ELITE LANDSCAPING

The minimum of work was done. Head gardener complained of his crew who spent most of the day sitting in the shade. Telephone or text messages to the main landscaper took days and days for brief responses. The growing/watering directions went unsaid. There was no check up by the management afterwards. A tree planted too deeply is dying. Replacement of dead plants seemed to cause a problem and we ended up replacing them ourselves.

This is the first time we used Elite. We followed a foreman from another company there and decided to try them. The stone work was good but the landscaping and fencing was awful. Poor quality, sloppiness, damage to the property and just a complete lack of care regarding our dissatisfaction. After less than a year the fence needs repair and re-painting. The foreman has since left and of course we are left to clean up the damage.

Excellent service

Wonderful. Very professional.

I called Elite to give me an estimate on repairing a bluestone firepit which they had built in 2002. True, 15 years had passed, so I was willing to pay for the repair, but I made it clear that I expected them to take some responsibility for the fact that it must have been poorly built to only last that long. Their estimate was $1800 to fix just the front and the top ledge, exactly the cost that it was to build the whole firepit. Back then at least the $1800 included all the materials! The guy who came out to look at it said that it was the freeze/thaw that made it deteriorate. So no responsibility of theirs, just bad weather... Also, the cedar deck is a mess, mostly my fault for never sealing it. We had renters in there for the last 6 years and I had no idea how bad it was. Possibly it was not the best quality cedar, or even cedar at all, but I just don't know so will not hold Elite responsible. What I do know is that the deck failed code inspection twice during construction before they finally got it right. Even after it passed code, there were too many issues to address (like the flimsy lattice skirting barely attached) so they accepted my non-payment of the last bill in return. No apologies, just freed me from paying the last amount which was probably around $1000. I am giving them an overall D rating (not an F) because they did an excellent job on the design work and the bluestone/brick patio. Easy to deal with, very professional during construction, cleaned up when they were done. But that was the only good. For $10,000 I expected all good. The firepit should at least last my lifetime (I'm already old). The gentleman that I did hire to repair it is rebuilding all of the stone facing for $300 less than Elite was asking to just fix the front and the top ledge. He said whoever built it probably used the wrong kind of mortar, and definitely did not apply it thick enough to hold those heavy stones. To repeat: Designer (Mike Pasquarello) and guys who laid the patio get an A+. Deck guy and firepit guy get a D-. I would not recommend Elite Landscaping.

Mike Pasquarello was our point of contact the entire time and he was always professional and a pleasure to work with.  He was timely and attentive to our concerns.  We were very pleased with initial consultation and design of the project, and we were thrilled with the final result.
We obtained several price quotes and though Elite was relatively more expensive - we would not hesitate to go with them again as we felt the most comfortable in our business dealings with them.  Notably, because of the placement of our home on our lot and setback lines - Elite was the only one who appropriately address it and was willing to work with our municipality to obtain the proper permits. This is in contrast to another company who directly told us that a permit was not needed at all and another company who told us we should research it ourselves and get back to them with our requests for their design.   So for us, the extra cost was worth the piece of mind and the quality of the product.
Of note, we had a few questions well after the project was completed, and it was not difficult to reach out back to Mike or anyone in the company. 

Elite crew came and removed the wood deck first.   The trees, which included a mature oak tree and birch, had to be removed by a  separate tree company because Elite didn't do tree removal of that size.  During and after tree removal, Mike Pasquarello, would come by to make sure trees along with their roots were properly removed.   Then the paving crew came and began their work.  They worked steadily until the job was completed (3-4 days) which included clean-up.   The grass around the work area was also reseeded.  It was a big project and  I really have no complaints about the experience.  We get a lot of compliments on our new deck.  I look forward to spending  a lot of time on it.

Mike Pasquerello of Elite Landscaping provided excellent design and material input and suggestions. They were always on time, provided a schedule with updates, and performed fantastic work.

