PACE LANDSCAPE & DESIGN

Great job, helpful in designing and planning the work. Great employees that were personable, hard working and very thorough. The final project turned out even better than we had hoped for.

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I have hired Pace to plow my driveway and shovel my walk for the past two winters and intend to continue to use them.  They offer an annual contract at  fixed price (which is what I use) or a per-plow price.  You can also, and I do, hire them to shovel the walk.  What I really like about Pace is that they come out if the snowfall is greater than 1" (others won't come out until it is 2").  I travel a lot for work so it is a great relief to have Pace take care of snow removal so my wife and daughter do not need to.
I realize my overall score of A seems at odds with the individual B's, so I will explain.  Pace is a small outfit and I do believe they work hard at doing a good job.  Being a small outfit is not without its difficulties.  Usually the plowing is done not too long after it stops snowing, or by a reasonable hour in the morning, though a few times (of the many times they plowed) it was quite late in the day before they were able to plow.  On the few occasions I have had to call them, they have responded quickly.  The quality of removal is quite good (B+ not B) and I am happy with it, though there is always some snow left at the garage door where the plow cannot reach without risking damage to the door.  It is not enough that I worry about it, though I will sometimes shovel it out of the way when I am home.  As for price, I have friends who claim they "have a guy" that charges a bit less than Pace, but I personally have no issue with the price Pace charges for the work they do and the peace of mind they give me when I am away.
This last year I procrastinated on filling out and sending in the form.  Then a storm was predicted in a couple days so I quickly filled out the form. e-mailed it to them, sent a check via Wells Fargo billpay, and then called  Even though they would not receive my check for a week, they started my service right away and plowed when the snow came, before the check arrived.

LANDSCAPE PROJECT - HORRIBLE EXPERIENCE. 
We decided to put a pool in our backyard last fall.  One of the pool builders brought Pace with them to provide landscape design and install.  We choose Craig Pace because he was likeable, had competitive pricing, and the pool builder was well regarded.  It was a very bad decision. 
We initially engaged Pace to provide all landscaping services - retaining wall, grading, sod, irrigation, edging, drainage, and paver repair.  The initial design process went well as Pace provided a CAD drawing of how the design would look.  We didn't want to start the project without exact numbers so there wouldn't be any "surprises". 
Unfortunately, when we were with him, Pace would "walk off" the measurements instead of accurately measuring the distances and based his cost on numbers that he said were "close enough".  Half way thru building the retaining wall Pace notified me he needed additional boulders to finish the wall - a 25% increase in cost.  Pace finally acknowledged it was his mistake and that he should have done a better job of measuring and bidding the wall.  We negotiated the cost increase.
Pace also started the wall in the wrong place because he didn't know where the lot line was.  As the project progressed I noticed the clearance between his wall and the lot line was not per the plan - we needed at least a 7' clearance.  I brought this to his attention and he had to redo the retaining wall in that area. 
The pool builder also pulled me aside and told me to "watch" Pace's work.  He suggested I call the City to ensure we had the proper permits and engineering studies for the wall.  I approached Pace with this and he said it was unnecessary, "I know my business".  I called the City and they ultimately made him get the permit and engineering study.  Pace tried to justify this "oversight" by noting he "works in 9 cities" and "can't remember all the codes". 
Pace had to return more than once to finish projects he said were "complete" - edging, drainage, and pavers.  (He actually forgot to do the drains!)  Once reminded, he finished the work quickly.  Cost was based per lineal foot.  Pace estimated the drain cost at $900, and then charged $600.  Actual cost per lineal foot was under $400.  We felt he was overbilling us again.
Pace had to remove some rock and pavers from the construction area.  We agreed to move the rock to another area of our lot to reuse them.  Instead, Pace took them to his Office and said he "forgot" to move them and was "throwing them away" because they were ?dirty?.  Our contractor told us Pace palletized and shrunk wrapped the pavers because "one of his guys wanted them".  Pace then added a $1200 upcharge to the invoice for rock removal that wasn't on his bid.  After a heated discussion, he agreed to drop the additional cost since it wasn't on his bid.  He then added it back on a future invoice.  Again we refused.  He finally asked for $650-750 to "cover his removal costs".
At this point we pulled the remaining work associated with the yard from him.  We found other providers, especially the irrigation company, that provided more product and service at 75% of Pace?s cost. 
All in all, this was a horrible experience.  We were constantly monitoring Pace's work and billing to ensure its accuracy.  He had to return several times to finish the work the right way.  We felt he wasn't being honest with us about the codes and regulations and ultimately had to get the City to force him to do the job the right way.  Even our other service providers spoke poorly of his work.  There were 5 other companies working on this project.  3 spoke poorly of Pace and his crew.  1 had no comment.  1 spoke favorably. 
The last note:  when I wrote him the final check and told him I would put our experience on Angie's List, he asked me not to do it as he thought it would be bad for his business.  We won?t work with him again.

