Recommendations for landscaping companies

NEW -> Contingent Buyer Assistance Program
Any DIY'ers out there that used a design from a landscape company but implemented themselves? We will have a very small backyard and found a company that does sustainable, drought resistant design work, which one can implement ourselves.  We are on a very tight budget as we have other priorities for the house to deal with first.. but this model appeals to us..

The are called The Ecology Center and seem to have done work in the Great Park Neighborhoods.


Thanks!
 
We used Mullaney, a neighbor of ours used Savanna.  Some of the companies I talked to did not want to do what I wanted, IE: flagstone would look better, let's not do pavers, sort of thing.  One also said, let's not demo the existing concrete, we'll just put stone over it. 

Mullaney was the only one who said yeah, let's demo the concrete, we'll pull water from the main line and even switched up some of the hardscaping materials when we saw something we liked better.  They changed out some of the tile pavers that I thought didn't match the color pattern (slightly darker) and fixed a couple of the stone caps that also looked a little darker than every thing else.  Mullaney did come in at few thousand more than all other quotes, but we felt comfortable working with them, they addressed all our issues, and he was responsive to what we wanted.  One negative - it did take longer than what he initially said, over 2 months when he said it would only take a week to 2 weeks, we have a small yard...it shouldn't have taken that long. 
 
If you insist on a particular paver manufacturer, then ask them to put that in the contract.  You should be able to tell when they deliver the pallet to your driveway it will have the paver manufacturer name wrapped in plastic usually.  I don't think the names are printed on the actual pavers (at least I don't see it on Angelus pavers.  For travertine I'm not sure, but as long as your their when the driver delivers it, he probably has a manifest type document he can show you.
 
Don't always go with the low bid...
Just review the comments carefully that are left on TI and other review sites.
 
Mahe will take forever, there will be days/weeks where no one shows up.  If that's OK with you then go for it, but it bugs the heck out of me.  Quality of his work may be OK but it will take 4-6 months for him to finish a 30 day job.
 
I wouldn't recommend going with Mullaney. I've also had 2 other friends use him, one in Stonegate and another in Cypress Village and thought he was okay but they went with him mainly because he was more responsive compared to others.  He does indeed respond faster, but when we worked with him he fairly often showed up late to appointments, seemed to be rushed all the time, didn't document well what we asked for so there was a lot of miscommunication, and what bothered us the most was that the quote he provided us seemed like it was just pulled out of thin air. Most of the contractors we dealt with would break down the costs per sq ft, but Mullaney wouldn't explain to us how he came up with the cost that he had. Save yourself the headache and make sure you get a quality contractor that isn't trying to just rush you through the process so that you're just another job among a bunch of other ones that he's taking on.
 
Compressed-Village said:
Ahhh the fun of buying new homes and having to do everything.
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Tell me about it! It's such a pain in the ass - we've lived in our new build over 2 years now and still working on it  ::)
I don't think I will ever buy a new build again unless there is some point in my life where I'm building a custom built home by the ocean or something crazy like that.
 
Like Paris, I can't recommend Sean from Savannascapes enough.  His guys will be done by Saturday and they are top notch.  There was a hiccup (due to the El Dorado stone supplier discontinuing the stone I wanted and not telling us and shorting us on the amount of stone supplied) and we switched to a Santa Barbara stucco for my island very quickly.  Sean has answered all my crazy questions and been patient with my various changes with a professional and calm manner.

A+++ would landscape another house with Sean again.
 
fduzer said:
Like Paris, I can't recommend Sean from Savannascapes enough.  His guys will be done by Saturday and they are top notch.  There was a hiccup (due to the El Dorado stone supplier discontinuing the stone I wanted and not telling us and shorting us on the amount of stone supplied) and we switched to a Santa Barbara stucco for my island very quickly.  Sean has answered all my crazy questions and been patient with my various changes with a professional and calm manner.

A+++ would landscape another house with Sean again.
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you mean you CAN
 
No, fduzer can't recommend Savannascapes enough and I can't either.  He finished my home not too long ago and has been nothing short of spectacular. 
 
savannascapes seemed very professional on the phone when i talked to them but they don't do pools so i am getting a few bids from other companies first.  if everyone else is crap then i'll give them a ring for the landscaping  only.
 
dethman said:
savannascapes seemed very professional on the phone when i talked to them but they don't do pools so i am getting a few bids from other companies first.  if everyone else is crap then i'll give them a ring for the landscaping  only.
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I'm telling you ROI on a pool ain't good.
(I always hear my coworker complain about the electric bill because of the pool.)

"You don't need a pool, just use the community pool." YF
 
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