Get matched with top interlocking pavers for driveways & floors installers in Montrose, MN

"Clark Companies did excellent work on our recent landscaping project. They regraded our yard, installed new landscape edging, and built a high-quality paver patio. The crew, led by Ryan and Tim, was punctual, courteous, and very detail-oriented. The finished result exceeded our expectations — we’re thrilled with how everything turned out."

"Fantastic! From the planning stages to actual work everything was smooth. The attention to detail and getting the job completed was a great experience. Super friendly, hard working, and honest and open communication. I will be hiring them again ……soon!"

"We started with just a big lawn and an old rickety deck in our backyard and nothing else, and planned on a massive project with an equally massive total budget of about $200,000 to put in a new in-ground swimming pool, new deck, new concrete patio with outdoor kitchen, vinyl gazebo, planting beds, trees, fence, and revised drainage scheme for our fairly flat lot with clay soil and poor drainage, plus a small home addition to our house as well. Sculptured Earth was to be our landscape contractor and project manager to coordinate all the various other contractors. Josh (the owner of the company) promptly met with us at our appointment time at our home and reviewed our "needs and wants" for our project. He met with us again a week later with 3 rough drawings/concepts for our yard, and after taking our suggestions and noting our likes and dislikes about each, he came back for a third meeting with a "semi-final" plan with an initial itemized contract showing the price. Up to this point, Josh REQUIRED NO MONEY UP FRONT and NO CONTRACT for all that design work (which must have been several hours worth of work), and only when we decided that this "semi-final" plan was what we wanted, did he ask for a deposit and a signed contract. (Ultimately this was one of the reasons we hired Josh, including his impeccable references. We had interviewed 2 other contractors, one who never called us back after the first meeting, and another who wanted a $1000 retainer to just start the design process). He also discussed various scenarios for staging the project in parts so that we could opt to only do portions at a time, in case our budget required it, but fortunately we were in a position to do the entire project at once. He did allow us to modify some items as the project was in progress when we changed our minds about certain details, or wanted to add components along the way. No "hidden fees" or "change order fees" were ever added on, just the cost of the work and materials. We added and subtracted a few things along the 4 months (Apr-July) that it took to complete everything, which did increase the projected completion time somewhat, but we also had a few delays due to the usual weather issues, and also a 10-day delay that was entirely due to an electrical subcontractor (who was hired through the pool contractor) who couldn't keep to his promised schedule dates. This was not Josh's fault. He was always responsive whenever we had concerns. He always returned my phone calls within a day. Josh's business philosophy is that until his customer is satisfied, he will not be either. His crew was always polite and on time each day. A project of this scope can be expected to have glitches along the way, and ours was no exception. Whenever a problem arose, Josh was always receptive to our wishes when a solution was devised. An example: Josh's concrete subcontractor made a critical error in distorting the pool's autocover housing, such that the cover couldn't be installed. The concrete guy wanted to do a "shortcut" fix which was not something that we would have been satisfied with. I emphasized this point to Josh, and he made the concrete guy do it the way we wanted it, which was going to involve removing and re-pouring 3 times more concrete than the concrete subcontractor wanted to, but would result in a much more structurely sound patio. To be honest, Josh and his crew didn't catch all the problems that arose. Not because they ignored them, but because a project of this size is difficult to keep a handle on for anyone. So I did act as my own "general contractor" to keep tabs on things. I caught the electrical contractor accidentally kinking one of the gas lines to the pool heater. This is not something I would necessarily expect Josh's crew to see. I had to make the calls to the gas subcontractor to make sure this was repaired before the gas line was buried. There was another error that Josh missed which I was able to catch when I noticed that it didn't appear that the deck stairs would reach the concrete patio as intended based on where the forms were relative to the partially-completed deck stair landing. Apparently Josh's error was in assuming the deck plans were completely accurate from the deck contractor, but there was a slight variance in the actual deck stairs once built. It probably would've been better if Josh had verified with the decking contractor where the stairs would end at the bottom instead of assuming things by the plans. But again, I know that Josh would've fixed it if it hadn't been caught by me and the concrete was poured incorrectly. I just helped to circumvent a mistake before it happened. Another potential error happened at the beginning where Josh's crew starting building the stone steps to our shed area, but had to re-do it 3 times because they kept making them stick out into our yard a little too far for our liking. But Josh was more than happy to make the necessary changes (with no additional cost to us) until we were happy with the result. A final glitch happened when Josh was spraying a muriatic acid solution around our newly installed outdoor stainless steel refridgerator, grill, cabinet doors, etc. The refridgerator door was etched by the solution, and I pointed it out to Josh. He reimbursed me for the $200 it would cost to get a new door for the refridgerator. One time, his crew was digging the drainage trench for the French drain, and they damaged the gas line also. Josh notified me immediately and arranged to have the gas subcontractor out to the house ASAP, and he covered that cost without question. I don't want to paint a negative picture about Josh and Sculptured Earth by mentioning these errors. Quite the contrary, because a big project like this has a good probability that mistakes can and will happen even with our painstakingly detailed planning, the homeowner wants the contractor(s) involved to take ownership of the errors and make things right to the satisfaction of the homeowner. What you don't want is a contractor who makes excuses and tries to avoid fixing the problem, or tries to get away with a "shortcut." Worse yet, you don't want a contractor who will try to hide the mistake from the homeowner. I wanted to highlight that Josh is the type of contractor who will do whatever is necessary to fix any glitches along the way. He runs his business with the utmost integrity, his crew works extremely hard to make sure the homeowner is satisfied, and in the end they do fabulous work! If I had to do it all over again, I would definitely hire Josh again. In fact, when we get around to doing our front and side yards, I'll be calling Josh and Sculptured Earth to do the job."

