ROTOTILLERGUY COM

"It's been a couple of years, how is the lawn looking now ? Oh and you forgot to mention the rattle snake that we found and relocated to Palmdale mountains for you."

"We worked for Member, 2 years ago. At the time she only wanted out help to Pick Axe the Soil, RotoTill the Soil, Amend the soil so that things could begin to live in the soil, and level it all out because there were hills and ruts and pot holes in the area that she wanted to reclaim and begin to use after years of neglect. Member was ver specific that she did not want our help in repairing her sprinkler system because she was not intending to put in a lawn but instead intending to put drought tolerant plantings and she wanted to install her own drip irrigation system. She even had us install weed cloth to prevent grass and weeds from growing. She was specific about not wanting to pay to have soil and trash removed, because she could not afford to pay for the labor of removing the soil, or the dump fees for disposing of any excess soil, that she would do what she wanted to then do on her own. I think its a bit unfair that Angies List go back and do a telephone interview some 2 years after the fact, and transcribe this unflatering and untrue review and not allow me the same telephone interview before posting such a review from a non-member."

"It's been 3 yrs since we installed your lawn. Have you been maintaining it ? How does it still look now ? Any pictures ?"

"This was 3 going on 4 years ago. How does the lawn and patio look now ?"

"Member it was a pleasure working for you on this great project. I have to admit it was a challenge, we typically don't have to spend more than a couple of days on a single project and so its rare that we would spend 5 days on a project but this project had some special challenges such as moving the chain link fence and putting in the retaining wall and then moving such a large amount of soil around before getting the area completely where we wanted it before doing the Pick Axing and RotoTilling of the 6 - 8 inches deep soil that we then intended to plant grass in. Once the soil was at the proper level that we intended it becomes just our normal every day Soil Prep, Sprinklers, and Plantings install. Here are some videos that we shot of the project that we sometimes put up on our own channel on YouTube at www.YouTube.com/RotoTillerGuy http://www.youtube.com/rototillerguy#p/c/BAF6373771E9330C/0/LOOsXteDVgk"

"Not sure why the B on the price. We agreed upon $825.00 for full soil prep of 700 sq ft of area, so no problem there. Then we agreed to charge $60.00 an hour for 3 guys to cut down, dig out the roots, and remove the 3 trees. It took 3 hours to remove 3 trees, so $180.00 for this extra work. One of the three trees was small and I guess she was thinking I charged $60.00 per tree and that I should not have charged as much for the smaller one, but in fact I was just charging by the hour, not by the tree and it just so happened that it took 3 hours to remove 3 trees. Seems like I should have earned and A+ all around, but I can settle on a B I guess. Tough to make eveyone happy I guess."

"Videos of the member's project is on YouTube"

"Actually there was the Buganvillia that we removed, and about 5 other just hedge type stumps that were there and under ground that needed to be removed and then there were lots and lots of tree roots from a 30 year old Magnolia tree and another younger tree. This alone represented an extra 5 hours of labor for 4 guys, a lot of work when you look at it in terms of 20 extra man hours of labor. Did we complain, heck no, we love doing this type of work for folks. We love doing things right and doing them so that there are lasting long term positive results."

"The member was a wonderful client to work for, very close by which makes it easy and he knew exactly what he wanted so that makes it easy to provide exactly what he wanted."

"Videos of the project are on YouTube"

"The member was just great to work for. She did her research on my website before hand and compared me against others, so she already knew what a great deal she was getting. I was at least 20% cheaper, and I was the only landscaper that brings in this much compost to mix into the soil ( a 3 inch layer all around). I do more work, spend more on materials, and am 20% cheaper, isn't that enough reason to use me? As it turned out, this was an incredibly easy project for us. It was only 350sq ft of area, and it was literally 4 blocks away from a larger 2,500sq ft project that we were already working on just up the street from her. We literally had just done all of the pick axing and rototilling for the 2,500sq ft project the day before, and had already delivered 28 cubic yards of the Compost Material. So all we had to do was bring the 3 cubic yards of Compost that had been delivered the day before that we had waiting for her 4 blocks away. We spent maybe 3 hours working on her 350sq ft area, and then went back to work on finishing up the 2,500sq ft project up the street from her. We still needed to spread the 25 cubic feet of compost material and use the Rototiller machine to mix the compost into the soil for this other larger project, and then install a sprinkler system (two valves and 6 pop up freeway sprinklers) and get it all wired up on the timer and programmed. We were able to start and finish her project in the morning (started at 7am and finished by 10am) and then finish the other project by 6pm that same day."

"You know, its just nice to work for nice people. James and his Wife are expecting a new addition into the family soon, and so James is wanting a nice back yard for the baby to be able to play in. We did our usual good job and made some new friends along the way. James actually turns out to work at a restaurant that I and my wife had been wanting to try out, and so James invited us to come on in, so we did. James and his Wife are just incredibly pleasant people and it seems like we have a basis for a real friendship that might last well past the business of doing the yard for them. In doing the yard I informed James that there was unusually good pressure (100 PSI), but that there was unusually bad volume (flow). I informed James that he might have restrictions in the galvinized pipes that was resulting in poor volume of water getting through the pipes to the valves and too the sprinklers. It was all I could do to get two valves to supply enough volume to drive only 8 sprinkler heads per valve and normally I should be able to supply 10 or 12 sprinkler heads per valve and should only need one valve to water his entire lawn area but because of the low volume we had to split up the lawn area into two valves. James took my advice and had the house re-piped by a professional plumber and wow! now we have 100 PSI of pressure (normally only 60 - 80) and unrestricted 3/4" copper pipe allowing a huge volume of flow. Now the sprinklers are shooting into the neighbors back yard (over the fence), into any open windows and into the house. Now we have too much pressure and volume. I came back and replaced the valves with valves that can reduce the flow and control all of this added pressure and unrestricted flow. Another job well done, the way that I would want it done if it were my own house. Another happy customer."

