Waterscapes of New England

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Waterscapes is not a licensed home improvement contractor in MA although they claim to be.  Their LLC was dissolved by the state of MA in 2012.  In 2014 they registered the same LLC name in NH, but a new address in Rye, NH.  This has been reported to AngiesList and they confirmed they are unlicensed and they are taking action against them.
They have left us with a giant disaster that needs to be entirely replaced and us out nearly $30,000!  Some digging in public records after the fact show they appear to have paid a $30,000 tax lien against the business the day after our checks cleared!  Even though they list Groveland as their business address (a PO box) all of their actual business addresses are in Haverhill, MA and Rye, NH. 
They also do business as ?Custom Outdoor Concepts of Rye? and ?Village Green Landscape Company?.  
We had a very complex project consisting of limited access, demolition, new walls, lighting, complex drainage, stone veneer and a patio.  We shopped around extensively and Carl from Waterscapes came in with a quote in the middle.  They claimed to be flexible to work with us as the demolition was completed, showed some portfolio work and claimed to understand the complexity of the project.  Their lifetime warranty was also a standout point.  
From day one it was clear these guys had no clue what they were doing.  It took them 3 or 4 tries to do anything that was even remotely correct.   There was not a single thing that they didn?t have to redo multiple times.  Literally all of the work they left needs to be replaced as it?s incomplete and falling apart.
Even though a design was on the contract to be done after demolition was completed they refused to do one,  just winging it each day, often doing the opposite of what they told us that very morning.  Their excuse for poor decisions and poor craftsmanship was ?You have a lifetime warranty, we?ll come back and do it over!?  
The project dragged well past their contract end date as they rarely showed up and when they did it was 1-2 hours a day.  Even our neighbors commented on their pace and the huge mess.  There?s many, many emails and pictures documenting the two months of their daily missteps and our continued disappointment with their work.
The wall they did build need to be replaced because it was built wrong, is causing water issues and doesn?t fit the wall cap.  The stone veneer they installed is falling off and sloppily installed.  The wall cap product is defective, not cut straight or overhanging consistently anywhere.
They hit our driveway wall with their truck, smashing the wall cap, then pieced it back together and never told us.  We noticed a week later and they said they did it and would replace it?  They did, and it looks terrible and needs to be replaced.  They also repeatedly dented our HVAC by smashing into it with their wheelbarrows.
Ultimately their employee, Casey, admitted this was the hardest project they've ever had and they had no idea how to do it.  They had suggested drainage that clearly would have never worked and I had to explain to them why a single 2? drainpipe for 1200 sqf of patio and roof runoff was unacceptable.  They were unable to come up with a patio layout that would work due to the complex slope and elevation situation they created.
We could no longer trust them to work on our property, between the terrible work, the lying/damages and the fact they were nearly a month over the contracted end date.  On December 18th we told them we would not be using them to do the remaining not-started items on the contract.
They came and picked up all their tools (and stole and/or broke our tools from our shed) and left a dump truck of gravel blocking our driveway, which they refused to move unless we hired them back for the rest of the job.  
They refuse to refund any of the advanced payments we made for work they were unable to start or support the warranty or finish the work we paid for in full.

This was a complex project with a lot of moving parts.
Several thousand square feet of patio, complicated pool coping and a significant amount of reconstruction. The land I gave Carl to work with was ugly and unstable.
I give Carl an A for time and price because of the value he brings to the table. Not because he's the cheapest or the fastest sprinter.
Some significant challenges materialized over the course of the job that added time and cost to the project. The great thing is Carl rolled with the punches, reacted fast, didn't compromise quality, and never asked for more money.
This was not an easy piece of land to work with. A 40 year old pool patio on shaky foundations.
His foreman/mason Eddie is the only person I trust to do anymore work on my hardscape/landscape. His ability, attention to detail and work ethic is unquestionable.
Carl brings 30 years of experience to the table; great design ideas, flexibility, problem solving, vision..........value!!
Additionally, Carl has a fantastic network of partners that are just as reliable.
I would be happy to provide a reference to all serious buyers.

