Friendly Islander Landscaping&Outdoor Construction

A+++++++I contracted the above for replacement to my side porch, due to deterioration of the porch. The cost estimate was very reasonable, lower than others, and I thought I might expect lower quality work. To my delight, the F. I. not only did a good job, but indeed a superb job and I am more than happy with their work. I highly recommend them for any concrete reconstruction work and I feel they perform the best quality work for a reasonable cost. They were also very efficient and started and completed the work in record time. Thank you, Friendly Islanders!!!

They did a great job at considerably less than other bids I received. There was a problem with one part of the wall and they immediately came back and made repairs. Everyone comments on how nice it looks!

Masonry construction was not done properly and has litterally fallen apart and the wall is subsiding with a section of the patio. <br /> Landscaping was better but way overpriced. He was nice and said he would save me money after I obtained quotes from other Angie list contractors.; but he started adding and upping the price expalining that he had to pay his large crew. They were good workers but Most crews use 1/2 the number of men and work a lot more efficient.  <br /> It is hard to get a written quote for his work and the work was done based on another companies quote that he said he would beat. It ended up costing me over a $1,000 more than the competitors quote.  <br /> When it started to fall apart I tried to contact him to get it fixed right but he would not return any of my calls. I am having another Angie list contractor redue and undo his work. I will be forced to file suit for damages (building not to code) and report this to the attorney Generals office where licenses are issued and reviewed. <br />

The owner was wonderful. He got two more job while he was doing my work. They finished the job in 2 days. I will absolutely recommend them. He used good blocks and he gave us a whole catalog to chose from. We are shortly going to call him again to do work in our backyard.

They were great.  They were prompt, professional, and did a wonderful job installing a very difficult and heavy railroad tie wall.  Moreover, they did it at almost a moment's notice.  And they followed up on the project, even coming out on Christmas Eve to make sure everything was done right.  They are the best.  I will certainly ask them to do more work in the future. <br />

I called Mr. Tapu one evening. The next morning, he came over and gave me the best estimate. He did not want a deposit. The following day, he called me early in the afternoon to let me know that he was al done and that he would like to be paid. The work looked great . I drove to his house and handed him a check.  Easy Peasy! <br />

Sione and his crew were very professional, showed up and finished the <br /> job on time.  Worked performed exceeded my expectations.  Price was very <br /> reasonable and there were no hidden added costs throughout the project.  I <br /> highly recommend using Friendly Islander. <br />

Sione and his crew showed up on time, and did an excellent job in less time than expected.  Every worker was very friendly, his estimate was accurate, and his crew was extremely hard working, polite and efficient.  I am very pleased to have selected Friendly Islander Landscaping to do the work. <br />

Sione, the owner, communicated with me from beginning to end.  He is actually onsite almost every day doing the work. They came exactly the week they told me that they would and were finished in 6 days. They checked in with me every other day, and more often when decisions needed to be made. <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />They cleaned up very well, leaving the property better than when they arrived. <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />I was so pleased that I had them come back and install a shed, build a railing, and repair my front porch. When they returned, they redid part of the wall which had moved due to  my French drain. He reconfigured the drain so that it would no longer flow into the wall. <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />My neighbors can't say enough about how beautiful our yard looks! <br /> <br />I have recommended them to my neighbors also. <br />

scheduling and service went well.  retaining wall ended three feet short of the house on both sides of stairs instead of extending to the house as the previous one did.

