Shinda designed and installed a beefy "alpine look" rockery for us a couple weeks ago. We are very impressed and already looking forward to working with him and Olympic Rockeries again for a few big reasons.
To set the stage, here's what our project involved:
Consultation: We asked Shinda to give us an estimate because we were planning to purchase small-ish boulders and build a rock wall ourselves. He came to our home and gave us that estimate (on a Sunday!) but suggested that he thought bigger boulders would look better for our project and gave us a quote for that option, with his team doing the installation instead of us.
Project Completed: After thinking it over, we preferred Shinda's "bigger rocks" idea. So he installed an "alpine look" rockery (20-25 boulders, about 2 feet tall on average) in our front yard to finish off the completely unfinished bank we inherited when we bought our house. Before placing the rocks, he prepped the edges of the bank in a few spots where it needed to be dug back. He also removed a big chunk of aggregate driveway that was in the way of where we wanted the wall.
And here's why I'm giving a 5-star rating:
1) Shinda is a rock artist. He looked at our project, had a vision for it, and executed it down to the final boulder-sized detail. Watching him maneuver his Bobcat was like watching a trained musician play an instrument. He'd place a rock, inspect it, spin it around, place it again, adjust the angle - the details seemed to matter to him at least as much as they mattered to us, which was reassuring. He even wanted to wash a couple of the boulders of before he left to make sure they looked as good as they could.
His artistry even showed in how he handled the aggregate-cutting. Making just two straight-line cuts, he managed to complement the existing curved lines of the driveway so well that we've decided just to leave it rather than re-pouring a new curved edge.
Despite the attention to detail, he still worked quickly. In fact, he and his coworker only seemed to take one short break (maybe 10 minutes) all day.
2) They showed real respect for our wishes and concerns. For instance, there was one part of our project where we wanted to minimize the thickness of the rockery so we could keep our driveway as wide as possible. Shinda brought several narrow boulders and checked with us as he placed them to make sure the driveway was wide enough. Also, he was careful with our trees. Now, admittedly, I'm kind of a tree nut... I know that they probably don't need to be treated as gently as I like to treat them... but I really appreciate that when I told Shinda about my concern for our trees, he was careful not to bump tree branches with the Bobcat and not to damage roots when he dug into our bank.
3) They did extra work. In addition to building our wall with the rock he brought, Shinda pointed out that we had several big, beautiful boulders halfway buried in our landscaping. We hadn't even noticed. But he pulled them up, repositioned them, and voila - our boring mossy rocks are now beautiful focal points in our front yard. He could have ignored this potential or even tried to sell us new decorative boulders; instead, he unearthed hidden gems for us, and didn't charge us extra.
In the end, we ended up with a much cooler rockery than we expected to have, we paid exactly what was estimated, and all of my precious trees were treated gently.
(I'm so impressed that I posted a review on Angie's List, too.) read more