AFFORDABLE SPRINKLER & LNDSCP

I worked with Tom to install a new backyard in Erie. At the initial meeting he seemed friendly and knowledgeable, the price was right, so I hired him. During installation I had to point out a couple times that the grading of the yard was incorrect, each time I was told it'd be fixed in the next stage. Additionally, I told them the yard was too wet (just rained) to install sod, but they went ahead anyways, resulting in a significant number of divots and bumps despite staying off the lawn for 3 weeks after installation (they only told me to stay off for 2 weeks). At the end it was not correct and I had a puddle in the middle of my yard. At the end of installation I made the mistake of promptly paying for service as warranty requests were completely ignored. Initially the main issues included the incorrect grading, unlevel lawn, damaged drip lines, and two dead bushes, misplaced plants (weren't located according to landscaping plan). I attempted to communicate with Tom about getting these issues repaired, particularly the incorrect grading prior to my deck being installed. Tom and Ron (the owner) delayed responding by two months before finally coming out to look at the grading issue, at which point I had decided to continue with the deck. They did eventually send someone out (twice, since it wasn't fixed completely the first time) to fix it, but Tom and Ron were clearly not happy about having to work under the deck. I had attempted to schedule warranty repairs through their website, but never received a confirmation email or a callback. The only way to get any response from the company was to begin calling and texting Ron or Tom every day for a week. By the time August came around (4 months after the yard was completed) I still had dead bushes, a dead tree now (due to damaged drip line), the grading issue hadn't yet been resolved completely, and some missing rock due to the first attempt at fixing the drainage. I was also receiving no response from Ron (the owner) whom Tom directed me to communicate with as his job was done with my yard after he received my check. Eventually they attempted to replace the tree with one a foot shorter than the original (and what was on my invoice) so I refused it requesting the correct size. They took this to mean they didn't need to deal with it, nor refund me since I refused the tree. At this point I realized that any disagreement with how things should be fixed would mean they considered it a closed issue and there was no discussion or follow up. During this time, I did manage to get Ron to agree to refund the bushes and subsequently the tree (Sep 19 and Oct 22 respectively). By Nov 16 I had still not received any further word on the refund despite requesting an ETA. At this point I notified Ron of my intention to collect through small claims court and gave him until Nov 29th before I filed. Ron finally responded on Nov 24th and eventually accused me of forging the invoice to say I paid for a taller tree than they had brought the first time. I reminded him they have copies of the invoiced themselves and can confirm that I had done no such thing (and it would be dumb to do so given the records). He never followed up to apologize about the accusation. Ron waited until 8:30pm on Nov 29th to finally send the refund. Tl;Dr - they are acceptable as long as you don't need them to fix anything for you. They would be best used as a low cost builder-grade landscaping company that does not interface with customers. They should not be in the residential business though as they don't seem to be able to stand behind their work or handle warranty repairs at all.

I had Affordable Landscaping install a new backyard (new build) in April. I had chosen them because Tom (the lead on the job) seemed to understand the plan I had for the yard (I had provided clear diagrams from a 3d model in SketchUp) as well as the proposed grading adjustments (adding dirt to provide a 2% grade from my house to move an existing swale towards the center of the yard). The price was also on the lower end of other bids. The installation process went generally well, though the crew took quite a few liberties without discussing with me first: * Did not confirm concrete form placements, which resulted in last minute changes due to misplacement from previously marked points. (and ultimately ended up in some parts of the patio being off from square by inches, they do not intend to fix this) * Most plants needed to be moved due mis-location despite being given plans * Digging back up an irrigation box that was buried during grading (and shouldn't have had additional dirt added there anyways). * re-working irrigation I had put in due to connecting several zones into the same zone without asking first, or removing irrigation I had installed for future use. The above issues were addressed in a timely manner. My main concern with the whole project was ensuring grading was correct though, and that has yet to be addressed. During installation I brought up several times an issue with the grading and pooling water in the center of the yard next to the patio. Each time I was assured the next step of the installation would resolve it. As soon as the project was finished, I once again pointed out to Tom that there was still significant pooling and the grading wasn't correct. It took several texts and calls to finally get a response 3 weeks after they were paid for Tom to tell me it wasn't his responsibility. I contacted Ron, the owner, and the warranty phone line. After several days I got to talk to someone (Victor) who wanted to put a swale down the center of the yard to fix the issue, but that would result in water running off my properly different than the original plot plan which is not allowed in my city or HOA. Since then I've been trying to talk to Ron the owner to regrade the yard properly before I finished the deck, since that's where the grading needs to go back down (they raised it during installation for some reason). Despite many attempts over a total of two months now I have yet to receive a real response from him or anyone else in the company. I would not trust Affordable Landscaping to do any grading or large projects that could result in significant damage to your property. Due to the delays, the deck is now finished and will have to be torn apart to fix the grading properly resulting in significantly higher costs to repair.