He was excellent and did a very good job. He held to all of his promises and was very professional. He stayed with the price he originally quoted and he was very responsive to anything I asked. His son works with him and was also a pleasure to work with. ?I would highly recommend him.

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Overall, went well although project from start to finish took a long time (not entirely due to Waterscapes).  I would have liked if they could have coordinated the railings as once the stairs were done it took another 6 weeks to get new railings installed.
Bottom line, stairs and walkway look great.

Carl is enthusiastic, driven and very responsive.  He has a strong vision with creative ideas that are clearly a result of many years in the business...but also has some flexibility.  His crew showed up on time everyday as promised and worked all day long, often until it became dark.  They did a beautiful job.  We would highly recommend Waterscapes to others and will contact Carl regarding future exterior work.

Carl and his team did a great job.  They were there when they said they would be and they communicated when the weather affected the schedule.  Carl was very good at helping me picture options and was creative in his suggestions.  My side yard has gone through an amazing transformation and I am very pleased.

We contacted Carl Campbell who met with us within a few days of our call.? Carl was professional, detailed and listened to our suggestions.? Carl also provided us with ideas on how to make the patio look and feel more like it was part of the landscape.? Carl is also very knowledgeable about the permit process for both the town as well as the wetlands and zoning.? Carl also sent us information on pavers and designs.? Once the final details were in place, the patio was completed within two days.? I would highly recommend Carl and his crew and will use them again in the future.

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We hired Waterscapes when our initial contractor abandoned the project and took our money, and they did a great job.  They were very communicative and sent regular status updates to us which we appreciated since we lived out of state.  Additionally, they finished the project in 10 days which was really impressive considering that they had to basically start from scratch  They also had competitive prices and cost-effective solutions to problems that satisfied all of our neighbors' concerns.

The team was on schedule with our contracted start date, and kept our yard very clean and organized throughout the project. The crew worked vigorously day in and day out to create our backyard dream. We found them to be very respectful and courteous to our family and friends as well as our neighbors. We were most impressed by the workmanship and attention to detail during the entire process.

I have had plenty of business with them. They are great. They are very creative. Overall, my experience with them has been excellent. I have enjoyed their services. I cannot say enough about them. I would use them again in the future.

We have used Carl and company before and are always happy with his work because his goal is to make the customer happy. Sometimes the initial work is not perfect but pointing out the defects is met with a pleasant and constructive response. As a "fussy" person, it is such a pleasant change to deal with a contractor who doesn't take it as a personal criticism if you are not 100% happy the first time. The crew are friendly and neat, very hard-working and always punctual.

