Hi,
My front yard landscaping project is becoming a nightmare, I am
wondering how should I proceed.

The project is to overhaul the current front yard by building a new
retaining wall, re-do the irrigation and plant some bushes.

We invited 6-7 landscaping companies to bid for the project and
select the lowest price. ( this might be a mistake ). Anyway the guy
said it would take him a lettle bit over 2 days to finish the job. His
price is $2600 and he ask $300 down. We paid him $300 that day.

At the end of the first day, the retaining wall is built up, but we
can see very obvious seam between the wall and the concrete drive way
of our neighbor.

So the next day we told the guy we prefer the bottom of the wall to
touch the concrete line. He said he would re-do it.

But as he re-do the wall, we found that somehow it is not on a
straight line and the surface of the wall is not flat either. We ask
him how come it is like this.

He says 2 things, first, it is because of the stone is not uniformed,
some are wider, some are higher; second, he think the wall looks
beautiful.

We let him finish the wall, but it is too ugly. What we see is a
twisted line and the top stone surface is tilted.

But he still says he likes the wall. And then he says it is the
problem of the stone which he bought from Home Depot.

We contacted Home Depot, the manager sends a guy together with the
stone company representative over and he agree to give us refund.

We tell the landscaper we will have a one week travel and we ask him
to resume the work right after we are back which is this monday and
finish it, he agreed.

After we are back, we ask the landscaper to return the stone, he ask
for extra money for the labor to remove the current wall, return the
stone, buy new stone and re-build the wall. We agree to pay him about
$300 depending on the time he will spend on this.

But he said he is working on another project now, he would remove the
wall and return the stone today, Tuesday and come back to build the new
wall on Saturday.

My wife does not think it is fair, saying to him that with so much
dirt in front of the home it will be very messy if there is rain or
wind, and he already agreed to resume the project once we are back. But
this guy hang up the phone, very rude.

We leave a message to this guy if he does not call us by tonight we
assume he will not want to continue on the project any more. So far we
do not receive his phone call.

Now we are considering to look for other landscapers to resume the
job. But I can see it will be a hassel that this guy will come back to
ask for the labor he already did. How to do the labor break-down then?
He did not finish the job even we take the current wall, because
irrigation is not finished and no bushes are planted.

Any suggestion is really appreciated.

In article . com, wrote:
Hi,
My front yard landscaping project is becoming a nightmare, I am
wondering how should I proceed.

[ ... ] snipped

Just your losses and try a different contractor.. This guy will likely ask for
more money and more delays.. If you want to see lots of this sort of problem
watch "Holmes on homes" on Discovery Home or HGTV..

I think going with the lowest bidder is not the best option 99% of the time..
You get what you pay for...

"Rick F." wrote in message
news
In article . com,
wrote:
Hi,
My front yard landscaping project is becoming a nightmare, I am
wondering how should I proceed.

[ ... ] snipped

Just your losses and try a different contractor.. This guy will likely ask
for
more money and more delays.. If you want to see lots of this sort of
problem
watch "Holmes on homes" on Discovery Home or HGTV..

I think going with the lowest bidder is not the best option 99% of the
time..
You get what you pay for...

Definitely.. we did that with our tree removal and ended up with holes in
our
yard, and wood sitting in our front yard for months.. it took them 7 months
to finish the job.
Make sure that you get details (in writing) of what the job will consist of.
Be as
specific as possibe (type of stone used, time frames, etc.)
A good contractor will not balk at getting the details ironed out up front,
because
they know they do good work and aren't afraid to stand behind it.

wrote:

Hi,
My front yard landscaping project is becoming a nightmare, I am
wondering how should I proceed.

The project is to overhaul the current front yard by building a new
retaining wall, re-do the irrigation and plant some bushes.

We invited 6-7 landscaping companies to bid for the project and
select the lowest price. ( this might be a mistake ). Anyway the guy
said it would take him a lettle bit over 2 days to finish the job. His
price is $2600 and he ask $300 down. We paid him $300 that day.

At the end of the first day, the retaining wall is built up, but we
can see very obvious seam between the wall and the concrete drive way
of our neighbor.

