I solicited three quotes for a circle stone patio and fire pit. Unfortunately, the company I used before for stone work could not complete the project in time so I went with Weber. Lucas came out and surveyed the property where the patio was to go and had no issues agreeing to the work in the short time frame. I had two qualifications for giving them the work. They needed to match the stones I used on my walk way and be done by the 14th. I liked his disposition, so I asked if he could also provide landscaping (mulch, edging and aerating) no problem, he said.
The quote for the patio came in over a thousand dollars higher than the other contractors, but I figured I was paying a premium for expedited work. He then showed me cheap flat pavers that were not close to what I had on the walkway. He told me that the ones I wanted were discontinued (just saw them at Lowes). When I reminded him of my two conditions for the work they magically appeared at stone place near by.
The crew showed up with less than 12 hours notice, not a huge problem but my day was already packed with meetings. When they finished patio it was visibly slanted in the opposite direction of the pitch of the yard, but the kicker was the slanted portion of the patio was (no joke) a foot off the ground! He told me I would need a sitting wall or retaining wall which would cost me more money and that I should have been supervising the work.
I had the crew that did my walkway come out and take a look, they laughed and told me how it should have been done.
Lucus also tried to convince me I was seeing things and that I was wrong about the slant. So I grabbed my hose and poof the water flood in the direction I said it would, at which point he agreed and tried to further explain why they were right. I'm no hardscaper but when working on slanted yard you should probably start with the lowest point and dig the higher end down and add a wall where needed. All of this should have been scoped out from the being, he's the professional it is his job to know what the project requires.
He said that the solution was to take apart the patio dig down the higher point to match the low point of the yard. He said this would require a 1.5ft sitting wall which he would take care of.
They came back out took apart the patio, dug THREE inches down on the highest part and laid the patio. They thenused one layer (23) retaining stones to bump up against the high part of the yard (thought I needed a 1.5ft sitting wall?) nothing holding those stones in the ground. If it was this simple why did they initially give me a patio a ft off the ground. When they were finished they laid a few pieces of sod scattered on top of my lawn to TRY and even out the lower end of the patio. No grass seed just the few pieces of sod.
Oh ya and when I told them I didn't need the fire pit glued down they took that as no fire pit, so I have a circle patio. Upon further review they chipped most of the stones and completely broke 3 of the stones for the fire pit when taking things apart so now some of them will now need to be replaced, if I can match them, otherwise I need a all new bricks.
A few days later Lucas said he was coming out to "finalize" I presumed that meant throw down 10 bucks worth of grass seed, take a look at the work to see if I was happy, but no it was only to collect the check.
What happened to the Landscaping you ask? "Maybe we can do it by the end of the month...aeration later in the summer"
I would not recommend using this company wickedly poor communication, expected me to supervise the work, they can't keep promises and either they tried to get more money out of me for a wall or they had no idea what they were doing. read more
