I had a great experience with Fernandez Landscape Contractors! My project involved many facets of…read moreimprovement to the appearance of my home and it's surroundings beginning with the removal and replacement of a thick, old cement and gravel patio which was replaced by beautifully crafted travertine tiles. Off the patio are gravel wings topped by tasteful stepping stones which conceal catch basins and drainage pipe to the street. The bushes along the entire front of the home were removed and replaced by new beds of assorted plants and landscaping rock. The new bushes are large, full and healthy looking, not your typical teacup sized fare commonly seen in new landscaping projects. Thick rock and gravel walkways along these areas were removed and new ones laid with stepping stones to the driveway. The job was embellished with many extras, mulch placed in extra areas, sod put down where grass was sparse, minor woodworking adjustments... I've gone into this detail to outline the project blueprint and the obvious experience the owner, Ernesto, possesses to pull it all together and I'm not particularly easy to work with or impress. The assigned crew had an extremely strong work ethic and pride in themselves and one another. The same folks came every day for the entire project and are marvelously in sync with one another. They were helpful and good natured, always willing to explain a task or process, each one a delight. They came one last time today to fine tune the job and move things back into place. Again, above and beyond is the best way to describe each person's performance. They earned a monetary token of appreciation and truth be known, their worth and the outcome of their work would easily merit three times the amount. This was a good experience and the price of it was fair. If the boss says it'll be done, it's done and we all know that's usually not the case.

Want to be told the job is complete before anyone's walked it with you, then handed a request for…read morefinal payment only to find more wrong than right? Want every concern explained away: vines won't grow on cedar, fruit trees belong in the shade, a walkway cracking apart after three weeks is "normal"? Want "topsoil" that's actually crushed granite? Want electrical wiring wrapped in electrical tape and held up with a rusty nail? If that's the experience you're looking for, Fernandez Landscape Contractors Services may be the company for you. For anyone who wants specifics, here's my experience. I hired them for a full backyard renovation and paid every phase in full and on time. The finished work did not match the signed proposal. The trellis was specified as cedar, built in pressure-treated pine. The fire pit was built with no drainage and holds water like a basin. Rear grading directed water toward the parking area, the exact drainage problem I'd hired them to fix. Pop-up drains they installed were run over and buried rather than fixed. The custom metal gate was installed without a hasp for over a week, while they repeatedly tried upselling me a motorized opener instead of just finishing the gate I'd already paid for. When a hasp finally went on, it was plastic on a steel gate, held with mismatched fasteners. It broke three days later. When I questioned the fruit tree planted in full shade, I was told it needed shade. When I questioned the pine trellis, I was told vines won't grow on cedar. Buried drainage was brushed off as "punch list" or warranty work to be handled later. Then there's the walkway. Installed weeks earlier, it was already cracking through, with sinking stones and a low spot that pools water in the rain. I was first told cracking mortar is normal, then that cracking flagstone is normal. When I mentioned I'd hired an independent mason to evaluate it, he became irate and said he wouldn't accept another mason's opinion on his work. I had it evaluated anyway. That mason found the base inconsistent with the contract and unsound, requiring a full redo. At the walkthrough, once it was clear he wasn't leaving with a check, he got louder and more belligerent, insisting the "scope of the job" was complete. He got in my face trying to intimidate me into digging up buried drains myself, as if finding them proved they worked. I walked away. He later texted that walking away was unprofessional. I told him yelling in my face wasn't an explanation. He still denied running over the drains, with a shredded one lying right there on the ground. Days later I received an eight-page "Final Project Completion Technical Verification Report," self-prepared, including a "Professional Engineering Opinion," concluding his own work was flawless. Grading your own work isn't independent verification. I requested the engineer's license info and the electrical work's licensing info multiple times. I never received either. When I later raised the trellis and grading again, paid-for add-on work he'd quoted in writing, he claimed he wouldn't address anything outside the "executed agreement." Apparently outside-contract work is fine to accept payment for, just not to finish correctly. The electrical work was interesting too: wiring wrapped in tape, fastened to a post with a rusty nail. I'm now paying an independent electrician to inspect it, since he never provided licensing information to verify who did it. If you need a basic sod job, he's your man. If you need anything as complicated as a straight line, you'll need to hire him and two more people to hold the ruler. Thank God I held the final payment until I inspected everything myself, because the job still isn't complete and I doubt it ever will be by him. Don't release final payment until you've walked every inch yourself. Pictures included: crooked fence, drainless fire pit, cracking walkway, pine trellis, "topsoil" that was crushed granite, the shredded pop-up and the rock-filled hole they used to "fix" it, fruit tree in shade, and the wiring.