Karla Landscaping & Pavers

UPDATE April 2015: Wall is settling and now there are big gaps between stones. Top layer of capstones is crooked. What a waste of money. Adjusted my rating from D to F.

A retaining wall was installed on the side of my house. 

George and his workers showed up on time, but then he left the job site to do other things. His workers were unsupervised most of the day and this was a problem because they spoke little English and had to call him for every issue. I caught the workers putting construction debris in the backfill behind the wall and I had to go out and tell them to remove it (they are supposed to put clean gravel behind the wall for drainage).

On the first level of wall, the top capstone layer was done nicely. However, on the second level, the worker used two small bits of capstone glued together instead of one bigger piece, with another small bit on the opposite end. This looked cheaply done, and when I asked George to return to look at it he commented that his workers were 'trying to save money' by using fewer capstones. I asked him to replace these two top capstone pieces with larger stones and he agreed, 'no problem, I can take care of that' he said.
 
He never called back, even though both my husband and I called and left messages over several weeks. This is after he reassured me several times (verbally) that if I had any problems whatsoever, I could call him and he would come back. I want to add that originally the wall was going to be higher, but we left off 2 courses of brick, so he saved money on those stones.

Later, an engineer who came by to look at my property commented that George should have put a drain pipe in the wall since it was on a slope close to the house. When I had asked George about a pipe before the work had begun, he said I didn't need it. 
 
I feel that George tried to cut corners on my job even though he was well paid for the work he contracted. I had other estimates that were cheaper, but George seemed reliable. I would not hire him again.

I have a court date this Thursday, July 29th, 2011 and I contacted consumer affairs.