At the start of the project everything seemed fine. The problems began with grading not being completed before hydro-seed was started. It was difficult to convince the owner's son who was supervising the project, that the slope around the house had to drop away from the foundation or at least be flat. He fixed one section after I picked up a shovel and started digging myself. Meanwhile the hydro-seed truck had arrived and started spraying while we were working. Prior to the project start I had emphasized the need for proper grading and was promised by the company owner that the grade around the house, including the walkways would slope away from the house. Also, there was a rubber lining, about 8x10 feet long, part of an old fishpond, that had not been removed. It was buried by the new soil, about a foot of it was exposed above the soil. My husband dug it out, moved the boulders, and pulled up the liner the weekend before the hydro-seed truck was scheduled to arrive. The owner?s men said they never saw it. The walkway to the front steps was to go under the first step and then have a slight grade away so as to not decrease the riser height. The walkway they installed had the surface about two inches above the base of the first stair. When asked to fix the problem a portion of the stones were removed. His men scraped out the sand in the area in front of the step and placed the paver stones back in, leaving a reverse grade for water and ice to collect into. We asked that the entire grade be corrected several times. Each time they did variations of the same. There was a payment schedule in the contract. The owner requested the payments in advance of the schedule. On 9/24/2010 the owner pressured us to give him $4K out of the last $5K payment, before we had time to inspect all of the work. He came by in the evening, while it was getting dark. He said he had to pay some bills right away. He asked if we saw any problems with the work. We told him we did not see any problems at that time. The next day, we did inspect the work and we found the problems with the grading of the walkway and the yard. We also found the trench for the drip edge of the roof needed to be a bit wider. He sent his men back out to fix that and his son to supervise the repair of the walkway. His son came to the door when he was done requesting the final $1K. He said if there was a problem with the pavers over the winter they would come out and fix it in the spring. I said okay and gave him final payment. When the men came by to extend the trench around the house, I witnessed them taking shovels full of gravel from the driveway in front of the garage for the trench. I had noticed the gravel was extra deep in front of the garage entrance and had wondered why. It made entering the garage a little awkward, as it compressed easily and tire ruts were forming. They left without correcting the grade of the gravel in front of the garage. About a week later the area in front of the garage had sunk down at the transition into the garage even further. Upon scraping through the pea stone we discovered that dirt was underneath it, as had been under the original gravel driveway. The soil had not been re-graded, let alone the stone given a structural base as per spec. The ruts in front of the garage had been covered up with a deep layer of gravel. I remembered thinking the driveway went down pretty fast towards the end of the project and witnessing only vibratory compaction on the surface of the gravel. The gravel trench around the house had been widened only on one half the length of the house as well. I double checked the contract and called the company and reported these problems immediately. The owner was not immediately responsive, but eventually met with us on 11/2/2010. He admitted he had not done the driveway per the contract. However, he did not offer to do it for us per the contract. He offered to repair the area in front of the garage entrance, since we had problems with ice build up at the entrance because of ruts the winter before. We told him we would think about it. We decided by that evening that his offer was insufficient and we had paid for something better. We sent him a note via e-mail the next day telling him we wanted him to install the driveway per the contrat. A few days later he offered to do a repair in front of the garage sooner, then come back again later this year if time and weather permitted or in the spring to do the entire driveway correctly. He claimed we had a lifetime guarantee on the work. I told him I did not want a lifetime relationship. I said I wanted a driveway that was going to last. He had been paid in full, winter was approaching and we felt he should make this a priority, putting aside other work to fix it immediately. He refused. I told him to put his offer in writing. He pressured me to agree on the spot. I said several times that I wanted to see his offer in writing and signed. He said he would e-mail it to us. We could print it, sign it and send it back. I told him that would mean he would not be signing it, only we would be. He said he would send it with his signature. After several days and a prompt by me via e-mail on 11/9/10, he put his new proposal in writing, Nov. 11th. It was sent unsigned via e-mail. It essentially said he would show up when he felt like it, and there was no language incorporating an immediate fix to the ruts in front of the garage. He expected us to sign, fax it to him and trust that he would sign and mail it back to us. That was going to take another week at least. I immediately pointed out the missing language and told him we wanted him to fix the driveway as per the contract this year. With the amount of time and the equipment involved to do what he had just re-proposed, he could do what was specified in the contract. It would save him money in the long run, give us what we needed and had been promised if he just did it correctly now. He had been paid in full, pulled a bait and switch on a major portion of the work, and he expected us to wait an untold number of months to come back and fix it. We were not offered a refund for the work either. At this point we had told him several times by phone and e-mail that he should make it a priority to complete the work as specified in the contract, as he was paid in full and winter was approaching. Several weeks had passed since we?d given him the last payment, and it was now the middle of November. He refused and insisted on completing his other jobs as he had planned. He delayed negotiations by not answering his calls and/or sending e-mail promptly. Eventually he did promise to arrive by Dec. 13, 2010 to complete the driveway as per the contract. He confirmed with us the week before Dec. 13th, that he would be here Dec. 13, 2010. On Dec. 13, 2010 temperatures were in the 40s and he was a no show. He did not give us any warning by phone or send a notice by e-mail that there was a problem. My husband called at the end of the day, and the following day we received an e-mail saying he could not arrive until the following Monday. He was told again, that with the cold weather coming he had to make this a priority, to find a way to complete the job this year. He said he was concerned about the weather too and offered again to complete the work in the spring. Had his men not shoveled out pea stone from in front of the driveway, we may not have not known until it was too late, that he did not complete the work as he had agreed. We are in a difficult economy and he seems to not have a financial cushion. He accelerated the payment schedule and at the end pressured us to pay right away so he could pay bills. He claims he has been doing this for 25 years. At the same time he said he cannot grow his business with unhappy customers. We checked the Secretary of State?s Office and his company has only been around for seven years. We are concerned that he might not be around as a company in the spring, that he does not have the financial resources to take care of our driveway properly, having spent our payment on materials for another project, and/or will not show up.

