CIMINELLI'S LANDSCAPE SERVICES INC

paver patio extension

Great! We got a number of estimates and decided to hire Ciminelli’s because they gave us the option of using permeable pavers which seemed to be the best drainage solution for our driveway. They did beautiful work and we no longer develop a lake at the bottom of the driveway when it rains. This work was done a couple of years ago and still looks like new. It was a bit more expensive than using standard pavers, but because we are within the Chesapeake Bay critical area we qualified for a property tax break that minimized the additional cost. Ciminelli’s has done other landscaping work for us and we have always been pleased with the quality of their work and their professionalism.

Services were great, the final product is better than I thought possible. Completed job in two days, cleaned up everything. The crew was amazing. I would definitely use them again and recommend them.

Ciminelli's did an awesome job installing a new 35' x 5' flagstone walkway. They were able to perfectly match the stone and style of a stoop and steps installed the previous year. Ciminelli is a safe pick if you are looking for an experienced contractor and a hassle free experience. Ciminelli also did an awesome job installing the previous driveway, which took approximately 4 days. The work crew arrived on the scheduled time frame and completed the project within the scheduled time frame.

Great, fast and great work

Incredible! Matt was great to work with throughout the whole project. Extremely accomodating to our budget without sparing quality. The workers were so kind and worked diligently. The end product was phenomenal. We love working with his greenhouse as well. There is no one else i will work with for these projects.

This was a wonderful team who knew what they were doing, and proud of their work! I wished I hadn't waited so long to have professionals clean up my front yard giving better street appeal.

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They gave me a quote for some hard scaping, and it was very high estimate so I decided not to work with them.

Went fantastic.  Very impressed with the mail communication.  When Matt Ciminielli came out we discussed our desire for a pollinator garden.  He chose our plants with than in mind  The crew arrived when they were supposed to, worked hard, and left our house looking wonderful.  The jobs were done at the same time, and took several days.  We were in constant communication with the office.  The rain garden has grown beautifully and attracted butterflies and pollinators.  We even have hummingbirds regularly.

scheduled an estimate, arrived promptly, sent me an estimate in writing then scheduled a date and stuck to it even though rain was forecast. did a fantastic job.

Mr. Ciminelli reviewed the project with us and made terrific suggestions for landscaping that we decided to add on to the original contract. We had to attain homeowner approval for the work a md once that was received, the work was scheduled. The crew did an outstanding job coordinating the existing paved area in the back of the house to the new pavers that extended down the side and curved around to meet the driveway. We have a whole new look to the front and side yard, having removed an old hedge and replacing with new plants of a wide variety.

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The team arrived when anticipated.  Always dependable.  Hard working.  One of the best values for the dollar around.

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The service was excellent.  They were very efficient and nice people.  They did a good work.  The price was very good.  Their professionalism was excellent.

I contacted Ciminelli's Landscaping for a price to install and maintain flowers and plants.  Things went smoothly getting someone to my house to review and provide a price.  After I received the price, I emailed follow up questions which were answered.  I had a couple more follow up questions that were never answered.  After nearly a month of not hearing back, I contacted them to let them know I was no longer interested in working with them.

He is reliable, and when I say I don’t want anything invasive, he doesn’t put in anything invoices. He listens to my input and does exactly what I want.

UPDATE 6/15: I have changed the price rating to a C - Fair - they called immediately after we posted our original review and said they were interested in our job and quickly sent us a revised quote that was the per sq foot price for the patio stones as originally discussed -  $15 sq/ft (reasonable/competitive); but the wall cost was as much again - it doubled the cost of the job; I guess because we asked for 2 long walls - we don't know exactly because we have not called them or heard from them since they sent the updated quote, but appreciate the fact that they sent it and the patio price for the patio part was definitely fair; It's a shame really that it turned out this way .


Original Comments;
At this point we are very disappointed in Ciminelli's Landscape Services.
My advice is don't waste your time contacting this company unless your job/you are prepared to spend at least $10,000 (no matter what the scope of your job is). They are obviously not interested and their product-specific "installed square foot pricing" is clearly a grossly inaccurate representation of the actual costs you will be quoted - upfront we were told the same $/sq ft installed pricing by Jimmy and the owner Mark after they knew the patio size we wanted (~280 sq ft). The quote came back at DOUBLE that cost > $30 sq/ft installed!   Jimmy definitely left us with a bad impression of Ciminelli's and unhappy with our experience getting a quote from them.
When we met w/Jimmy on 5/16 we discussed a 14 x 18 patio, small seating wall and he separately recommended 2 rain gardens to help with a moderate water run-off problem in a different area of the garden. At the time he said the cost for pavers would range from $11-$15 sq/foot installed depending on what we picked and an additional ~$1,200 for blue flagstone ($17-$20 installed). He strongly pushed us toward selecting flagstone vs pavers. His ball park estimate for each Rain Garden was around $500-$700 per area (16' x 12'). 
We were supposed to get a quote by no later than the following Tuesday 5/21. Nothing.
On Wed 5/22 I called the office and asked to speak w/Jimmy. He was not available, so I asked that he call me and advised we were waiting on the quote.
On Thur 5/23, still no return call. My husband and I decided to go the their Eco Garden center to look at pavers and flagstone and get some supplies. We happened to meet the owner, Mark Ciminelli, discussed our project briefly, and we found an EP Henry Bristol paver we liked a lot. Mark said this paver was $15 sq/ft installed. We mentioned we were still waiting to hear from
Jimmy with the quote.
At 4:30PM on Friday 5/24 we received a quote via email for $11,458!!
This quote included a rectangular flagstone patio*, small 6' x 18" wall, and 2 rain gardens and $655 for plants. We were floored at the price. By our estimate the 280 sq/ft patio we discussed w/Jimmy at $15 /sq ft installed should have been around $4,200
for the paver patio or $17-$20 sq/ft flagstone $4,760-$5,600. *The quote showed the 8 x 10 existing concrete patio area PLUS a 350 sq ft patio ( Total 430 sq/ft! vs 280 sq/ft measured when we met), the 6' x 18" wall, and 2 Rain Gardens.  We thought there had been a mistake in calculating the cost because it did not match the sq footage discussed when we met w/Jimmy. There was nothing fancy about this project - no special pattern, or curved shapes. No problem we thought....we'll call and get it
corrected.
On 5/25 I sent an email message asking that Jimmy contact us to discuss the quote.
On 5/28 Jimmy called late afternoon and we discussed the quote v. briefly. He said he would look at it and get back to us the next day 5/29 with a corrected quote and/or a quote for the EP Henry Bristol pavers instead. We waited.
On 5/30 I left a message requesting a call back; no response.