<strong>SHORT VERSION</strong> <br /> Hired him to repair work that he didn't do correctly a few years ago.  He said it'd be done in two weeks, it end up taking eight, three weeks of which I was unable to reach him because he left the country without telling me.  Came back to the U.S. and took his time finishing the job even though it was already weeks late.  Work is still unsatisfactory. <br /> Also, despite what his profile says here, his PA contractor license expired in April according to the PA Attorney General's office. <br /> <strong>LONG VERSION</strong> <br /> "Friendly" Islander did some work for me in November of 2011, including building a retaining wall in my backyard.  At the time, I wrote a very positive review here, but within a year, the wall began to show signs of leaning.  After two years, I was worried it would collapse, so I tried to reach out to Sione in 2013 to have it repaired.  He never called me back. <br /> This year (2014), I had a different contractor look at the wall, and he  agreed that the original work was bad, and suggested I try to get Friendly Islander to stand behind their work.  I was finally able to get him to call back from Sione to schedule a visit, but when he came out, he seemed less than enthusiastic about making up for his poor quality work.  First he tried to say it had been more than three years (it definitely hadn't -- see my 2011 review) and that walls just fall apart normally over time (which is true, but they shouldn't be falling over within three years.)  Then he told me he was fully booked for the rest of the season. <br /> At this point, I was in a bad bargaining position, because if I paid someone else to do the work, it would have cost nearly what the original work did.  Without any better options, I asked him to give me a quote for what it would take for him to fix the wall and also do some landscaping that we needed done while we were out of town for a couple of weeks.  He said he'd fix the wall and do the landscaping for $2,500. <br /> <strong>But, wait a second...  </strong>he told me he was fully booked!  Funny how offering him more money suddenly made him find some room in his busy schedule. <br /> So I gave him half the money up front, and we left for vacation on 6/22.  He told me he'd finish the work by 7/2 when we returned, and he did show up with his crew to mow the lawn and do some of the landscaping on 6/26.  The landscaping work was done well, but they didn't touch the retaining wall at all. <br /> When I called him to ask what happened, he didn't have an explanation, but said he'd be out the following day (7/4) to do it.  He did come out with some employees, who promptly took a small portion of the wall apart, then left without any explanation, or telling me when it would be rebuilt. <br /> Then here's the fun part: <strong>ELEVEN DAYS</strong> go by, during which I can't reach him on either of the phone numbers I had for him.  The phone went right to voice mail, so for the first few days I left messages, but then his voice mail box filled up.  It was like he simply disappeared. <br /> I reached out to legal counsel, who suggested that I file suit with the local magistrate.  I decided to write Sione first to inform him of my plans to file a claim in court, and that same day (7/15), a guy (apparently his brother) shows up and <strong>takes the rest of the wall apart</strong>, leaving it all over my backyard.  Again, he leaves, and, again, nobody tells me when it will be put back together. <br /> In desperation, I put a sign on my fence the next morning (7/16) demanding that whoever was doing the work call me first.  Finally, I get a call from a lady (apparently Sione's office manager -- hard to believe he even has one) who apologizes and tells me that <strong>Sione is out of the country</strong>.  She doesn't offer an explanation as to why, but says that his employee will come to finish the wall that day, which they do. <br /> I use the word "finish" loosely here.  The quality of the rebuilt work was, aside from the fact that it wasn't leaning like the original one, very poor.  There were exposed Versa-Lok mounting holes, and the blocks weren't put back in anything close to the original formation.  Sione still hadn't talked to me at this point, more than two weeks after the work was supposed to be done. <br /> Finally, on 7/20, he writes me through Angies List, saying he's out of the country, and would be back on 7/24.  He doesn't call me until the week after that, when we set up a meeting on 8/1.  He says he's in my neighborhood this day, but <strong>totally stands me up for the appointment</strong>, which I had to leave work early for.  I call him, and he says yes, we had an appointment, but he's busy with another job.  I could barely contain my anger at being stood up, even after having him leave the country for two weeks with no explanation. <br /> So we set up another meeting, this time for 8/8, and he's still 10 minutes late.  It's at this point that he finally tells me that he had to leave the country because he had an emergency back home in New Zealand -- apparently his farming   business there burned down.  I get that emergencies happen, but there's no excuse for leaving a paying customer hanging for weeks.  He could have just changed his phone's voicemail greeting or something, or had his office lady do it for him, or had one of his other workers call me.  He did none of these things. <br /> So, anyway, I show him the things that need to be fixed, but he claims a lot of them are just because he had to dig the wall deeper.  He said he'd fix a couple of cosmetic things, and at this point, I just want the thing to be over with.  He says he'll be out that weekend, and of course it doesn't actually happen until Monday, because nothing is ever on time with this guy nowadays. <br /> Here's the kicker: after completing the job many weeks late, after leaving the country without explanation, and having his brother do a sub-par job on the wall itself even though I was paying to have it re-done after he originally didn't do it right -- <strong>he has the nerve to call me and complain that I didn't send him the other half of the money immediately after he finally finished the work.</strong>  Are you kidding me?  I pay you to finish a job you didn't do right, you finally do the work weeks late, and you're upset that I'm not paying you fast enough? <br /> I can't believe how much Sione's customer service has gone downhill since 2011, and I'm concerned that he's apparently operating without a license, at least according to the PA contractor search web site.  He really doesn't seem to care at all about wasting customer's time by showing up to appointments late, or not at all.  I understand bad things happen, but if you're running a business, you need to keep your customers informed and not just disappear for weeks at a time. <br /> I really thought I'd found one of the good contractors three years ago, but the work ended up falling apart, and after this nightmare trying to get it fixed, I will never use this guy again.  I strongly encourage people to look elsewhere. <br />

The landscaping was  good but the brick and masonry work was bad. I had to argue with him about the wall and step and planter areas. I had other contractors working inside my house at the time and they were telling me that it was not installed properly. He actually redid some of the work but did not do it as  I told him too. I was frustrated and paid him with a reasuring gurantee from him that it would be ok and he would stand behind his work. After winter the wall step and planter was cracking as I told him it would because the joints were not overlapped and were straight mortar joints from top to bottom. He came back and said he would fix it and also fix the drain which was not catching the water and I offered to pay him for an additional drain to make it work. He never returned and now another winter has passed and it is falling apart. I have gotten quotes from other landscapers and omnistone experts. They all said that I was overcharged and the work was not to code and very unprofessional. <br /> I have left more calls to him. <br /> I talked to my lawyer about this and because of the damage to my property he suggests that I sue him for entire job + damages. <br /> This is very upsetting and I wish Angie list could help to resolve this issue. He is listed with awards on Angie List? <br />