Initially, they were suppose to start in September but delayed until mid-October. I wanted to wait until the spring, but I was assured it would be OK. Grass didn't take and the winter washed away the topsoil. Some work initially committed was not completed or came with an extra cost. Once payment was made, any further promises were lip service. Contractors did a good job. Any work performed in the spring of '04 was not additional. It was committed the prior fall to alleviate the concern of the October start. I followed the instructions given on watering (using a sprinkler system), fertilizing, cutting, etc, so "lack of maintenance" is not the issue. After trying to work with them over the spring/summer, and concluding there was no further progress to be made, I provided my rating to another service, and filed a complaint w/ the BBB. The rating was postponed reflect the final outcome and what I hoped would be a better result. I got an email response from the referral after I learned that they took down the review. It indicates the rating being removed primarily because of a late submission. In hindsight, it was a mistake to try and resolve the problems prior to submitting the rating. As far as removing this, I guess it's one way to insure a company's rating always remain high. However, what I wrote was my experience.

The experience was fabulous. It was one of the best estimates that I got. The quality of work was excellent. They were very punctual. They would always return our calls and they really tried to understand our needs.

I had a bad experience with another mason who was re-building the retaining wall and interviewed several other masons to get their opinions and estimates. Right away I knew Carl was the man for the job. He understood what I wanted and gave me the courage to insist the other mason remove his work and refuse to pay the price he wanted. He's very personable and knowledgeable and his estimate was reasonable. We did not intend to have landscape lighting originally and it added about $3800 to the total cost but we love it. We couldn't stretch to do all the lighting suggested but when we came home they were installing some of those lights as a surprise for us, at no charge! The job was started when he said it would be and they always showed up when expected. During time when the crew was waiting for materials to be delivered they cut new edges on our existing foundation plantings just to keep busy. All the workmen were polite, friendly and hard-working. We asked for some changes to the stonework which were accomplished without any fuss. The nursery gave them the wrong plants for one area in the back and when I pointed it out the incorrect plants were removed and the correct ones installed although Carl had to drive quite a distance to find them. We will be having work done next year on another wall and planting area and we definitely plan to use Waterscapes again. I feel so lucky to have found Carl - he's the easiest contractor I've ever worked with and I'm pretty fussy!

From the beginning Carl and his team were a delight to work with. Everyone I spoke with including the receptionist, Carl, and the men who actually did the work, were friendly, helpful and easy to communicate with. Carl was clearly knowledgeable about masonry and was very helpful in determining what materials would be used. The crew came when they said they would, worked hard while here and built several beautiful stone walls in my yard. They worked very quickly and the whole project took only 2 days. They cleaned up very nicely after the project was completed. I highly recommend them!!

I've renovated two homes of mine, and I've had some good experiences. This was the absolute best. I had a very specific vision of a natural stone stairway and paths to fit a steep side of my house and back. At one point, when I wasn't quite as happy with a couple of steps, Carl and Mike stopped the job, and returned the next day with perfect slabs. Carl promised me at the beginning that the job wouldn't be done until I was thoroughly satisfied. It surpassed my high expectations, so much so, that once the job was done, I had them do a stone wall which also came out beautifully. Not only did they transform my yard, they left it neater than when they came -- putting in some shrubs just to make it nicer, taking away a pile of cement blocks and such that I had, and even cleaning all the leaves from my yard and where they ran onto neighbor's. I'll urge family and friends to use them!