I called Affordable Sprinkler and left a message, and within 15 minutes, Thomas Roerick called me back. We chatted about what kind of problems I was having, and he gave me a rough estimate of what the repair cost would be. An appointment time was setup about a week out. Thomas called me a day before my appointment, and asked if I was okay with him coming a day earlier than scheduled, which I was more than okay with. Thomas immediately went to work, and within ten minutes he had taken care of my back-flow valve, I had a suspicion that my drip line valve was not closing, which Thomas confirmed, and he replaced that valve. Another zone was not working at all, and Thomas worked on it for a while, thinking there might be leak in the line, but not finding any leaks, he finally concluded that there was not enough water pressure to popup the 12 sprinkler heads. Thomas suggested putting on new lower water volume sprinkler heads, which he thought would take care of the problem. He didn't have those heads, but he called around and found the nearest irrigation supply store that carried them. The nearest irrigation supply store wasn't that close, so I figured it would be a second appointment, but Thomas said that he would be back in an hour. Back at the house, Thomas traded out the 12 heads in short order, and I had a working zone. Imagine a drip line running 24/7, our water bill was 3 times that of our neighbors, so I figure these repair cost will be paid for with lower water bills. I liked how quickly Thomas returned my phone call. I liked that he checked with me when he had an opening come up earlier. Thomas went right to work, and fixed everyone of my issues. I would definitely use Affordable Sprinkler again, and would recommend the company to my family and friends.

Weather caused a delay and the company called and rescheduled without issue. The technician seemed to have good knowledge and experience. He did what needed to be done and the extra fees for extra work (which we expected) were reasonable. He also answered all of my drip-line questions without charge.

Affordable let me know when they could get started, met that start date, and kept me informed throughout the process. I felt good about the progress they made, this was completed per their estimate. I was very happy with the final result. They also guarantee the plantings for a year, so that's good.

Excellent.

Call was returned very quickly and we scheduled an appointment. Servicer showed up on time and got right to work. Walked yard to inspect all sprinklers and zones. Gave me a estimate to fix a zone, few sprinkler heads and move a sprinkler. After approval he completed the job within a couple of hours. The system is working great. He offered to come back in a few weeks to make any minor adjustments that might be needed. We thought that his price was very fair and loved that he could complete this job within the same day. We will be keeping his phone number to pass along and use in the future.

very good work, very reasonable

Tom was very professional. He had to dig underground to fix a pipe and solder all of the connections, which was more than I expected. He returned later to check on his work. 

Great experience.  The team worked diligently and the property looks fantastic

Ron was great about working with my budget and listening to my concerns and my ideas for the project.  His crew was equally good at listening to what I was envisioning and exceeded my expectations. They did a great job of matching the new patio to the existing patio and were good about checking with me along the way to make sure that I was happy with the progression of things. They worked hard!  I am thrilled with the new space that they created and have received many compliments since it's completion about how great it looks.

Initial consultation went well and Ron (the owner) was very responsive to any questions/concerns we had. But after work was finished and he received our check, we never heard from him again. Our lawn did very poorly and it was obvious that they did not prep the soil with the extra compost we had paid for. Ron never returned our phone calls and Francine (warranty person) was very difficult to deal with. We also paid for a gas line trench and polypipe to be used for a gas fireplace we planned on installing at a later date. Ron pushed installing the line first, as then we would not have to dig up any landscaping in the future to finish our firepit project. The trench was not dug to code so in order to use the line, we would have to dig up the entire trench.  Affordable would not refund us our money and we ended up settling in small claims court. I implore you to not use this company if you want a quality job done with reliable and honest follow up.