Avoid!
Working with contractors is usually a mixed bag, but these guys are really awful. I hired them to inspect a pre-existing drip irrigation system and either replace it or make it operational. They said my existing controller (watering timer) needed to be replaced, and they assured me the replacement would cost $300. I later discovered it is worth only $150 retail (and of course they get it at cost). Then they refused to show me how to use it, they set it up incorrectly such that it didn't control anything, and they took my money saying everything was ready to use. After many frustrating attempts on my part and asking questions of them, I finally got it to turn on, but then I discovered leaks ALL OVER the place -- at least 10 -- that they never noticed or bothered to fix when they set it up. They came back and fixed them, but then I discovered a bunch more, and by then -- no longer early in the season, so now they had other customers they evidently considered more important than me -- I couldn't get them to show up to fix all the other leaks. But I had paid them 2 months earlier and the system STILL didn't work!
Ultimately I had to ask for a refund, which I eventually got, but only after a lot of back and forth by email and dealing with the owner Jose Franco's many, many obvious lies (to support his excuses to avoid paying the refund he had TWICE offered me) and his many, many insults toward me. (Among them, he claimed that I must be incapable of having anyone work for me or spending any money at all, and told me I don't have the "qualifications they look for in a customer." But of course, for my $900 -- just to check and activate the system that was already in place -- all I wanted was for it to work.)
The system they set up was a nightmare to use, too. To turn it off (because of freezing weather, which happens a couple times each spring before it's warm enough to leave it on for the rest of the summer), I had to buy and use a $30 "irrigation key" to shut off the water supply entirely, screw on two pipe caps, screw in two tiny valve plugs, and twist two plastic pieces 90 degrees. All of this requires tools, because they way they set it up, you can't squeeze your hand in there to do it (awkward angle, no leverage), and it has to be done tightly or it sprays water everywhere. And all of it feels flimsy, like I can only do it so many times before the pieces break. Then undo all of it to turn everything back on when the weather gets warm again. I later did some research and found out I could easily do everything myself (with no particular skill or knowledge in this area) for less than $100 on Amazon, connect it to the water-hose spigot so it's super easy to disconnect in freezing temperatures, and enjoy a much simpler watering controller/timer ($25 instead of $300).
Franco's set up the drip emitters stupidly too. For each of two trees, they had 4 drip emitters all on the same side of the tree, rather than encircling it for even watering. They took the nice "bowls" of dirt and rock around the trees and made them flat and ugly. They did nothing to tailor the emitters to deliver the right amount of water to each tree or bush. And to set all this up initially, it took them multiple days. When I later set up my own system with no prior experience, using the same already-in-place lines they were using, it took me only a few hours. There were still several leaks in the underground lines (the ones I couldn't get them to show up and fix), but my spigot-based system is apparently lower pressure such that the leaks aren't as bad.
Overall, I couldn't believe the degree to which they were rude, unresponsive, unhelpful, dishonest, and utterly incompetent at doing the one thing they're supposed to be qualified to do. read more
