YELLOW BRICK ROAD PAVERS & LANDSCAPES

The customer service is terrible. The sales person, Ryan, was great during the sales process. Made lots of promises, communicated often. Once a contract was signed, we did not hear from him for over a month. Only time we would hear anything is when we reached out to them. Of course, the answer was that he was just going to call me and give me an update. The job was to be started and completed in 5 days, in May of 2020. Of course, VOVID 19 delayed that but they did not start until end of June. Again 5 days of work. I am writing this at the end of August and the work is still not completed. When they left the job and said they were 'done', the flower bed was not filled with dirt, the downspout did not hit the drain that was installed pouring water directly onto the foundation, the gate and fence that was installed was crooked and the lock and gate handle promised turned into a gate latch. The doorbell installed on the gate did not work. They broke my sprinkler system with their heavy equipment and did not fix it. They through seed down to "repair" the major damage to the grass. That washed away in the first rain and now I have ruts in my yard that I'm now responsible to fix. The list can continue. I finally was able to get them out to fix the sprinklers. It took 2 different crews and 2 visits to do so. I continue to try to get them out to finish the job and continue to get excuses why it is not done. I can never recommend this company. They way over promise and way under deliver.

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The initial install went well, a few areas sunk a bit and it took some coaxing to get them out here to fix the paver stones but they did eventually.  The big problem happened this year, after winter.  The driveway area outside my garage door sunk into indentations that match my truck tires.  My wife and I thought they put very little fill in that area last year as they were packing the soil but we did not mention it, they are the professionals.  This June 2013 I called them, I told them about the sinking driveway area and they said that was expected, the ground settling and they put me on their repair list.  It is October 2013 now, the snow will be here soon and they still have not shown up.  I gave called every month to verify that they are still coming to repair this  and they always tell me in a week or two.  When we first hired them they said they guaranteed their work but I suppose that they have already been paid and now they do not care.



November 15, 2013 Update.  Three weeks ago I was called by their company representative (I assume) and he (Kevin) apologized for the way my situation was handled by Ryan (my initial contact / he sold us on their product initially).  They are currently making the needed repairs as promised.  I will give a final review when the repairs are completed.

The patio and retaining wall were done very well.  However, I cannot recommend Yellow Brick Road for the following reasons.  Our goal was to create more usable space in our backyard.  Yellow Brick Road had to access the backyard from the front of the house, which was not what I was told when I was given the quote.  The work required the use of heavy equipment (Bobcat) which left tracks in my yard and also severely compacted the soil along the side of the house as well as the entire backyard.  I was assured the tracks would be repaired when the job was finished and I wouldn't be able to tell.  When the crew came to lay sod, they did nothing to prepare the soil in neither the backyard, nor the tracks in the front yard.  They literally just through sod on top of the tracks that were obviously not level with the rest of the yard.  I was vigilant with watering and stayed off the new sod, but it still failed everywhere (not just in the tracks), negating one of the main reasons we had the work done in the first place.  When it was laid I raised my concerns about laying sod over heavily compacted soil, but I was assured that the best way to do it was to lay it over very hard ground and then water it a lot.  3 years later the tracks from the Bobcat are still visible.  After trying to contact Yellow Brick Road multiple times to remedy the situation I gave up and decided to have someone else redo the sod job.  The contractor I hired could not believe that sod was laid over the top of the soil without doing anything to prepare it.  The new contractor also removed 6 wheelbarrows full of large peices from the old retaining wall that was supposed to be removed by Yellow Brick Road.  They had just buried it instead.  I again tried to contact Yellow Brick Road to remedy the situation and was ignored.  Not only will grass not root well through soil that's as hard as rock, but it certainly will not root through rock.  It has been three months since the job was redone properly and the grass is doing fantastic.  Still no word from Yellow Brick Road.

Overall, the job went very well.  We set up a appointment with Kevin  to give us some ideas for our driveway .  He was there when he said he would be.  Gave us many different options for the driveway.  He was very artistic in his ideas so that the driveway would really stand out, and give some extra curb appeal to the house.  His crew was very professional, arrived on time, and did an exceptional job.  We are more than pleased with the outcome of the job.  We did use a more expensive paver to add its own unique beauty to the finished driveway, sidewalk and stoop, and we were so glad we did.We would definitely  recommend Kevin and any of his crew to anyone else considering a paver driveway.

