Carville Landscape Co

Due to construction delays on our new home, the work on our river bank and road (not contracted with Carville) and the Carville landscape project were delayed. It should be noted though that we had offered Carville the opportunity to begin the landscape project before the bank and road work, but they chose not to. Although we were concerned about the summer heat affecting the new plantings, we believed our irrigation system installed by Carville would manage the plantings.
The Paver Work by Carville was excellent. The plantings chosen for the circular island however were not well thought out; knockout roses soon overtook the dwarf Japanese maple and will have to be moved out of the island.
In less than a year several areas of the edging have lifted or separated. It was not firmly set into the earth or fastened down sufficiently. The Cut Stone walkway has not set into the ground and more than a year later remains a problem for rolling carts or similar wheeled items such as lawn mowers. The wheels sink into the stone making movement over it more like movement through it. Many emails and phone calls over the last month to Carville, requesting that they address these problems, have remained unanswered.
We lost many plants due to poor placement (i.e. hostas, ferns and azaleas in full sunlight) and although still alive, several hydrangeas which were replaced last fall by Carville are struggling with too much sun. Grape mahonias which we owned were planted by Carville behind the hydrangeas and are totally obscured. We also lost several plantings due to saturated soil from leaking sprinkler heads.
Despite numerous phone calls to Carville reporting the leaking sprinkler heads the problem persisted. Carville eventually insisted compacted soil was the cause of the saturation and while this was a likely contributor to the problem, I believe it was the landscaper's responsibility to have reported the soil condition during planting and recommended a solution. More than half of the perennials died, although Carville honored their one year commitment to replace or refund for the lost plants. Many of the shrubs and plantings are not thriving and in my opinion the beds were over planted
Finally, with regard to the sprinkler system Carville installed, it has never functioned properly. The sprinkler heads installed shot water over the grass and plants to the wooded area behind or onto the house. At first we were told that that is the way the heads work, but after repeated requests Carville found other heads that would work better in some of the areas and on others reduced the water pressure by putting several of the heads on one timer cycle. At the same time we told Carville that several of the sprinkler heads were leaking all of the time. This caused flooding all around the heads drowning the plants and grass around them. After several efforts to correct the problem much of the leakage continued. Then winter came and the system was shut down and blown out by Carville. On opening the system in the Spring we found that the the blowout was not complete and a crack in the pipe occurred. It took several weeks for Carville to send someone around to repair the problem while the lawn and plants had to be hand watered.
Bottom line, the irrigation system still does not work as expected and the landscaping will have to be revisited. Some heads still leak and Carville will not or has not responded to many calls, emails and text messages sent over weeks asking him to call to discuss the sprinkler system, the edging and walkway.

The result is beautiful; we love our driveway. They "under-promised and over-delivered," which is what I prefer. They were finished in far less time than Tim estimated (of course weather was largely cooperative). I have used this company twice before and would highly recommend them, They are true professionals and are highly skilled at their craft. They are on time, show up when they say they will and work hard to get the job done (even in the pouring rain one day).
In 2009, they installed a massive retaining wall around our pool, as well as the landscaped beds in the back of our property. It looks amazing and we have really enjoyed it. That job was around $11,000.
In March 2012, they staked and fertilized approximately 80 Leyland Cyprus trees around our property that had been damaged during previous storms. The trees were also suffering from too much water, so they installed a French drain. Since the spring, all of the trees have new growth and are looking a lot healthier. The French drain seems to have worked. This job was about $3,500. Carville is not the cheapest in town (not the most expensive, either) but we have learned the hard way you get what you pay for. Obviously I have hired them on three occasions to do different jobs, and am very happy with the outcome on all counts.

1. The patio job went fine. They did a good job in a timely manner for a good price. Quality of work was good and the patio looks great.

Since we were getting an above ground oval pool and assembling it ourselves, we wanted Carville to do a second job for us, namely to construct a pool pad. Reason being is that I wanted a hard foundation for the pool so moles couldn't tunnel underneath.

2. Anyway, they gave an estimate of $800 for a 17 x 28 foot pad. This consisted of excavating 4 inches of dirt, filling with crusher run, leveling and compacting then placing 2 tons of sand on top which we would spread out after the pool frame was constructed.
The estimate was done via email, Tim the (foreman/manager/owner/representative) did not visit the site. We accepted and work began a week and a half later.

Problem: Tim did not instruct his crew properly as to what the job entailed. They ended up excavating 6 inches or more of dirt instead of 4. They thought they were building another patio base I guess because I caught them trying to level it by spreading 2 inches of sand on top. The job was to be 4 inches of gravel level on top. Since they dug too much dirt, they didn't have enough crusher run and had to go back for more. This whole process took 3 or 4 days and in the end, they still didn't have the pad level with gravel. Workers mumbled something about needing still more crusher run and they left the impression they'd be back the next week. Well the next week came and went, then the next week so I emailed Tim to find out what was up. Realize we have pool components in our garage waiting to be assembled on this $800 pool pad...

So Tim emails back, saying basically that they don't have enough money in this job to come back! They were just going to walk away and leave it as is! A couple emails later he's blaming me for the way the job went! "What you wanted and what we had to do were two very different things." Well who's fault is that? I described exactly what I wanted a 17 x 28 pad leveled with 4 inches o
f crusher run. It's not my fault if you never visited the site prior to giving an estimate or that your people really didn't know what they were supposed to do.

So after his baby cry email I told him to just come back, finish the job and I'd pay the difference. They come days later with more gravel, spread it around, run a compactor and leave. He charges me an additional $500 so the price went from $800 to $1300!
No "I'm sorry we screwed up, I'll eat some of the cost of our mistake" oh no, this is somehow my fault... unbelieveable!
To top it off, the pad is not level, it slopes down 2.5 inches from front to back so I end up spending another week leveling this thing on my own, and buying another ton of crusher run to do it, all the while my pool is sitting in the garage and the calendar turns from June to July and summer is passing by.

Bottom line: they did a good job on the patio, we love going out there. Unfortunately the pool pad was a disaster in terms of time, money and effort. He took a very satisfied customer and turned us into someone who would not recommend them for any kind of work, mainly because of the unprofessional attitude.

p.s. the pool is now done and we love that too, can't wait till next summer...

11/23/2011

I called for a quote and they returned my call in about a nanosecond. They showed up at the agreed upon time to look at the job and then provided design ideas and estimates that met the expectations established at the first meeting. We modified along the way and they were always responsive. At one point they made a recommendation that improved drainage. We did find a small math error in the bid, but it was quickly corrected.
Do have a realistic idea of how much a project should cost.
Do expect the job to be weather dependent. For example, if it is too hot or too cold to plant, you have to expect delays.

It was good. They were on time and checked back frequently to make sure things were okay. The job is beautiful. They did weeding and mulching, it was a big job actually. I was very, very happy with them and will use them again. The workers were very friendly and industrious. The supervisor that I talked to was very nice, very accommodating and made lots of good suggestions about how I might want to do things. They did some extra things for me at no additional charge and did a great job.