Olmo Bros.Landscaping

Great job, very responsive to calls/emails, and good price

The entire process from bid to final touches being made was Excellent. Gene was very easy to work with and changes were always being made with minimal disturbance to the overall job. His crew was friendly, professional, and courteous. We look forward to recreating the front yard with him in the near future.

unknown

Our efforts to resolve our issues well before our warrantee expired met with negative results. Gene's written and verbal promises to meet us and resolve our issues professionally never came to fruition.

We entered a contract based off of statements of knowledgeable engineering, promises of quality, and any warrantee concerns would be addressed. Since I had spent the last 15 years of the last 20 years serving overseas in the military, I was completely ignorant of stateside construction. My house in Europe was made of concrete and brick, and I have never had a deck. This was our first stateside house and our first deck, so we had nothing to compare it to. We had to trust that when we were told it was the right way, the correct way, or completely normal, it in fact was. We took it all in good faith. He wouldn’t finish the work without payment, he stated that is was normal practice. I now know the county warns against it. When the deck was done, Gene came back to fix a minor issue. We had concerns about the front left footer which seemed too high out of the ground, and the first stair step which had the corner cut off to accommodate it. We were told it was fine, it's good sturdy work, and it's normal. The other footers were covered in mounds of hay, so I didn't realize the condition they were actually left in. We thanked him and did some research. Even though the deck passed inspection, we starting realizing many mistakes were made, but we had a warrantee and his word to fix any problems, so we thought it would be fine.

We have spent the last nine months trying to get Gene to come to our home and address the mistakes made, and he will not. Last fall he missed a promised appointment, and every time he said he would come soon, he never showed. We called his office, sent text messages and multiple e-mails. Many times, we never got a response. When we did get him on the phone he assured us that he would come meet us soon, not to worry, we hired the right contactor. We were assured he would address any issues. His carpenter came out in the fall to look at joists that had naturally warped. It was supposed to be Gene, so I politely expressed all of our issues with his carpenter, and apologized that he was the one to see our frustration. We continually tried to get Gene to come out, and he never would. His carpenter showed up in April to fix the joists. When we got home at the end of the day, we saw that he did fix one, but there were still others that needed correction. Gene promised to follow on shortly after his carpenter, and I thanked Gene for sending him out. Since Gene wrote that he would come out, his carpenter said he would come out, I thought we could show him the others when he showed up. As normal, he did not show. After nine months of total frustration, we finally wrote a formal letter trying to resolve this professionally and it has not worked. He doesn't understand what the problems are because he refuses to look at them.

Joists are warped, some have the crowns up, and some are down (they should be uniform), which is contributing to the waviness of the deck. The ledger board is too high, so every deck board is curved upward against the house. A joist on the opposite side of the deck is a little too high and causing more waviness. My deck is waved from one end to the other because the joists are not correct. He has stated the footers should be two to three inches above ground. My highest is eight, they are misaligned and at varying heights. They piled the excavated earth around the footers in large mounds. The deck was on a slight slope and approximately nine feet from a steeper slope. The large mounds piled around the footers interfered with the natural drainage of a newly laid lawn, which has caused erosion issues. If my lawn was left as flat (even though slightly sloped) as it was when they arrived we would not have the issues we have now. Even though Gene insisted the pressure treated wood is not meant for ground contact, he buried half of the first step, and buried the post for the risers.

Our warrantee is still valid, promises for quality should be binding. Gene refuses to fix the remaining problems. Since his carpenter fixed one joist he states he is not responsible for the remaining joists. As an end all to this ongoing problem Gene proposed adding more dirt to cover it all up. If he had shown over the last nine months he would see that the mounds they built has caused drainage issues flowing away from the house. Since the highest footer is eight inches out of the ground, adding five plus inches of soil would bury the first step, part of the second step, and make my lawn steeper than they already made it. My iPhone photo app can not fully convey the brevity of it all as it does when you look at it in person. Attached are examples of what they state right looks like.

UPDATE: 26 June 2014

I will re-iterate, my wife and I spent nine months trying to get Gene to stand on our lawn in person, as the owner and individual responsible for quality and he would not. His actions proved that he would not. If I were to ask for new work to be completed, new money to be made, an owner is on site within days. Some rain or snow should not prevent one from coming to look at an issue for nine months.

I raised my concerns as politely as I could with his carpenter last fall, although my frustration was apparent. I pointed out most of the problems we had ( the excavated earth that was mounded around the footers which interfered with the grading, the seven and eight inch footers, the waviness of the deck, the buried front step, the corner cut off the front step, the buried post for the riser (not meant for ground contact, etc.)). I told his carpenter that if everything was done correctly, then take pictures of what we were left with and post them on his website as an example of right looks like. His carpenter told me that my complaints were justified, and that Gene would do the right thing and he would see us so we could explain it to him, as he did not have the authority to speak for Gene. We continued to ask Gene to come to our home and he continued to tell us he would. I have months of saved emails stating that he would.

Yes, his carpenter did come and fix one of the joists as I stated before, and I thanked him for it. When we walked out to look at it later that evening I saw that the others still needed adjusting, but I would show it to Gene when he showed up. Yet again, he did not show as his e-mail promised, so we finally decided to make our concerns official.

We sent an official letter explaining our issues, and his response did not match our concerns. His arguments showed that he did not understand the brevity of it. How far a footer goes down does not excuse it being eight inches above ground, nor should it be so close to the front step that the corner was cut off to accommodate an oversized footer. Proper measurements when planning should have circumvented any issues that could arise from wide footers. Stating that fixing one joist alleviates one from all other joist issues is not a comment that exudes quality.

I conferred with my wife once again, and yes we had to provide the final payment before the work would be completed. We now know this is not normal practice and it was a hard lesson learned.

Since Gene would not look at our issues in person (thus not understanding them), and his resolution was not going to work as he thought it would, we finally gave up. After nine months of unfulfilled promises to show up, his inability to understand the issues with the deck, we gave up and informed him his services were no longer needed.

The photos can't and don't, show it all, but it does show enough. I can't find anyone to tell me that my deck is what right looks like. My neighbors asked me who did it so they would and quot;notand quot; go through the same company. That speaks volumes to me. My deck is not unsafe, thus it pass

They're amazing. They just do exceptional work. The owner is here with the workers all the time. They've got a huge work ethics. They come when they say they're gonna come. They don't leave you. They do wonderful work.

They did the work last year. They take them a long time to actually get the job done but then they said they were done in probably half a day. They did a good job.

.

They did a wonderful job and were equally wonderful to work with. They arrived on time and finished the job in 2.5 days and charged us the exact amount of the estimate. The workmanship on the stone walls installed in the swale area to handle the erosion problem was excellent. The landscape design was perfect for our needs (natural, native plantings). The work was done in the Fall and we are just now seeing the effect of the beautiful sod and new spring flowers. We are already thinking about the next project we can hire them to do.

It worked great and everything went good. I would give them a good report.