunk of our yard, and leaving cigarette butts all over the place even after they finished. A section of the job ended up not being what we requested and they took the remaining pavers we had left over AFTER we specifically requested they leave them; STILL an issue that has yet to be resolved. Had I known that they were going to be this careless with our home I would have never bothered. read more

3 weeks with no response on a quote. Might as well not waste your time on this company. If they can't respond to a quote timely imagine the delays on an install. read more

Eddie was straight forward and up front. We had several estimates, but his was the only one that included everything we wanted, without having to bring in outside help for certain portions of the job. Although we had to wait, this is Florida, and we've yet to find a contractor deliver on time. Very happy with all the work, and we no longer have any drainage issues! Thank you and highly recommended! read more

Elite Designer Landscaping - Landscaping Near Me

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A neighbor and I hired this business for our French drains in March of 2020 and communicated with Eddie. Between my neighbor and I we have made three phone calls to this business and have not gotten 1 call back. A Anthony answers the phone and has told my neighbor he gave the messages to Eddie. Seeing as it's been 5 business days, we can conclude this truly is a case of.... " I got your money, good luck". He did the job, but if you ever need to get in contact with him to ask a question don't hold your breath that you will get your call returned. This is a perfect example of hide behind a VM and shitty customer service after the fact, hence where you get a bad reputation. read more

Eddie Fernandez and his team remind me of that movie with Jack Nicholson ... "AS GOOD AS IT GETS". Not only did they do the job they said they were going to do... they did it when they said they were going to do it. Eddie knew that we had some critical concerns with drainage issues in our yard. He came out right away, assessed the job and put together a very fair price. On top of that, he had his team out there the VERY NEXT DAY and they worked straight through the week until the job was done. Eddie was always polite, considerate and on top of the work. He has also come back out to make minor adjustments when I called him. He is one of 2 contractors that I have ever worked with that had this amazing level of concern and attention to detail in his work. And he is the ONLY one that does landscaping this good... FOR SURE!!!! I strongly recommend them for any landscaping or drainage needs that you may have. You will not be disappointed at all. read more

I haven't left a review until now, because, in many ways, I am still upset. Upset that we paid a lot of money, that we were lied to, that 4 months later, it looks just as bad as it did before we began the work and upset that we have to pay more money to have someone else come out to fix it. We called Eddie for an estimate on Feb. 3rd. that would end up costing over $10,000. Our bank would only approve $3,000, so we called Eddie back out for a revised estimate on Feb. 27th, leaving out big ticket items. Eddie said the price is a flat rate, based solely on square footage with no hidden charges. The job consisted of removing the old grass, leveling the front and both sides, then laying down new sod (Bahia) in the front and left side. There would be a small area in front of the porch with brick edging and red lava rocks. The right side would be all limestone. The backyard would get red lava rock between the deck and fence on 2 sides. Work would begin on Thursday, March 12th to allow time for us to finish painting the exterior of our house. Eddie & his crew showed up on Wed. March 11th and could not start work since the painters were still working. He said they couldn't start work until the following Monday, the 16th. After working all day on Monday, they came back the following morning to "finish" the job... well, "finish" everything except the red lava rock in the backyard. Eddie showed up around 3:30 to tell me they had to stop working because of CV-19. I walked around the perimeter of the house with Eddie and I was relatively satisfied at the time but pointed out the ground still wasn't level. Eddie told me it would resolve itself after a few times over with the lawn mower. I had then asked about weed care with the front rock area and the limestone pathway on the right side. Eddie told me I shouldn't have to worry about it for at least a year or so because "nothing's getting through." By April 13th, weeds and grass had already started coming through in the front yard rock area, though it took a little longer for the weeds in the limestone bed to start coming through, but sure enough they did. I had some leftover red lava rock from another project we had done a few years before, which I told him would help a little bit, but it was only enough for the front yard. There was still 150 sq. ft. in the backyard that we were charged for, but Eddie told me that we would have to order more ourselves. His workers had "prepped" the area with the leftover weed fabric but nothing else had been done and we never ordered the additional lava rock. About a week later, we noticed a lot of the weed fabric had nearly disintegrated and blew into our pool (despite them using lawn staples to secure it). This would explain why the weeds have been growing through the rocks like crazy, and why, in the middle of our summer rainstorms, these areas look worse now than they did before the job even began. We can't use Spectracide because we need a good day or 2 without any rain for it to work properly. And to use such fragile weed fabric in Florida shows a lack of professionalism - for a rock bed of any kind you basically need canvas or a tarp underneath to help prevent weeds from coming through. The grass (Bahia) was half dead when it was installed, but we were prepared for that due to such a dry season. We hand-watered it every evening after 6pm for the first 2 months (Pasco Co. water restrictions for new sod) and after that we used fertilizer in the dead spots. Now, in July, there are still a ton of dead spots, and combined with the fact that the ground still isn't level, it seems we'll probably have to re-do the entire job. The aspect of misinformation that still rubs me the wrong way (not sure if I would categorize this as an outright lie) was about the virus. We believed, at that time, that Eddie wanted to protect his employees during a time of uncertainty, but now we feel that it was just an excuse (see Gov. DeSantis update on March 17th and CISA's list of essential workers on March 19th). I would be fine if Eddie accepts responsibility, comes back out to do the quality work he promised and that other reviews have raved about, and doesn't charge us a single penny more than we've already paid. I would be willing to change my review to 5 stars and recommend him to my friends, neighbors and other family members in the Tampa Bay area... but I won't hold my breath. read more

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I had Elite build a retaining wall behind my house. Eddie Fernandez showed up on time and explained what they could do for me. The workers were polite and respectful. It is uncommon to see such hard working craftsmen. The job came out much better than I could have imagined,I couldn't be happier.I can highly recommend Elite. The price was more than reasonable especially with the results . read more

Great communication! Elite Designer Landscaping came onsite, walked the property & immediately understood our drainage problem. They worked quickly and thoroughly tested the solution. It was nice to know the problem was solved without waiting for the next big rainstorm. I will definitely be hiring them for all of our outside projects. read more