Excellent work. completed on schedule.

Elite did an outstanding job.  They were very professional and thorough.  I highly recommend Elite for all of your landscaping and Hardscaping needs.  This was our second time using Elite and we are very pleased.

unknown

Completely incompetent. Had to hire another company to come out to fix multiple problems due to poor design and installation. Poorly designed steps that started falling apart, walkways not level, drainage problems etc. Maybe they're okay for cutting grass I don't know but I would never recommend for landscape design or hardscaping. They may have had low pricing but my net cost for this project was twice what it should have been because of Elite Landscaping's shoddy design and workmanship. Ask for lots of CURRENT references if you use this company.

In the Fall of 2013 I contacted Elite to redo some existing flower beds and also prune and do a general cleanup on my property.  I was assigned an account rep and we worked together on a new plan which included 36 perennials.  This was finished around 11/1/2013.  I was very happy with the account rep and he was very responsive so I decided I was going to use Elite for most of my landscaping needs.

They blew out my sprinklers and I scheduled aeration and mulch for the spring.  In the spring I contacted the rep and my aeration was done and the mulch scheduled.  But after a couple of weeks nothing was happening and now the rep wasn't getting back to me.  I called the office and found out that he had left the company but my mulch would still be done.  It was, but in late June.

I also noticed that 13 of the perennials didn't survive the winter.  Since they are guaranteed for a year, I tried emailing the main office to get a new account rep to discuss my problem.  The email wasn't returned.  Then I started calling the office and was always promised that someone would get back to me.  I finally asked that the owner contact me.  He did call my house and left a message.  I called back and explained the issue.  Never heard back.

Last week I finally heard from Elite.  They left a message asking if I wanted my sprinklers blown out.  So they can contact me for more work, just not to correct work that was already paid for.

unknown

Very professional and quick service. Good quality work.

They had to come back after the first time coming out to fix some things they should have had done properly.

OK

Had been using this company for lawn cutting and edging and also for lawn treatment. When fall came, we hired them to do fall clean up of our plant beds, which consisted of hedging bushes in the plant beds as well raking out the existing mulch and replacing with new mulch.
Came home from work to find they HEDGED my beautiful Chinese Maple as well as two of my Thundercloud Trees. Basically they hacked up my three main trees in my front yard. While they admit they were never hired them to prune my trees, the worst part is that the trees were BUTCHERED by laborers, not by trained arborists. They admitted this. I will be happy to send pictures of what they did to these trees to anybody that wants to see the. (E-mail me at [email protected])
To be clear, you cannot just repair hacked up trees. You can't replace them either. The Chinese Maple tree is 20ft tall and the Thunderclouds are 30ft tall. You can do nothing but wait for them to grow out. Where I once had a beautiful canopy over my EP Henry walkway courtesy of a beautiful Chinese maple, I now had a lop-sided tree that I would have to wait years to re-grow correctly. It will take years for them to look right again.
I was not happy. I first contacted Charles Moore (the salesman), then someone named Jeff and then I finally talked to the owner Dave Feast. Bottom line, I had $800 in invoices that were due and I was not about to pay them after what they did to my trees.
Yet, despite their hatchet job of my trees, rather than apologize and write off the $800, they insisted I pay these invoices. I refused. They then had the audacity to SUE me? Luckily for me and not so much for them, one of my best friends owns a law firm. I counter-sued; they settled and they finally agreed to write off the invoices.
Unless you also have a good friend who is an attorney, I would strongly suggest STAYING AWAY from this low rent landscaping company. ELITE Landscaping should really stick to cutting grass and stay away from trees as they clearly have no idea what they're doing. But given their refusal to accept responsibility for their bad deeds, I wouldn't hire them if they were free. They will cost you more than you will save.
If you'd like to see a copy of the lawsuit which also includes pictures of their hatchet job on my trees, send an e-mail to [email protected]

They did a good job.  The yard and beds looks great.

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