Yellow Brick Road tore out my concrete driveway and sidewalk and installed a random patterned paver driveway, sidewalk and stoop. The owner Kevin Brandt came to my home and gave me a detailed plan near my budget.  He also brought sample bricks for me to look at and decide on.  He made changes to the plan which I wanted.  I asked his advise and he gave me honest answers.  I looked for a company which had been around a while and Yellow Brick Road as been doing business 25+ years.  They are part of the BBB with an A+ rating and there were positive reviews on Angie's List.  Kevin also provided references with names, addresses and phone numbers.  The company had employees who would be doing the work who also have been with the company 10 and 20+ years.  They did not sub out the work.  That showed me they knew what they were doing.  During construction, every evening they would clean up the area before they left.  The men working at my home were professional and pleasant.  Wayne the foreman was always at the job site working from the beginning of the day to the end of the evening from the beginning of the project to the end.  They worked thru 100+ degrees to finish as I was having a BBQ at my home on the 3rd of July.  Part of my lawn was damaged and Wayne added new dirt and grass seed and additional rock which was needed.  I would recommend Yellow Brick Road to anyone looking for work done on their homes.  And last but not least my driveway, sidewalk and stoop look fabulous!  Thank you Yellow Brick Road!  Maggie Usher

We received bids from 3 different contractors for the work above.  YBR's plan was certainly the most well presented, creative, and well-designed but they were also about 20-30% more expensive than the other contractors.  We chose to go with YBR because they were very responsive in the big process and we liked the design the best.  YBR delivered on the design and the stairs and stone work was excellent, but it seemed that once they received our first check (for 1/3 of the job) the responsiveness went down.  The start of the job was delayed by 1.5 weeks due to an injury on their team which was understandable and was well communicated.  But once they got started and encountered challenges in the project, the approach seemed to change.  Apparently they needed to make some changes on the stair design which was costly to them which they covered, but after that it seemed they wanted to cut corners.  For example, after we discovered the Cat didn't need to go over one part of the lawn, they wanted to not replace the sod in that area.  When we pushed back they did end up sodding this area as per the original plan.  They did miss sodding a few small spots and agreed to come out and finish the job, but 1.5 weeks later it was not done so we just did it ourselves.
Bottom Line: We went with the premiuim-priced vendor and expected both a premium-priced product and premium-priced serivce.  The finished product is excellent, but we shouldn't have to barter with the project manager to have the project completed as it was bid.  YBR did good work, but at this price I would expect that we would not be nickel and dimed.

Why choose Yellow Brick Road? Quite simply, they under promise and over deliver –Something unheard of in my opinion when dealing with contractors.  

 I’m YOU.  Either I can’t do the work myself or I don’t have the time to do it so I seek out a contractor to do the work for me. Right or wrong I expect perfection from the people I hire. After all, this is how I approach my work.  This is what they do for a living so they should be good at it right? Wrong! So often you get a guy who comes out and sells the company really well only to back up the work with some subpar crew that can give a “blank” about the actual task at hand. This has even happened to me from highly recommended companies on Angie’s list.  

Kevin and his company Yellow Brick Road and his crew absolutely deserve to be highly rated on Angie’s list. I don’t know Kevin. I don’t owe him anything. He is not paying me to write this.   Go with Yellow Brick Road.   Here’s why:  

I needed a paver patio re-done after an insufficient job done just 5 years earlier failed and I was unable to place a hot tub on it as it was not level. I started my quest with Angie’s list because even though some of the contractors should not be on there, I do believe it does provide some what of a filter leaving a selection of higher quality contractors. I chose three contractors from Angie’s list, Yellow Brick Road being one of them. All three came in at about the same price. I could tell that Kevin took his job, his company and the customer seriously. More than the others. He presented himself well and answered my questions in more detail than the other contractors. He also was careful to speak in terms that I the layperson could understand.  

I did NOT pick yellow brick road at this point. I’ve been burned before by good sales people and bad crews. Then a few days later I received a phone call and a mailing thanking me for considering Yellow Brick Road and asking me if I had any additional questions. This was meaningful to me. Sure it could just be more fluff but I decided to give him the business. The man has a personalized license plate that says “Road to Oz”. Not some magnetic company logo that you can take on and off at your leisure. Kevin is committed to his company and it shows.    

The real test is the finished product right? The patio looked great, HOWEVER, it had a two-inch pitch. I was really upset. The only reason I needed to re-do the patio was to make it level for a hot tub. I called and emailed Kevin on a Friday night after 7PM. By 8:00 am Saturday he called me back. Without hesitation he said we will make it right and he did. Two days later the patio was leveled. This is why you need to hire Yellow Brick Road. Not once did Kevin make me feel uncomfortable or act unprofessional. Yellow Brick Road truly is a customer centric organization and is the right choice if you are looking for paver work and want a pleasant deviation from the typical interactions with contractors.

They had great workman, he never lied to me. They gave a quote and stuck to it. My drive way looks great. He got two or three other jobs in the neighborhood due to my neighbors seeing my driveway.

They did a great job, got everything done within 2 days and cleaned everything up nicely. I would recommend them to anyone!

THE OWNER IS EXTREMELY DIFFICULT TO WORK WITH, DOES NOT KEEP HIS PROMISES. HOWEVER, THE QUALITY OF THE WORK IS VERY GOOD IF YOU CAN GET PAST THE FRUSTRATION INVOLVED IN WORKING WITH THEM.