For the estimate, he was a few hours late but he called to let us know so we didn't mind. He provided an estimate on the spot unlike the others we had out who had to run everything through a program and took a few days to get back to us. The best part about Friendly Islander-- the price! He was less than half of all other estimates and he was able to start sooner than anyone else. We paid him a deposit on the spot and he was there two days later. The yard looks infinately better than before. My only reason for the B rating- when planting he missed seed in between the rows of his planter so grass never came up in long stripes throughout the yard. I spoke with him about coming back to throw seed in those areas which he agreed to but never came back. But, for the thousands I saved it was worth getting a bag of seed and correcting it myself. <br />

For the quality of work, no one can match his prices.  Other estimates were literally double his.  Sione (owner) is a very nice guy.  His team of guys was equally polite.  Their work was of very good quality.  The wall they built looks immaculate!  The area they dug out for landscaping looks good, we feel that it could have used more back fill (between the retaining wall and the hill) and more mulch (it is a bit thin in areas), but we are happy with his work and will definitely use his services again in the future.  <br />

The Friendly Islander crew was just that-- Friendly, Relaxed, Competent, Easy to Work With!! <br /> At well below other estimates, we received twice the value. <br /> They were prompt and did exactly what we wanted.  They didn't try to "sell-up" and instead delivered quality work.  They cleaned up the property.  We will enjoy our new trees for years to come! <br />

Beautifully!  He not only did the job in one day, he did it better (three inches deeper) and for $1,000 less than another contractor wanted. <br />

The landscaping looks great.  They were friendly and professional.  Sione suggested growing grass on hill side beds instead of mulching.  In the long run this would save us money instead of having to mulch the hill every spring.  In addition, over time the mulch just slides down the hill leaving empty spots in beds.  Also, a few days before they were scheduled to work, a tree was struck by lighting and fell in our backyard. They were able to remove the tree in addition to the scheduled work.  They couldn't finish all the work on the scheduled day due to lighting storms but they came back on July 4th to finish mulching and edging the front yard. <br />

Sione asked us to water the seeded area daily for 7-10 days. The grass started coming in on the 7th day. It is now 10 days since the seed was put down and the grass is coming in beautifully.  Even though the weather was rather cool and we even had a frost after the seeding was done, there has been no problem at all. <br /> Sione also did some unexpected things for us. He edged around flower beds and at the base of a number of trees in our backyard that were not previously edged. Once we put down some mulch these extra touches will make our yard look like it was professionally landscaped.  The workers cleaned up after themselves and all the yard waste and moss was removed. <br /> In summary, we were extremely pleased with the work that was done by Sione's company and were impressed with the quickness of his response to our initial phone call and how he kept in touch to let us know when he and his workers would be coming.  It is clear that the reputation of his company is important to him. <br />

I called Sione on a Saturday afternoon, he called me back and came the same day to give us a quote.  The following week, Sione called to see if we were still interested and we would need to mail him a check for half - to cover materials.  We sent a check, along with a written list of things we talked about (no written quote or invoice was provided).  He called the day he received the check to let us know the date he would be out.  He scheduled for May 9th (unless it was to rain) Sione and his crew were at the house around 9am and got to work right away.  They worked untill 8pm that night! They got all of the railroad ties relaid so that the stairs were usable.  The next day Sione and his crew came around 11am and worked until 6pm. They even worked in the rain to complete it.  It was completed that day. All of the stairs were done as well as the stone walls. <br /> Sione did a great job, we are very happy with the quality of work we received for the price.  We will definitely use his company again in the future.  <br /> NOTE: Sione DOES have an accent that can make some things he says very hard to understand, and can be a bit loud on the phone...do not worry, and just ask him to repeat what he said..... He is a very nice man and you won't have any issues. Second note: Sione did ask to be paid in cash after the deposit. <br />

Everything went completely smoothly from start to finish. He showed up exactly on time and proceeded to work, which took about a day and a half. He actually did more than I asked for originally, e.g. digging extra holes and clipping some bushes. <br /> I will use him again in the future. <br />

The owner, Sione Tapu, is very personable and easy to work with.   Ignore the comments about him being hard to understand.   He sometimes is, but just ask him to repeat what he said and you'll understand him - its not an issue. <br /> He showed up exactly as scheduled and installed the landscape plan exactly as we designed it.  His crew is very hard working and was able to complete this large project in just 3 days.   Although his price was a little higher than I would have liked,  the quality is top notch. <br />

unknown

I contacted this company for an estimate and was given one that very afternoon. They started and completed the work the very next week.  We had a landscape timber wall that collapsed.  They removed the timbers and graded the hillside so that we didn't have to replace the wall.  We also had a stone wall that was ready to collapse and they dismantled it and then rebuilt it. I would not hesitate to contact them for future projects. <br />

They started the job of removing the sidewalk on one day, had the truck out to pour concrete and finished the work the very next day. The guys did a nice job with the sidewalk slope and the finish work; the new sidewalk sections look great. <br />

They worked quickly and got the job done efficiently.  They had competitive pricing.