JOYNER BENFIELD DISTINCTIVE

Initially, we were quite excited. Everything was coming together nicely. We had somewhat regular meetings as we moved from one stage to the next. Joyner-Benfield seemed to be on top of things and the subs were out when they were supposed to; she kept us abreast of what was going on. One snafu we ran into was a long column of limestone that extended almost the length of the backyard, We needed to excavate that, which added to the cost and thus reduced our landscaping budget somewhat. The second involved her sub that poured the concrete behind the retaining wall. He decided to purge the hose into our backyard, and by the time we saw it, it had hardend. Carol brushed it off pointing out that grass would grow over it, which it hasn't. We have a mound of concrete in the MIDDLE of the upper yard that is bald. But this is MINOR. We enjoyed the yard's beauty for about 3 months and then things started to happen. First, the grass began to pull out in clumps. In questioning Carol and Bruce, they said that they use a plastic netting to allow the grass roots on the sod something to adhere to. That seems counter to what the roots should be grabbing - the soil! They said it would eventually do that, but the grass could not be raked- at all. I continued to bring this to their attention but they were adamant about leaving it alone. Now we have a backyard infested with weeds, dry patches and plastic netting sticking up in places that will grab your foot. I have tried to overseed, treat the weeds and reinvigorate it with organic matter (I have done two yrs of golf course landscaping). I will confess that we do have dogs, but the extend of this cannot be attributed to them, I was able to maintain a pristine backyard in our last house with the dogs. I have called and called to try and do something about this but they ignore us. This ignorance is a recurring theme, as you will see if you continue to read. Second, the ground in the backyard began to sink. The drainage system behind the wall caused a bit of settling, which was expected. Bruce Benfield gave his word that his crew would be back to fix that once the settling was complete. It has been three years since we did this project; despite my regular phone calls, he would not come out to look at it. Finally I had to trick him into coming out saying we wanted to plant some more trees and landscaping. When he came out he looked at this enormous 12 ich wide 4 foot deep hole he commented that something had to be done about this. I reminded him of his promise back when the wall was finished. He said yes, he could have fixed it free of charge if we had called him in earlier, but now it was so expansive that it would cost us. Again, ingorance. Third, the fence company that Carol suggested that was used, Craft Custom Fence, was horrible. The gates still do not work to this day, They are not square to the post and rub on the top of the steps. I have given up on getting him out to try and fix it for the fourth time and Carol has been no help is trying to get this resolved. Fourth, Joyner Benfield forgot to lay a natural gasline under the patio so that I could have a direct line to my outdoor cooktop, doing away with refillable propane tanks. Fifth, the lighting company came out and did some backlighting/uplighting, Outdoor Lighting, did a subpar job. The low voltage power lines they ran were never buried in the dirt. Instead, they just covered them up with the bark chips. They become exposed with a good wind, blowing or raking leaves and as the chips settle. Again, Carol was helpless in correcting this. I did it myself. The only positive thing to come out of this were the jobs done by Whitley Excavating and Keith Dennis Masonry. Wayne did a great job of maneuvering his truck and excavaters around the house and through the back yard, He moved to large Japanese maples through a maze of 100 year old Norweigen maples and did not scratch them one bit. Keith did a great job on the walland has been reliable, repairing a crack in the wall and doing some other smaller projects for us. To summarize, we hired Joyner Benfield and their subcontractors to do a large scale, costly project on our backyard. The design was produced by Carol Joyner. Considering the cost of the project and how it looks now, three years later, we are dissappointed. Joyner Benfield has done a horriblly unprofessional job of following up with us and helping with these issues. The subcontractors are a reflection on her and her company and her failure to help with some of problems leave her company looking unimpressive. We use the patio regulary all year long and enjoy it immensely but the dead, patchy, weed infested yard is an eyesore and we are going to have to redo it. The sink hole in the backyard that Bruce Benfield never attended to despite his "word" is being fixed by another company. The subcontractors Craft Custom Fence and Outdoor Lightning will not be hired by us again, but I do recommend Whitley Excavation and Keith Dennis Masonry. Thank you.