On 5/31 he finally called back in the afternoon and it was clear he still had not looked at the quote. He told me the Rain Garden cost was around ~$2.5K, the patio = ~$9K. When I said his quote worked out to around $30 sq/ft installed his explanation was that "your job was too small for economies of scale"....and it was our fault because we should have told him "our budget" - he didn't ask for it and based on the sq/ft installed pricing he discussed with us, it should have worked out just fine.
Before I mentioned that this referral came through Angie's List, he initially said he "was sorry we would not be able to do business and to look for another contractor"  I told him we already had two other quotes and had been waiting on theirs. He asked what they were, so I told him they were $3,000 for a Cambridge paver patio and $4,350 for EP Henry pavers for the 280 sq/ft patio and $300 for the small wall. He said he did not understand why the pricing was so different and that he would talk to Mark early Saturday morning and get back to us. He has not called back.....The other two companies do not do rain gardens so we originally preferred Cimenelli's.
At this point, Jimmy bluntly made us realize that Ciminelli's clearly is not interested in what he thinks are "small" jobs,  but instead of being honest about that up front, Jimmy gave us the run around, a seriously over/mis-priced quote, and delayed
our decision by 2+weeks  - we were so sure we would pick Ciminelli's based on the reviews,  the fact that they are very local to us, and how impressed we were with their apparent industry knowledge, but how wrong we were - we still think the quote has errors - but they don't seem to care! We also missed the near-term schedule window we were offered by the second contractor (EP Henry pavers) so  Jimmy definitely left us with a bad impression of Ciminelli's and unhappy about our experience getting a quote from them!

They do excellent  brick work and excellent landscaping! They are always on time, and work very hard. We chose them for their brick work because we had looked at four other contractors and we were not impressed with them. We knew CIMINELLI'S was the right choice and he did beautiful brick work for us. We will continue to use him!

From my standpoint....the effort went nearly flawlessly.  We had agreed on what needed to be done...and scheduled a date for the work to be accomplished.  I returned home from work...and everything that had been requested was completed.
I had two follow-up questions....one was how the lighting system could be modified.....and the second was that when I was asking for the plantings to be accomplished.....I hadn't provided an access for my neighbor to the back of his property to cut the buffer zone behind his house.  The head of the landscaping crew came over at the agreed upon time......and showed me the control set for the lighting.  In addition, he was able to move the recently installed plants to create a pathway for my neighbor....while maintaining a visual continuity from nearly every perspective.
Again, the experience with Ciminelli's was terrific.
Matt and his crew will forever be my "go to" source whenever I need assistance with any of my outdoor initiatives.

They did a great job.  Provided an accurate estimate.  Work proceeded smoothly.  The driveway is beautiful!  We love it and I'm sure it has added to the value of our property. 
        When we applied for the first year's property tax credit, the engineer for the county wanted additional documentation to demonstrate that this project was installed properly to qualify as stormwater infrastructure eligible for the tax credit.  They sent along a diagam showing the depth below the surface that they had excavated and the types of permeable materials installed there.  The tax credit then went through.

Matt was great to work with, he came to the house several times to answer questions and to further explain his "vision."  His drawing was most helpful.  Workers were great, worked hard the entire day (with short lunch breaks), answered questions, gave suggestions for upkeep, etc.  The result is AMAZING... wish I knew how to add a picture on here.  With last min. additional worked added (at our request) there was miscommunication regarding the price.  Ciminelii's only billed us for half of that unaccounted for charge as a fair resolution.  We appreciated that gesture.It's now 4 months later and everything still looks great.  Some of the old bushes and plants that were to be "gutted" are now coming up again and weeding has become a daunting task.  I wish they had removed the roots of the old plants before planting new ones.  Also, I have emailed follow-up questions to the secretary regarding plant concerns (not looking "right" to me and worried one might die)... and her response back was that they were fine.  I was a little put off by her short response and lack of explanation as to what was going on w/ the plant.  I emailed back to her asking for an elaboration but never received a response.  I felt like I was bothering her or asking a stupid question but it's important to note that my thumb is NOT green what-so-ever, and that my concerns stem from my own past-experience of plants dying when they don't look "right."  None have died though (knock on wood) so I'm pleased about that.I would definitely use this company again, but would express my concerns regarding follow-up questions via secretary to Matt... and hopefully go through a different secretary. 

very well.

Excellent work and very responsive.  The employees are very conscientious, courteous and  hardworking.  They do what they say they will do when they say they will do it and they do it very well.  On the rare occasions something is not done right, Matt, the owner, ensures it is corrected in accordance with expectations and to customer satisfaction.   Both the walkway to our front door and the carport pad (pavers) are great and the walkway has looked fabulous for over ten years since it was first installed. We are planning more projects in the future and will use Ciminelli's.