West Oaks Landscape & Design Inc

I forgot to add this important note regarding the reviews on Yelp. The only 5 star review on yelp is from guess who? Cindy Liebau, somehow, maybe, related to the owner Jim Liebau? What a joke. Thats the only way WOL is getting a 5 star review; from a family member!

Waste of money. I honestly don’t know how these people’s are still in business? Take a look at their reviews on Yelp. We paid them $13K and the work done was rubbish. The major issue was the shrubs they put in were sickly and small. We were shocked but we were told they would flourish in a year. RUBBISH! Nearly two years later and they still look sickly. We approached WOL and we got limited response and lots of excuses. We were told to apply fertilize and they should improve. What? After two years they are exactly the same. The bottom line is they don’t care once they have your money. Repeated phone calls to the owner with zero response. If you have a problem, he will disappear. Lousy owner. We have replaced most of the plants ourselves at a fraction of the cost. Biggest mistake we ever made hiring these people; avoid them like the plague unless you want to throw money down the drain.

Beautiful design and loved it. However there were several issues (plants that were to be replaced as under warranty) but have received no response in the past few weeks. It's as if they went out of business. Repeated calls have been ignored. We've pretty much given up on them. It's a pity since the design work was excellent.

We were pleased with the quality of work. They are a family business. They treat us like family and they were willing to work with us on price. Yes, we are planning to use them again.

Started out really good. Jim met with us, listened to our needs and preferences, and put together a solid design that met our requirements and fit in our $15K budget. Construction on our project was started and finished at the agreed-upon dates. So, what didn't we like? 1) The biggest concern was the drainage basin that was created in the front yard. A 5 x 11 pit was dug and filled with landscaping stones; then sodded over so it would not be visible. The pit receives the runoff from the downspouts, sump pump, and french drain along the side of the house. A genius idea, except the sod over the pit all died early the following season. When we called Jim he said there was no reason the grass shouldn't have grown, but he would be happy to do a proposal for a hardscape (additional cost). It wasn't until this year we dug into the dead sod and discovered the reason - the sod was laid right on top of the rocks and felt and no topsoil was used. Our voicemails on Jim's office and cell numbers, inquiring about the pit were not returned. 2) Issued reported within the one-year warranty were only partially addressed. Some areas of dead sod were replaced immediately, but a few dead plants we reported were never replaced. Joint sand that eroded on the patio was also not addressed. These were after we emailed a reminder the following spring, and were promised the issues would be fixed that season. 3) Jim said with certainty that a layer of topsoil was added in the yard before the new sod was installed. We have since dug into several places in the yard while doing later projects, and found this was not the case. 4) Jim did not seem to have an appreciation for modern irrigation systems. Though we spent the extra money to extend and improve our sprinkler system to cover all the new landscaping, Jim insisted on our hand watering every plant and bush daily for the remainder of the season, which took something like 2 hours a day of moving the hose from plant to plant. (until we added splitters on the hose to water multiple plants at once, but still a lot of effort) 5) Other than telling us to water for hours, no care instructions were provided. 6) The last couple times I have left messages on Jim's office or cell number, even with just simple questions, they were not returned. So, did we get our money's worth? Mostly, in terms of the work that was done. Some corners were cut but overall our requirements were met. But was I treated the way I would treat a customer who entrusted me with 15K of work? Given the missed warranty issues and unreturned calls, definitely not.

I love Jim! He and his team did an amazing job on our backyard. Jim designed the work himself (saving us the cost of a landscape architect) and his team executed it perfectly. Jim was very responsive in returning my calls and was a pleasure to be around. His team was very respectable and cleaned up at the end of each day. We are already planning several more projects with him for next year.

unknown

seeded yard, planted trees, installed sprinkler, did some cleanup.
**Multiple emails, phone calls, got promises over and over, all to no avail -he strung me along for over a year, kept promising he'd be here, and never did show. Mentioned he had some other $200k job, and I got left aside. Jim is very pleasant and polite, and seems very knowledgeable, but his follow through is dismal. If he's too busy to take on a small job, he should just SAY SO.
Find someone else who has time and motivation to take care of you, if you've got a small job. Very knowledgeable, nice guy, very lousy service.

During the evaluation phase, Jim, the owner of West Oaks Landscaping, definitely distinguished himself from the 3 other Landscaping Company Representatives that I received estimates from via his creative and unique ideas.   Once the contract was signed, Jim and his crew were extremely professional while they did an outstanding job of transforming the vision into a reality.   The quality of the work was top-flight and I am completely satisfied with the results, which is why I will be using Jim and West Oaks Landscaping next spring to transform my pond and landscape my front and back yards!
I would highly recommend Jim and West Oaks Landscaping to anyone on Angie's List seeking brickpaving and landscaping work!

Jim Liebau [owner of West Oaks] and I met several times before the project to work through the details.  You could really see that this guy knew his business.  He made a number of recommendations that added interestingn perspectives or hid distracting objects like the shed and the neighbor's basketball pole.

Working through the project was a highly complex process involving at least three crews whose work had to be coordinated.  There were times when I'd gaze upon the chaos and feel as uneasy as a patient who woke up in the middle of an operation, but Jim & Co fielded all my concerns.  These people knew what they were doing.  They were efficient, skilled and responsive. 

One measure of the quality of a company is how well it handles unexpected problems.  Glitches arose, as you might expect with anything as involved as this was, but Jim and his crews always dealt with every problem quickly and effectively.  Jim managed sub-contractor installation of the pergola well, which was especially important as it had to be seated properly within the paving stone patio.

The project was completed just days ago.  What a difference!  Pedestrian traffic past the house has increased, and I don't know how many times people have stopped to tell me how much they like it.  I've even had drivers roll down their windows to compliment the work.  I got more than I paid for.  Would I hire West Oaks again?  I already have!  They installed the aluminum border as a sub-project of the overall scheme.