They didn't do a great job on the driveway. They pushed snow onto the lawn at the bottom of the driveway and dug up some sod. They told me I was out of their service area, and they would not continue snow removal. They did offer to continue snow removal until I was able to find someone else. I found someone else, and he is doing a fantastic job!

The service has been excellent overall! About fourteen years ago, I met Craig Pace the first year he started his business after having worked in landscaping for another company. He was a nice young man and we decided to give him a try; our home was new construction so there were alot of things that needed to be done. He has done a great job and has always exceeded our expectations. I've referred him dozens of times and I've never had any regret!

Excellent Customer Serivce!

They do all types of landscaping. I had an agreement with them that if it snows an inch, they would come and plow my driveway. They have been here a lot lately. I pay $25 when they come out. The person I have been dealing with came out and gave me an estimate. I have been working with him for three years. He is very reliable. He knows that I leave for work at 7 in the morning and so he usually takes care of the plowing before that. Once earlier this year it had snowed a few inches, but then it got warm. So he called me to find out if it had melted or if I still wanted him to come.

This experience was very disappointing and frustrating, especially in view of the fact that we were a past customer. Not only did Pace Landscaping install our irrigation system, but they installed a large landscaping project as well, approximately eight years ago. Craig never bothered to return my calls, subsequent to the failed attempts to correct the problem. I would have appreciated hearing from him, even though it may have been to inform me he was unable to correct the problem.

Of our four bids, Craig was the most interested in getting our business -- returning calls promptly and scheduling immediately. When we told him about comparably priced bids, Craig worked with us to ensure that his bid was the most reasonable. He added some work without charge (e.g., installing sod at cost). Craig seems like a good, polite, honest person. He worked within a very tight time frame and completed the large job within two days. There were two hitches, both ultimately resolved without charge: (1) We drew a plan for the sidewalk location, then later modified it with Craig. Somehow the workers didn't get the message, and the preparation for the sidewalk was six inches off, but it was changed before completed.(2) The previous mistake resulted in 6 inches of hard-compacted sand under a flower bed, making it impossible to dig for flowers. After many calls, Craig sent someone to fix it. The work was excellent, and the patio is beautiful! We love our new backyard.

Of our four bids, Craig was the most interested in getting our business -- returning calls promptly and scheduling immediately. When we told him about comparably priced bids, Craig worked with us to ensure that his bid was the most reasonable. He added some work without charge (e.g., installing sod at cost). Craig seems like a good, polite, honest person. He worked within a very tight time frame and completed the large job within two days. There were two hitches, both ultimately resolved without charge: (1) We drew a plan for the sidewalk location, then later modified it with Craig. Somehow the workers didn't get the message, and the preparation for the sidewalk was six inches off, but it was changed before completed.(2) The previous mistake resulted in 6 inches of hard-compacted sand under a flower bed, making it impossible to dig for flowers. After many calls, Craig sent someone to fix it. The work was excellent, and the patio is beautiful! We love our new backyard.