DEL CONTES LANDSCAPING INC

It took them about six weeks to complete the project. I was reasonably satisfied with them.

They did an excellent job. Tom Del Contes is the owner. I actually bid about 8 or 9 companies.  So many companies have 2 or 3 guys and they sub out everything. i went with Del Contes not because they were the cheapest, that would be a mistake typically in many jobs, but because they are a large company. They have 2 parts to their company. One part is for commercial. They are the people that go up to the 49ers stadium and put the grass in. Then they have the residential side. Instead of having a couple three people they have close to 100. In addition to that, the average not only is small but they have no physical presence anywhere. They work out of their house or share an office somewhere. Del Contes actually has a physical location and they have employees there. If you have issues, you know where you can find them basically. They started life as an irrigation company. We actually had a backyard that wasn't graded properly so it became a lake when it did rain. So, they did a great job on that and an excellent job on design and pulling out all of the products. It is one of the better projects that we've done over the years. We get a lot of compliments when people come over into the backyard. When we had minor things go wrong, a plant would die or I didn't understand the sprinkler system, they were always right there to take care of you. They would come out the very same day.

This project was in stark contrast to our front yard project in 2010. We were so happy with the front yard we both a) recommended Del Conte’s to everyone who asked, and b) returned directly to Del Conte’s when we decided to do our back yard.
We are still unclear why this second experience was such a disappointing contrast to the first. In our front yard, we had Del Conte’s install a “Grass Pave 2” driveway which was something they had not done before. This went very well.In the back yard there was nothing as unusual as this, and yet I was shocked when near the end of the project (and one of the 3 or 4 times I actually saw Ricardo, the head contractor), he lectured me on how difficult we were as customers and how difficult this project was. I will not belabor the highly unprofessional attitude this conveyed, but rather summarily dismiss these comments with the following two observations:
In reviewing the list of 15 mistakes (some major) that Del Conte’s made on this project, I recall how we were forced to become more and more involved with the day-to-day project oversight, because clearly Ricardo was not.
Given that Del Conte’s was able to fix almost everything on the second attempt, there is no way for Ricardo to argue that this job was to difficult. We feel like we were given a C team (because perhaps we have no more yards to landscape?) and they were frankly just sloppy or improperly trained or working to sub standard instructions. If you can do it right the second time, you can do it right the first time - if this is your business.
Errors in construction:1) Prep wall (tall part of wall) built in wrong place. Brenda noticed this after the crew had left for the day. It was raining hard and she was forced to remove incorrectly-placed cinderblocks before the concrete they were set in hardened.2) Drain pipe cleanouts non-functional (angled the wrong way). These had to be corrected and even then, they used a pipe diameter much larger than necessary and now we have a piece of white PVC pipe that juts into the side of our stone path. The stones had to be cut to go around the pipe! Totally unnecessary and aesthetically suboptimal.3) Ricardo complained that they couldn’t find purple colorant for cap grout - Adrian found it right away with a Google search and bought 5 bottles at the trivial price of $4 per bottle. Ricardo bid on this specification in the design created by Del Conte’s.4) Cottage step stone sticking out randomly on one side. Someone had to return at end of project to fix this.5) Step lights set under grout instead of on top underneath the patio stair noses; remedying this involved substantial time and effort to remove stones and grout to properly reposition the step lights.6) Crew left site during lengthy pause (2 weeks waiting for more plants) without turning the irrigation on for 2 weeks despite assurances it was (3 plants, 1 tree died). As a point of contrast, when Raul finished our front-yard project, he made a point to show us how it worked and explain what the watering times should be and how they get scaled back as plants got established. For this back yard project, we had absolutely no communication about this.7) Window box drip lines not placed as requested -- had to be redone8) Wrong lighting controller-transformer installed instead of LX-150 - had to be replaced.9) All 3 electrical sockets not GFCI as requested or discussed -- had to be fixed.10) Too much gravel on side path - It seems that they took whatever they had and spread it over a foot beyond the edge of the path. Gravel was under the blackberries and into the planting areas. If anyone on the crew was paying attention (B4) they would know that all the changes we made early on were to minimize hardscape as much as possible. I had to pick this up all by hand.11) Stone side path laid with variable width instead of with straight edges as shown on the design plan - the stone pieces used were so large, they extended under the blackberries. This had to be redone.12) Said roof downspout drain was impossible w/o sump pump; we had to show them how it would work fine and proved it with a hose test after the pipes were laid as we instructed.13) Stucco delayed; wrong stucco color (first attempt was orange). Ricardo complained that it was too difficult to match/obtain a tan stucco color. Again, Ricardo bid on this project that was designed by Del Conte’s, and on the second try they did match it.14) Stucco finish was completely unlike the photos that we agreed upon with Eric. The contractor merely took the edge of his trowel and scratched squiggly lines into the stucco.15) Low pooling spots in concrete (at walkway intersections and by stairs) was a result of the initial concrete pour not being leveled and sloped correctly to avoid low spots. This needless sloppiness resulted in the need for a 2.5” drain hole to be drilled into the middle of the path at the end of the project. Workers came by to drill hole and were clearly in a rush. Only drilled to half the depth agreed on with Eric (the designer), therefore they had to return, at which time they were rushing and so they chipped the concrete around the hole.
The only bright spot really was Eric Hagberg - he was a stand-up guy who was easy to talk to, work with and I know worked very hard to try to deal with this project that kept going off the rails.We continue to be asked if we can recommend a landscaper - I would love to hear from Del Conte’s that the problems we experienced were an aberration - but until that time, we are reluctant to subject friends and acquaintances to the experience we had this second time around.

They build very good looking fences and are still trying to get my liner correct. I will use them again in the future.

We had several people come out and look at the project from the home show. This plan offered alot more for the money than the other bids. There was just no comparability with the design and what it had to offer. There was no pressure to sign a contract. I was able to be very involved with the plant selection. He was an easy person to work with. There were times we got frustrated but I am glad we took the time and did not rush. I cant speak highly enough about the workmen that they had out here. They bent over backwords to make sure that they were pleasing you with the work that they were doing. That was really, really nice. The job looks beautiful. Only two plants needed replaced.