Valley Gardens Landscaping

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The process started in May. I received a verbal estimate for the main planter of $1,700 but they needed to come and get exact measurements. I was told they could begin the job in the middle of June. On June 23, I emailed the owner to find out if they had even been to my house to get information for a firm estimate. Since he had not, he agreed to meet me on June 27 to give an estimate. At that time he gave a verbal estimate of $1,750 to build the large planter and 2 smaller ones. He was to begin the job in late July after we returned from vacation. On Aug 4, I emailed him to remind him to get me a confirmed quote and asked when he could start the job. He requested to come back and look at the proposed work again. He came to the house, remeasured and we picked materials to be used. He gave me a new verbal quote of $2,000. I agreed and he scheduled the job for the middle of August. I did the demolition of the old planters and found that what we planned on doing for one of the small planters was not possible because of an underground drain. So we removed this small planter from the required work. His employees arrived on Aug. 18 or 19. They did all of the digging and wife got home from work discovered the block samples they left were not what we picked out. I contacted the owner and requested they stop working until I we got the reviewed the materials requested and visited the material supplier again. Since it rained most of that week, they couldn't have worked anyway. On Aug. 22, we visited the materials supplier to look at what we decided on and found that the contractor had ordered block that had a similar name but was totally different. We straightened this out and made sure the supplier knew what the contractor's employees were supposed to pick up. They had to return a truck load of the wrong block.
The job was completed on Aug. 27. After the job was complete the owner called and said he had cost overruns and wanted me to pay more than the quote. I refused and reminded him the overruns were his fault since he got the wrong material and lost time in employees returning the wrong materials and picking up the correct materials. I agreed to pay him $2000. Since we actually had less work done by removing one of the small planters, I still feel I was overcharged.
The work quality was good and the employees who did the work were polite and effiicient when they were on the job. However I would probably not use the contractor again. If anyone plans to use Valley Gardens they should get everything in writing. Since i knew the owner, this was a mistake I made. Luckily I saved all of my emails and was able to establish time lines and promises the owner made.

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They did a detailed job being careful of curbs and vehicles in the way. Patiently waited for school traffic to move from the site.

They did a great job.

The property is a family owned rental and street appeal is of great importance. I looked for a service and then notice also some surrounding properties that had great street appeal. I checked on Angies List and then found this company.

They come once a week and they are pretty good and the price is reasonable for what we get.