Swope excavation is an awesome company to work with! They dug us a drainage ditch and hauled away…read moresome dirt from our site and Mike did an awesome job. He is a true pro, it was very impressive watching him work and our one-year old got a kick out of it too :) We will certainly hire Swope again with any future jobs that require excavation.

During the summer of 2017 we were looking for a person to excavate our back yard and pour a…read morefooting, foundation, and walls for our new two-bedroom, two car garage, and bathroom addition in South Seattle. I chose to use Angie's List where I discovered Mike Swope of Swope Excavating. Not only did he return my phone calls, he showed up on time and discussed everything in my contracts thoroughly. He made sure to rearrange his schedule to meet ours as needed. I never felt as if he were being dishonest with us. His references checked out as a currently-registered general contractor with the State of Washington and he provided copies of his driver's license and insurance as requested. The project required excavating 14 dump-truck loads of dirt, leveling, and trenching a side-sewer and storm drains, as well as adding gravel. His employee, Ron, was as polite and competent as Mike. The work turned out perfectly and we passed all inspections with the City of Seattle: Setback, Drainage, Ufer Rod, Foundation and Slab, plus Side-Sewer. Mike provided receipts for all materials and accurate invoices for which we needed to reimburse him. He was able to connect the foundation footing drains, roof gutter drains, and sewer together in a concrete drain trap. I ended up learning quite a bit about foundation and sewer contracting. I would recommend him without reservation to any home owner seeking an exceptional professional who is not only a competent building perfectionist, but a pleasure to work with as well. Sean T. Taeschner, M.Ed.

Our project was a somewhat complicated one - our backyard has a decent slope and we needed terraces…read morethat would be structurally sound given that our soil is extremely sandy. We needed a patio level, a small garden level, a turf/grass level, and then one last small garden level due to the slope. To maximize space, we wanted the majority of these walls to be near vertical block walls. The work is practically flawless. My father-in-law has a background in construction and even he was awe-inspired by the finished product. I cannot fathom anyone impugning the quality of Tim's work. To top it off, our neighbor's rockery was going to be disturbed by our work, and Tim (with permission from the neighbor) was actually able to help keep some soil erosion from their property at bay as a bonus and make their corner look much nicer. I will say that there was one issue we ran into - due to the odd way in which our side sewer was laid (it's an old house and replacing the entire side sewer would've been prohibitively expensive), we were forced to make non-trivial changes to our initial plan that resulted in some wasted work that Tim had to undo. This caused the project to go over budget and over time. Ultimately, we were able to work out a change order that both of us could agree was fair. The fact that he went long on time didn't particularly bother me - he's essentially a one man crew (with some help from laborers) and does not cut corners. While that may seem odd, the fact of the matter is that he is extraordinarily experienced and I've hired contractors in the past with larger crews that got the work done quickly but with important flaws. If I had to choose between a contractor who finishes exactly on schedule or one who takes longer but is meticulously detailed, it's no competition I want the second one (which is what Tim is).

Great experience working with Tim at Eagle Rock Landscaping…read more He is friendly, professional, communicative and very experienced! Tim walked us through the various options for having a retaining wall given we wanted to preserve a large (30'+ tall tree). He explained all the possibilities with pros & cons as well as conveyed the city's building codes too. He also shared his recommendation for stone selection too. The quote Tim sent us was very reasonable. Tim arranged for the city mark the utility lines and came out a week later to do the work. He finished the job in a day just like he said and the wall was AMAZING. It was more impressive than what we originally thought; he added larger flat rocks to create a "bench" and natural rock path to make it easy to access the slope. Great for sitting and planting flowers and ground cover. Definitely recommend Eagle Rock and would use them again for future projects!

I've had 2 poor interactions with Aces Four in the last couple of years…read more The first was a request for an estimate for install a French drain. Two weeks past after their visit with no estimate forthcoming. After a called to remind then, they sent a hugely inflated round number without any details. It was triple the other estimates. Second they came out for the semiannual sewer line check. First visit they couldn't complete the job due to their equipment, then I had to call for them to come out and finish the job. Then they wanted to bill me for both visits. Argumentative and unprofessional. I will not use their services going forward

Knowledgeable, friendly and able to diagnose our situation as well as a remedy. They were on time…read moreand kept us informed of their progress

This is a great, hardworking team and fair on price. A seriously hard combo of traits to find in…read moreSeattle!

Quick, friendly and they did a great job. Would definitely use them again! Highly recommendread more