McCabe's Nursery & Landscape Construction

The overall project went reasonably well, especially the landscaping part. We were less than thrilled with outdoor kitchen counter for reasons described below. We were also not so happy with the Alumawood patio cover. Although in each case the finished product was acceptable, the process was not great and they had to come back several times to complete unfinished work. First the landscaping: I think they do a decent job designing the concept and executing it. It appears that the crew they hired to do this knew what they were doing. Except for one plant that died soon after planting, the rest of the plants are doing well. They put in a very nice raised bed vegetable garden for us and set up the irrigation system. Overall, we are quite happy with the landscaping job. The concreting of the whole back yard around the pool was hired to another crew, who did a decent job. The in-ground pool was built by another we company we contracted separately and they put a concrete perimeter around the pool. The concrete patio was built ok, but we noticed some hairline cracks around corners already. But, nothing major. The concrete sub-contractor crew drank beers while working. We did not care for it - it reflects poorly on their professionalism and affect the product. However, the concrete patio looks good. They left some beer cans, which was not exactly thrilling, but it was all picked up by the McCabes crew later. The outdoor kitchen counter took close supervision on our part. First they placed it at a different location than what we wanted, but we were able to stop this and change pretty early on. The concrete counter top was poorly finished and the side stone tiles were also poorly done. They ran out of corner pieces and had to improvise. They did not allow for electrical outlets and the holes for the fridge and storage units were too small even though they measured these very carefully. It looked like the crew and foreman were not communicating properly. However, they were quite willing to correct these mistakes. The patio cover was the wrong color combination and they had to repaint the facia and pillars subsequently and it took them three tries to get adequate amount of paint. They did not mark the location for fan beams hidden under the patio ceiling so it was a guessing game on the part of the electrician to figure out where the beams were. We feel that the crew that did the kitchen and patio cover (the same crew that did very good landscaping) was not experienced in these things. The manager had to come and correct a lot of their mistakes himself and some times I felt that he himself was distracted with many other demands on his time. So overall, McCabes is good, but requires close supervision. Their workmanship on things other than landscaping needs to improve (maybe they lost some experienced people due to the pandemic and we were the guinea pigs for an inexperienced crew).

Below is a review of McCabe's. While I know some people have had good experiences with them, this is what we had to deal with. Chapter 1: "Wishful Thinking" The initial visit was from John McCabe himself. Who gave us what we though was a reasonable assessment for what we were looking for. Grass, concrete, mulch and maybe a sun sail. Fast forward 3 months... They come out and start working on the job. Honestly quite quickly, we pay on time and the last payment goes through and this is when the real fun started. We were told the sun shade was not in stock and would take a few weeks to get here, but they had no problem cashing our checks before that. So we paid, and the job remained unfinished. Meanwhile, during the installation the entire front yard was completely trashed by the crew, which I expected. You have to dig for draining and pipes, etc. However what I didn't expect is for them to not fix it. So, I call Chris (McCabes Rep) and ask him why my front yard is trashed and for some reason they took four bushes out of the yard with them. We get into a back and forth where he tells me that was required for the sidewalk (it wasn't). So we schedule a time for him to come out and look at the damage because apparently he didn't trust the pictures we sent him. Anyway he comes out and I show him not only are the bushes missing, but drip lines are cut and the remaining drip lines are spraying water into the air. I was then offered 100$ per bush, which we obviously declined. We schedule a time and are assured by Chris that everything is going to be fixed. They come to install the shade and "fix" the front yard. The crew shows up and has no idea that the front yard was supposed to be fixed. Furthermore, McCabe's apparently did not measure the shade correctly so they installed a shade that was too large. It was literally tied in knots to the posts. Call McCabes, now Kelly picks up. Chris is now fired and has not informed the team of anything that has been happening. We forward all the emails, explain the situation, and they finally show up and fix some of the damage to the front yard, which at this point I was happy the drip lines weren't spraying water into the air. Chapter 2: "Sun Shade from H***" Flash back to John sitting in my kitchen, "You want professionals to install a sunshade, don't do it yourselves because you guys are at a top of a hill and you will get some wind up here". Which apparently this shade could not take the wind which caused all four beams to bend aggressively (see attached picture). This obviously prompted me to call McCabes which to their credit showed up and then proceeded to take it down and break a bunch of light bulbs all over my patio I had in a storage container on my ladder that I let him borrow (you can't make this stuff up). From then I was told due to the holidays and COVID It probably will be in the new year for them install the new shade. At least at this point I thought we were making progress because Chris was gone and Kelly was more responsive. Chapter 3: "False Hope" I get in touch with Kelly post Holidays and ask what is the plan? I was finally told they had a plan for the shade, the shade was in stock and they were ready to install it. The installation date comes and the installation is completely botched. There are cracks in the wood, unpainted brackets, screws screwed in at an angle, stucko missing from my house, the shade is hanging way to low, the concrete is chipped, spray-paint on the patio overall a complete disaster. I call again and then I am introduced to Ricardo. The plan he gives me is an excellent example of terrible customer service. (See attached email) They're going to upcharge me to fix their botched installation. Further more, he explains to me that they fulfilled their end of the contract. And this type of wood will behave "as expected" such as "cracking" despite them recommending this wood to me and despite this only being a few months post installation. And apparently their margins are so narrow that they have to charge me (I don't know how this is my fault as I have no control over setting their margins). And finally apparently they've already added some "uncharged courtesy items... to ensure customer satisfaction" which they explained to me later was the replacing of the bushes (that they ripped out) and the torn up front yard (which they were responsible for). They're final email as of 2/15/2022 (included) essentially said sorry but not sorry you need to take down your Yelp review if you would like to move forward. Using Yelp as a weapon to coerce your customers into complying with your will is below average and certainly not what a company who is trying to create more customers would do. My last request was for them to remove what they installed and refund me the money, which I'm highly doubtful will result in anything other than more excuses about bottom line. All said and done, this what I'm left with. Four broken posts that look like a kindergartner installed them and a company that wants to charge me more to fix them without giving me any installation plan or any idea exactly what they're going to do to fix it. I recommend looking at more reviews on other websites and you will see a continuing trend. Long story long, I would choose another company. [*** Link removed ***]

