Sauro and his wife Maria, quoted us on a full Landscape job at our house. We wanted Top Cast…read moreconcrete finish, floating steps, retaining wall on the slope behind our house with proper drainage, install new drain throughout property and make sure that water did not pool anywhere and also drain away from the house.
The job was bid at nearly $150K. After the 2nd time Sauro installed new concrete, the concrete looked nothing like the first pour, the top cast was none existent in some places, he told me not to worry that they would fix it with acid and make it look uniform. When they did the final pour which included a section next to the house, it rained a few days after and I quickly realized that water was not draining away from the foundation but instead was draining toward the foundation, and creating dampness in my garage where I had just spent a lot of money epoxying; water was also ponding on the steps and at the entry way toward the front door. Again he said that he would grind it and fix it.
During this whole time, i was fishing out $10K and sometimes double that amount per week to Sauro. As we were nearing the completion of the job, he ask for an extra $10,000 for extras...we settled on $5,000 as he was ready to walk away and; as a show of good faith we even made the check out to $5,500. This was early January. The following week he ask for the remainder of the balance which at this point was only $11,400...he told us that he had to go to TX to get his son; he was almost in tears. We agreed to $8K as there were some items which were not completed yet and needed to be fixed. (concrete, drainage, irrigation, lighting)
At that time we agreed to give him an extra $10,000 to complete all the irrigation, drainage, front lawn, lighting and whatever landscaping work needed to be completed.
When he came back, he barely worked 2-days and ask us for a check for $10K. We refused to give him the $10K as he had not done anything to warrant that amount. He left the job and refused to come back.
I had paid for all the material used on the job with my Credit Card, it is true that he bid the job including material; but we discovered that he stole from us several things, plants, stone for the retaining walls, some new garbage cans that I had purchase for a future built-in BBQ, drainage pipes, and sock for the French drains. He used the gravel which I had raked and piled up in the back yard behind the retaining walls...this gravel was to be used on top of the Weed fabric on the hill side. He said that he would replace but did not.
I would not recommend them!