"Stone Age Landscapes was very skilled and knowledgeable. They offered us lots of different design options and touches we might not have thought of on our own to personalize our patio. Tony was very responsive throughout what was a collaborative process. We love our patio, and many of our neighbors have paid us compliments on the new addition. We'd absolutely recommend."

"They don't schedule enough time to provide the requested service so they have to come back. This works to their advantage because they charge you for a whole hour ($70) even if they're there just 10 minutes. They determine the time based on the GPS tracker in the service vehicle. Both times the guy sat in his truck for 30 minutes after he was finished. Work was completed but 2 sprinkler heads still don't pop up."

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We called 4 different contractors, John from Don Green's Dirt Service was the only one that called us back. He came out within the week and gave us a quote. It took time trying to discuss with 10 people. John stopped out for a second time and gave us 3 different options as price was a concern. Once we all agreed on price/work, John and his team were able to come out the next week and complete work. A few of us watched the whole process. You could tell how efficient they were as doing this many times. Work was completed in 1 day and for quote amount. There was extra gravel used but John did not charge us any extra. The road looks great and concerns were fixed. John and his team took the time to walk us thru the project and inspect before payment. They did such a great job on this we are having them back in the spring to clear part of our land.

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"Excellent design work by Marlin. He drew up a plan that incorporated the style of the house and yard terrain. He assisted in materials selection and guided us through the entire process. Weather conditions delayed the project somewhat but that is to be expected."

"We love our fence-- it's beautiful!  Yet, while the final outcome was"A" worthy, a few bumps along the way unfortunately weigh down my overall rating.
When I reached out to Artistic Fence through Angie's List, I got a timely response and an estimate soon followed.  I liked the samples of their work, the price seemed fair and reviews on Angie's List were strong so we signed the work agreement and made our deposit without delay.  
The bumps were essentially the result of some inconsistencies in the way of customer service.  Namely, we were not impressed with the crew that did the tear-out of the old fence and placed the posts because of their general lack of professionalism and regard for our property.  I feel pretty strongly that every crew working residential jobs needs at least one person who has the soft skills needed to, at the very least, introduce themselves to the homeowner and say what they are there to do.  If there was such a person in this crew, he did not introduce himself, which caused some unease.  Plus, they did not space two of the posts correctly so one needed to be dug up and moved by the builder.  I believe with more proactive and detailed communication from a project manager, my expectations could have been managed more effectively.  For instance, I was expecting the crew in the morning of the first day so I stayed home from work to get them set-up with power and water.  After a couple hours I inquired about their whereabouts.  Turned out they didn't arrive until the afternoon and then worked for only an hour and while I understand the weather's heat was likely disruptive, I felt out of the loop.  Or, perhaps that was part of the project plan all along, but based on my expectations they were late, left early and threw the job off schedule. Things turned around after I expressed my frustration over having a torn-up, exposed yard and  being told the job would not be finished by the agreed date or two days after that when we were slatted to host an event in our backyard or two days after that. 
They responded with great service recovery?moving things around to send out their ?best builder? (perhaps owner too) to get things very close to finished allowing us to get our yard cleaned up in time for our party.  He was great?friendly, understanding, and detail-focused.   He was very apologetic about our experience with the earlier crews.  He communicated how he was going to approach the build.  When he finished, he gave his recommendations on care, including staining.  He let me grab some scrap pieces to test stains.  He even offered to haul away some old concrete footings from a separate project, which was very helpful.  And, like I said at the beginning, the finished product is really lovely and has helped us enjoy our backyard so much more.
Based on the final product, I think it?s a shame this project didn?t earn an A because the fence is truly excellent.  The process in total was good, just falling short of great.  I would certainly recommend Artistic Fence and I would use them again in the future.

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"Francis was very thorough and knowledgeable. Although it was not in our budget this year I definitely will keep him in mind for next year!"

"Inconsistent service.  At least twice had to contact them as no one had showed up in 24 hrs.  They did respond fairly quickly by email, but one time (Christmas) it took two or three emails before someone came, they kept promising someone would show up shortly. I can understand holidays are hard to staff and people get sick, but I would prefer a system where they are verifying work is being done, they have back up workers and people are working, rather than excuses.  I have had worse luck with some of their competitors so they seem to be the best that I have found so far, but there is certainly room for improvement.  Unsure how the 1" is calculated since several storms were more than 1" in my neighborhood but shoveling was not done.
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