
Serving Los Alamitos, CA and surrounding areas
In business since 1984
Free estimates
"For those who may not want to read my treatise on Signature Landscape, let me start by summarizing: These are consummate professionals who really care about the work they do and the customer they are doing it for. It was clear to me that it was as important to them that the job was done right as it was to me. They honestly do stake their name on the quality of their work. So, in short, highly recommended. OK, now for more details…First up, let me address price, because frankly when I read reviews that’s a prime question I want answered: “Are they competitive on price?” The answer is yes, absolutely. Let me clarify: Signature Landscape is not going to be your lowest bid, but based on my experience they are price-competitive and frankly for the peace of mind you get by hiring a competent, communicative and experienced team to do the work, any pennies you may have saved on a low-bid are worth spending for the quality and lack of frustration. We chose Signature over the others for that reason and because Signature was much clearer in the specifics of the job, what they were and weren’t going to do. There was no ambiguity, and they are professional in the way they do their contracts. For example, one of the people we had bid (the low bidder) gave a fantastic price, but very little detail. Ok so you’re going to build the wall we want, but what’s the process? What are you going to do and not do and are you going to do it right? Pressed for details they simply didn’t respond. Another contractor kept trying to give me the details on the phone, but wouldn’t respond via email follow-up. These were btw, well-reviewed contractors in my area as well, but I just didn’t feel comfortable with that communication style. Also, knowing the details and the price breakdown was valuable to me since I’ve done a lot of DIY around the house and really have a good sense of what I can and can’t do on my own (and frankly even if I can do something, doesn’t mean I want to or that it won’t take me an ages to accomplish—so sometimes it’s just worth paying the pros). Before continuing describing the work done, I just want to take a moment to say that the proprietor, Moe, is a great guy. You meet him, you instantly like him. I don’t know if Moe uses the same crew on every job, but the team he put in place for us was led by Chepé who is also an extremely friendly and hard-working guy. The amount of work he can do is Paul Bunyun level! Apparently, he’s been working with Moe and Signature Landscape for many many years and you can really see that in their relationship. They’re very much like The Odd Couple and a real treat to work with. A brief description of the project we did includes: Building a sitting wall with a poured concrete cap, laying flagstone for a patio area and a path from that patio to the other side of the yard where I will (again, I’m a DIY guy) be building a deck. We also had a large area filled with pea gravel where we placed planters for a patio garden. The pea gravel also was used—to tie the whole look together—as the fill between the flagstones. A small patch of grass remains in the middle (Chepé reconfigured the existing sprinkler system to accommodate the changes. He also added a valve for me and setup individual drip irrigation risers for watering potted plants and for the planters in the gravel area). While we had an idea of what we wanted, Signature Landscape (both Moe and Chepé) still consulted with us on the look and layout. While they were happy to give us what we wanted, they were not shy with their opinions on what would look best when we were unsure and/or if they anticipated issues with what we envisioned. An example of this is that I had originally envisioned the grass area in a different shape, but it would have created narrow spots that would be difficult to irrigate (didn’t even occur to me). So, based on that advice we changed the look and honestly, I think it’s better than imagined. Likewise, Chepé suggested widening the flagstone path, which again we think looks better than what we originally planned. They also consulted with us on the color of the concrete wall cap, color and texture of the stucco and on and on. Likewise, Moe in particular gave advice on what other things we could do, either DIY or by contracting with him again in the future, that would tie in the remainder of the yard. The project lasted about 3 weeks and we developed a pretty good rapport with the onsite team, which sometimes was just Chepé and other times was a small crew, depending on what was being done. Chepé’s attention to detail is amazing and you can tell he really cares about the quality of his work and those he directed, which I think may explain why Moe and he have been business partners this long. Here’s an example: When they poured the concrete seat, something went wrong with the mix. Not sure exactly what happened, but it wasn’t bonding correctly or something along those lines. I imagine a lesser contractor may have just let it go. Maybe it would have held up, maybe not. Chepé was troweling it, smoothing it out and contouring edge and he clearly wasn’t satisfied, so he just took a sledge hammer to it and started over the next day. Just like that. No complaints, didn’t even blink (though we did go out and buy Chepé and the crew some beers, seemed like they could use it) and while I’m guessing that took a chunk from their bottom line, Signature Landscape didn’t try to pad the budget with other work to recover costs or anything like that. They just did it and got it done and it’s excellent! Likewise, at the end of the job, due to a loose sprinkler connection (not a big deal really), we found out that the new wall was really good at holding water back. Too good (made a nice pond). So, again, without complaint and without charging me a nickel more, the crew came out, dug a drain and fixed the problem. You can’t even tell they were there. And that was true at the end of the job in general. When they finally finished, if it wasn’t for the completed work, you’d never know they’d been there. It was spotless. No equipment left, no debris left, just a job well done."





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