I started with high hopes and waited several months to fit in with the schedule of this company.
My tiny courtyard had drainage issues and i had multiple discussions with them about solving this. They claimed hard landscaping and drainage was their speciality. They recommended additional storm water drainage points and paving / ground fall to ensure water could get away. I questioned whether turf would thrive and was told they knew their stuff and I was given a verbal guarantee it would. All up they were adamant that my job was small and the issues easy to solve. I actually began to feel a bit silly about my concerns and I accepted that they knew their stuff. I have chosen not to mention the business owner by name but he is charming and convincing. I honestly felt he was one of the good guys.
After a series of delays, work was undertaken to dig up and relevel the whole area, add drainage points, pave and turf. The small garden beds which were also within the quote were left very scrappy but I figured they seemed to be busy with other jobs waiting and that I could fix these later. I paid the final instalment for the completed job.
Fast forward 8 weeks during which time the lawn had been tended to carefully and 30% of it was dead. A few weeks later and despite feeding and watering this was now 50% dead. The gardener I hired to fix the garden beds suggested lawn under a porch awning was always going to die - not enough sunlight. Where lawn had been cut around pavers it had been damaged and died off. Yup.
Fast forward to the first heavy rains and the courtyard floods again. Water does not make it to the new drainage points. Water falls towards the house and pools where it should not.
I text, email and Facebook message the company, I explain. I am polite. I ask for advice. I ask them to come take a look. I even offer to discuss further payment to rectify the issues. Their business address is 2 suburbs away, They don't answer any messages and they don't come. I send them a personal message on Facebook. I am blocked.
Finally I call in a plumber and a builder. The news is terrible. The levels of the land are wrong. Water drainage is incorrectly installed and inadequate. Turf should never have been laid along the footings of the house or under a shaded porch. It needs to be ripped out and started again. I am now paying more than $10,000 to rectify the work.
We are taking about a small courtyard here so the combined cost will be astronomical.
This has been a horrible experience. Buyer beware. read more
