Forest Landscape Inc
Serving Vernonia, OR and surrounding areas
Approved
In business since 1999
Free estimates
Emergency services offered
"They were very professional and quick to respond to questions and give estimates.
I provided detailed plans for the work and had discussions with the foreman prior to all the phases of the project to confirm what I wanted. I pulled the permit for the wall and did the engineering plans, they did the sidewalk permit.
The team did a good job in the demo of the existing wall and the excavation for the concrete work. The forming crew was OK, but did not pay attention to the re-bar plan so I had to step in to get them to add in the additional re-bar the engineer had in the plans I had given to them. The pour went well and came out the way I wanted.
The sidewalk demo and replacement went off without a hitch.
The setting of the bamboo barrier wobbled over the property line and had to be corrected. The worker spread out the excavated dirt and did not put it all back into the planting area, I had to scrape it up and put it back where it was supposed to go. He should have put the excavation on plastic so that it could easily be put back into the planting area.
The brick planter was not really square on one exposed corner, mostly due to not getting the initial concrete base formed square which they did not correct when setting the brick. The rise on the planter was pretty high and the middle section bowed out a bit due to settling of the bricks on wet mortar. They probably should have did the build over two days to allow the mortar to set correctly so that it would not slip out. The joints and mortar cleanup were just fine and the courses were level.
I set out a string and stake outline of the rock wall section as well as specific instructions to match the existing rock work on the other side of the driveway. The new one had three equal sections with each section dropping lower toward one end. The resulting wall did not match the plans. Two sections were about 1/2 foot longer than correct and the third was 1 foot shorter than requested. They did not trim the cap stones to have the correct length for each section, they just used what was easy so the sections were made longer or shorter than I requested. The cap stones should also have been trimmed to joint and produce a cleaner cap with squarer caps and an even overhang over the rest of the wall. One section was not straight along the top, they stuck a rock in the field that was too high and ran the cap over it rather than using a smaller rock or trimming the big one. It looks "bent".
Conclusion:
Overall, they can handle the simple stuff that does not really vary from the generic. For example, the sidewalk went perfectly, but they ignored the re-bar plans for the wall and I had to correct them.
They corrected the problem with the bamboo barrier quickly to my satisfaction.
When it comes to detailed finish work, such the rock work and the planter they really don't do so well. They seem to know what I want and agree with it, but you cannot leave them alone to follow plans. Unfortunately for those two jobs, I could not be there to watch them like a hawk and stop them from doing it wrong. They offered to redo the cap on the wall, but the new stone was pretty much the same as the existing stone and they simply lack the stone/brick mason skills that allow you to trim and work the stone to produce that level of quality work. I determined that any changes they would make would not materially change anything so it was not worth trying because it could be worse.
When you really care about the result and it requires some specialized skills and the finished product cannot be easily changed, you really want specialists that know what they are doing. I would not use them for that kind of work.
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+87
Response time1 day
Response rate87%
3 neighbors recently requested a quote
