The clean-up went well. They did everything they said they would in a timely manner as promised. The cost was reasonable. We had several companies provide a quote and they were not the cheapest or most expensive. They were somewhere in the middle which I am comfortable with. They were far more professional that some of the places that provided us with a quote and that is the main reason we hired them. So far we are very pleased with their work.

unknown

weekly lawn maintenance and clean ups were always fine jobs. crew was courteous and friendly and someone spoke english that i could relay information to if necessary.  

installation of the fence was a good job except, one gate was ordered incorrectly and took a year to get replaced. it was installed opening the wrong way, so in the snow i couldnt get the gate open. the other gates, one still has a crack in it from when it was installed, they never returned to replace it. there was one post on that rear double door gate that moved every time you opened the gate. that was repaired over a year later. 

it was always difficult to get a call back from the company. i would leave messages and get no return call. that was very frustrating. 

the paver driveway was installed well with a great crew who worked diligently. there is loose cement at the bottom corner of the driveway, i called to tell them it needed fixing but of course got no call back. the driveway was supposed to have a 5 year warranty. i can see that corner having an issue from people driving over it. i now have to pay my new landscaper to fix it for me. 

the installation of the sod was a good job.

i went outside when they were putting the 'clean fill' in and were about to do top soil and noticed it wasnt up to the edge of the deck as it is on the other side of the yard. of course that not being brought up to level continued the drainage/puddle issues, which now were WORSE that before their work.  

they finally came weeks later and pulled up all the sod and brought in more 'clean fill' and put the sod back.

now my water issue went from a puddle by the back shed to almost half my yard, maybe 40 feet long by 25 feet wide. 

in the winter the yard in that area was solid ice. i had to block it off so the dogs didnt break their legs. during rain, i had to keep them in because of the 3-4 inches of water standing on the surface. of course this killed the sod that cost a bundle to put in.

that following spring i had my sprinklers changed and moved to try to alleviate the issue.  when he dug up the line, we found HAND SIZED CHUNKS OF ASPHALT  in what was supposedly the 'clean fill' they put in. 

i was sick, literally recovering from cancer surgery and with anger at myself for not hiring someone else for this work. i spent all and more that i had gotten back from my refinance. i had no funds to do any more to the yard.

This past week, march of 2012, i had my new landscaper dig 2 foot wide, by 4 foot deep by 60 total feet long of trenches to install french drains in the yard. they had to dig through the 'clean fill' with pick axes. i had a whole bunch of large chunks of asphalt. you could actually see the black line of 'clean fill' in the trenches before they put the rocks and drainage pipe in. it was a foot deep layer of cement like ground. no wonder i didnt have any drainage there. i paid 800 for this work and still have to pay extra for the rest of the clean up of all the rocks/fill and now to get topsoil and seed or sod to replace the lawn in the 50x50 area that has been turned up with all this work. 

It is funny that i got a call from carry landscaping just 2 days ago looking for a thousand dollars I 'owed' them. 

as i said earlier if i called no one called me back. i paid mostly in cash for the work, something i will never do again as there is no way to trace it. one month of payment i paid in cash AND submitted a check from my husband.  

when i got the bill with the remaining balance the next month, i noticed it was off by 1000. the money was not credited the month before. so of course i called and left a message of what happened. didnt hear back as usual and assumed it would be corrected. i kept receiving bills that were incorrect, i sent copies of the bills with the corrections on them and still got no reply.

not only was i trying to get the bill corrected, but needed the back gate replaced that is cracked since it was installed, the gate that was put in backwards replaced (the correct gate was sitting in plastic waiting to be put up), and the fence post that was loose needed repair. i called a bunch of times. never heard back and gave up.

i was sick to my stomach over the whole thing, mainly because i had spent the last refinance i can do on work that didnt get me the safe dry yard i had been counting on.  for the past 3 years this has been eating me up. i didnt see a way to have enough funds to have more work done. thankfully we were able to use our tax refund to fix things now.

the call the other day about the thousand dollars put me over the top and spurred this report. i will send the 'new girl' copies of the paperwork i have, photos of the trenches i had to have done to fix the water issues created by carry landscaping filling my yard with road debris under the sod. i also have photos of the chunks of asphalt. i saved a few. the fence is still cracked and driveway needing repair. and lawn needs to be redone as its have dirt now after all the digging. so as i see it, they owe me likely around 2000. 800 from the drainage and asphalt soil removal, new gate, driveway fix and new lawn.

the original yard is sandy and clay soil, i know because i had a new cesspool put in right before carrys work in 09.  i saw what was down there when the old one was dug up and the new one placed on the other side of the yard.  

the only issue i started with was a bad dip in the back corner that filled with water in heavy rain, it was about 10 feet in the back corner. i ended up with an ice rink on half the yard. thanfully this past winter wasnt so bad so i didnt have to shovel the lawn as we had been doing since carrys work every time it snowed to prevent the ice from forming.