"We did a little more than just that. We did a lot of sprinkler repairs as well as diagnose that the pump in the pond needed to be replaced and that there wasn't a proper filter and so we picked up the proper pump and filter and installed that as well as installed some submersible lights that the client had already purchased. We also attempted to install some Malibu lighting, but ran into an issue where the outlet for the transformer was not hooked up, and needed a proper electrician to trace the power for that outlet; but we did confirm that the Malibu lighting system was working and readied it to be plugged in. These folks were great to work for. We were able to quickly diagnose and repair all of these issues and offer the client a great value for our service. We got a lot done in very short order."

"This new member was wonderful to work for. She even made breakfast and lunch for me and the guys. We ate together as if we had been long time friends. She was just wonderful to work for, and all of her "Special" requests were all very reasonable (please remove and pot certain plants for re-planting later, please remove the landscape lighting before damaging it, etc.) It just seems that all I have to do is say what I do and then do what I said, be on time, do things the way you would want them done on your own yard, be nice, be tidy, and I am golden. That's all I gotta do to stand out and be better than my competition? Well heck I can do that."

"Yep, customer contacted me and wanted to schedule delivery for a couple of days later, and I suggested that there was no time like the present. I had an opening in my schedule at that moment and so did he, so lets just get it done, and so we did. I really did though appreciate that the client was willing to schedule the delivery, I don't always have openings in my schedule it just worked out that way on that particular day. The Compost is very high quality like he said. He is a fellow gardener and knows what he is talking about. The Compost gets turned every day, and gets watered as its getting turned, and so it breaks down really quickly and very evenly. Its great stuff, and a great value at $100 for 3 Cubic Yards Delivered."

"The client called and said he had 500 sq ft, turned out to be 820 sq ft. We first Pick Axed the entire area, and then RotoTilled the entire area, and then brought in 6 cubic yards of compost and spread that around for a 3" layer, and then RotoTilled it again to mix the Compost into the soil. The customer said he had a few sprinklers that were not working, well in fact we had to replace 17 of them out of 28. Three valves had to be replaced because they all leaked or didn't work at all. We then smoothed and graded the soil so it was nice and flat, and then we laid the Sod. This turned out to be a lot of work for such a small project, and yet I communicated with the client and informed him every step of the way and kept the costs down to $1,400.00."

"This was a tiny job comparatively, but the hardest part was extracting the Fig tree and its roots along with the huge over grown bird of paradise plant and its roots. The customer wanted grass in place of all, except an orange tree. I charged the minimums for my service, but did not charge extra for removing the Fig Tree and the bird of paradise because it was such a small section and I was charging enough for the rototilling and the compost delivery to make up for the difference. This way I make enough money to justify the time, and the customer got a good value from our services. Everyone comes out ahead."

"This was in fact some of the toughest clay soil we have run across. It was very labor intensive to dig down to the prescribed 6 - 8 inches, but this soil certainly needed the amendments just to break it up and get it to breath and absorb water to feed the grass correctly. It was a challenge, but we are up to the challenge and we don't compromise when it comes to quality and a job well done. I do things the way we know that we would want them done if it were our own yard."

"This client knew exactly what he wanted, which makes it easy for us to do exactly what was required and even to go that extra mile to exceed the expectations. All it takes is to be on time, say what you do, and then do what you say."

"It was absolutely my pleasure working for you. This should really make a huge difference in keeping the roots of the lawn moist and the soil not as compacted and hard."

"It was and is a pleasure helping you out in getting you enough Compost for your gardening needs at the High School and the adjacent the Gardens."

"This was a good sized project and it really needed the help when we first came. Once we were done it really looked great. The difference between when we first came onsite vs. when we were done was huge. Fun project, and the owner of the house obviously appreciated the work that we did."

"THE MEMBERS ARE WONDERFUL PEOPLE TO WORK FOR. SHE MADE ME AND MY GUY A SANDWICH WITH FRESH SQUEEZED LEMONADE FOR LUNCH. WE ALL SAT DOWN TOGETHER AS IF WE HAD BEEN FRIENDS FOR EVER, AND HAD A NICE LUNCH. THIS WAS A VERY QUICK AND EASY JOB, WE ARRIVED AT 8AM AND WERE OUT OF THERE BY 1 - 1:30PM. MIXING THIS COMPOST INTO THE SOIL LIKE THIS SHOULD REALLY HAVE THE VEGETABLE GARDEN DOING WELL. I KNOW IT DOES WONDERS IN MY OWN VEGETABLE GARDEN, AND ON MY OWN LAWN."