They were terrible. It was the worst. It was a waste of about $4000. There were stuff they told me they gave me but it wasn't where it was supposed to be in. I told them what I wanted but his vision of what I needed was more important. It was a bad experience. It was a lesson learned. They could have listened to what I wanted instead of making other suggestions. It would have turned out a lot better. It was really pricey. They showed up when they're supposed to.

Unfortunately the work did not go well.  McCabe's field crews and the management team did not communicate well and our landscaping project suffered due to that lack of communication as well as inadequate volume of materials such as decomposed granite, soil amendments, mulch and sand.
While others have had good experiences with McCabe's Nursery, we did not have a good experience.  Our project was not the full scope of what we wanted to accomplish due to our belief that a smaller project is a good way to make sure the contractor is a good match before we move to a full blown project.  Unfortunately McCabe's Nursery and Landscaping  workmanship and installation fell far short of our expectations.

This company is very professional from start to finish. They come out and get your ideas and give ideas when asked and take measurements.  Next step is touring their nursery and picking out plants and/or trees you like and tell them what you don't like.  Then they do a drawing of your yard at which time you can tell them if there is anything you don't like. Then you get the estimate.  If you agree to let them do the work they put you on their calendar.  They were on time every day, very friendly and easy to deal with.  These people are hard workers!  They are very efficient and worked together like a well oiled machine.  The owner of the company came out a few times to check up on the progress. When the job is complete the field manager comes by to do a final walkthrough. Everyone from the office staff, the designer, the workers, the field manager and the owner are involved in some way with your project. The yard looks beautiful!

McCabe did not provide the service. 2 of his workers helped us complete our backyard. They worked on their days off, and used their own equipment , and did an excellent. McCabe nursery came to our house and claimed we broke the law, threatened us with prosecution and threatened the workers. McCabe called the police. The police stated McCabe had no legal right to tell workers they could not work for us on their day off. McCabe changed tactics and began to threaten and yell at the workers. He also accused them, the workers, of stealing. The police did not take a report, and McCabe left in a huff. McCabe is a bully . He spoke to the workers as if they were slaves. He does not pay his workers overtime, and is ignorant about the law. I would never use this, McCabe Nursery , for any type of job. BUYER BEWARE.

unknown

I like the fact that this company is a family owned company. Their whole family is just a delight to work with.I
originally met with the owner, John McCabe. He went out of his way to help me. I have MS and was currently overwhelmed by a recent move to the state. They provided many plans and choices. What I found to be very helpful was their website. Pictures and prices of various plants and trees are available which made shopping for me, an easy experience. In addition, I liked the fact that they were able to do all of the work, not just plants, or concrete work, etc. but the whole tamale. One person to go to.
I found myself in a difficult financial situation that I was not planning on at the time of the first visit, and ended up with one orange tree and put the further plans on the backburner.

It went well, but I didn't use their services. They knew what they were talking about. They took their time. I wouldn't hesitate to use them in the future.

Mr. McCabe is very professional. He starts slowly to determine what the customer wants the final result to be. After a tour of his nursery and a rock supplier to see what is available and what the customer likes, a digital image is produced. Once all agree on the details, the actual work was begun and completed on time and very quickly.