So the next day we told the guy we prefer the bottom of the wall to
touch the concrete line. He said he would re-do it.

But as he re-do the wall, we found that somehow it is not on a
straight line and the surface of the wall is not flat either. We ask
him how come it is like this.

He says 2 things, first, it is because of the stone is not uniformed,
some are wider, some are higher; second, he think the wall looks
beautiful.

We let him finish the wall, but it is too ugly. What we see is a
twisted line and the top stone surface is tilted.

But he still says he likes the wall. And then he says it is the
problem of the stone which he bought from Home Depot.

We contacted Home Depot, the manager sends a guy together with the
stone company representative over and he agree to give us refund.

We tell the landscaper we will have a one week travel and we ask him
to resume the work right after we are back which is this monday and
finish it, he agreed.

After we are back, we ask the landscaper to return the stone, he ask
for extra money for the labor to remove the current wall, return the
stone, buy new stone and re-build the wall. We agree to pay him about
$300 depending on the time he will spend on this.

But he said he is working on another project now, he would remove the
wall and return the stone today, Tuesday and come back to build the new
wall on Saturday.

My wife does not think it is fair, saying to him that with so much
dirt in front of the home it will be very messy if there is rain or
wind, and he already agreed to resume the project once we are back. But
this guy hang up the phone, very rude.

We leave a message to this guy if he does not call us by tonight we
assume he will not want to continue on the project any more. So far we
do not receive his phone call.

Now we are considering to look for other landscapers to resume the
job. But I can see it will be a hassel that this guy will come back to
ask for the labor he already did. How to do the labor break-down then?
He did not finish the job even we take the current wall, because
irrigation is not finished and no bushes are planted.

Any suggestion is really appreciated.


Probably getting references and/or visiting some of his previous work is
more important than just the low bid.

--
to reply, change ( .not) to ( .net)

wrote in message
ups.com...

My wife does not think it is fair, saying to him that with so much
dirt in front of the home it will be very messy if there is rain or
wind, and he already agreed to resume the project once we are back. But
this guy hang up the phone, very rude.

While I agree with the others that the cheapest guy is often the least
experienced and/or least professional I can understand his having started
another job. I know the construction trade well and subcontractors must
keep working in order to pay their bills. Unless you were willing to pay
him to sit around and not work while you're out of town you're stuck with
his schedule.

--
Tara

That's crap. If the job was done correctly in the first place he would
have been finished and out of there.

"Brad" wrote in message
ups.com...

That's crap. If the job was done correctly in the first place he would
have been finished and out of there.

Instead of finishing right away he was asked to not work while they went out
of town, if I read the OP correctly. The minute the retailer admitted the
stones were faulty they lifted the liabiliity off the contractor.

--
Tara

Understand that but if the contractor knew the stone was faulty he
should have noted that at the start of the project and rectified the
problem. It would seem the job would have been completed before the one
week pause.

"Brad" wrote in message
ups.com...

Understand that but if the contractor knew the stone was faulty he
should have noted that at the start of the project and rectified the
problem. It would seem the job would have been completed before the one
week pause.

The guy tried to work with the stone delivered and thought the wall looked
nice even though the stone was uneven. The homeowners, after hearing the
contractor point out that the stone was at fault but that he thought it was
still nice looking, told him proceed.

I understand that you're saying the man never should have started the wall
if he thought the stone wasn't perfect. However, its not unusual for things
like that to become obvious only after a course or two has already been
laid. That's not to say that definitely happened in this case.

When he was told to proceed with the wall by the homeowners rather than stop
work/tear out/wait on new materials then he was given the green light to
continue working with faulty material. I don't think he's so much at fault
that he was beholden to make himself available at a precise later date when
the homeowners would return. Just my opinion.

--
Tara

Good points made Tara and I agree. Going back to the original post, it
would seem the best option is to negoatiate a mutually satisfactory
solution (eliminate the finger pointing) that everyone can live with.
Might require some more money being thrown into the picture but in the
end the job gets done and everybody is happy, maybe.