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"In September 2024, I contracted with Scott C. McIntyre, the owner of Landscape Solutions to do landscaping work at my residence in Los Altos, Ca. The work consisted of replacing existing retaining walls and steps in my back yard and installing a new patio on an already flattened area on the hill in my back yard. Mr. McIntyre declared the work completed on November 4, 2024 although there remained issues with incomplete and substandard work and failure to adhere to rules imposed by the California Contractors State License Board (CSLB). I have filed a complaint (currently not resolved) with the CSLB. I paid Landscape Solutions $56,385.41 of a Total Contract Estimate cost of $58,790.00 (with a not to exceed clause of $60,000) with final payment to be made when the project was completed to my satisfaction. The project was never completed to my satisfaction with some (not all) of the outstanding issues described in this review. ISSUES WITH WORK QUALITY - NON-CODE COMPLIANT, SUBSTANDARD, NOT COMPLETE 1. The Guard Rail over the lower retaining wall is not building code compliant. The most serious issue with the work that Landscape Solutions did was that the guard rail built over a retaining wall does not meet building code and is not child safe. A picture of the guard rail is shown in the review I posted on Yelp (posted with a one star rating on January 20, 2025), but I am not able to show a picture on an Angi's List review. The guard rail is made up of vertical posts spaced approximately 45 inches apart and two horizontal rails between the vertical posts. The upper horizontal rail above the surface of the newly built patio forms the top of the guard rail. A second horizontal rail below it is halfway between surface of the patio and the top of the guard rail, leaving two large gaps between the horizontal rails, each gap approximately 19 inches wide. Code dictates the maximum gap in the guard rail is 4 inches. A child could easily fall through the large gap in the guard rail to the level below. A baby crawling on the patio could plunge head first off the patio to the lower level and be seriously injured. I emailed a picture of the completed retaining wall and guard rail to my city's Building Code Enforcement Division and inquired if it was building code compliant. A Code Enforcement Division representative replied with an email message (Client can provide the actual email message). Following text is from the email message: "The rail needs to be 42" high and there needs to be a maximum of 4" between the horizontal rails. The fence as shown does not meet the standards and intermediate rails need to be added." -----End of quote from email message sent by city's Code Enforcement Division------- NOTE: ALLOWING A CONTRACTOR WHO DOES NOT KNOW THE BUILDING CODES TO BE LICENSED PUTS THE PUBLIC IN DANGER. 2. Incomplete and substandard work i. There are areas with no pavers, just dirt, adjacent to the lower retaining wall. Contractor fixed some but not all areas along the newly built lower retaining wall. A picture showing an example of this issue is shown on my Yelp review but I am not able to show a picture on an Angi's List review. The picture shows where paving stones should have been installed next to the retaining wall. ii. Gate not installed in lower retaining wall. The retaining wall that was being replaced had a gate. I called this to Mr. McIntyre's attention in a reply message to his message that the project was complete. He replied in an email message that he would replace the gate. iii. In doing the work, Landscape Solutions workers moved items (e.g., wooden glider bench, other patio benches, chairs, patio table, an umbrella stand) from the flattened hill area to other parts of the back yard. I requested that the items be returned to their original locations. Mr. McIntyre, in an email message, agreed to do so. This was not done. Returning items moved to their original location should be a standard part of Landscape Solutions clean-up work upon completion of a project. ISSUES WITH NON-ADHERENCE TO CONTRACTORS STATE LICENSE BOARD REGULATIONS In items 3 and 4 below, quoted text is from Contractors State Licensing Board publication "Contracting for Success", which was downloaded from the CSLB website. 3. Contractor did not give buyer a copy of the signed contract as CSLB requires. "Before any work is started, the contractor must give the buyer a copy of the contract signed and dated by both the contractor and the buyer." 4. On the day work began, Contractor asked for payment of $15,000 along with the signed contract. "Except for a down payment, a contractor can't demand or accept payment for work or materials until the work is actually done or the materials are delivered. The down payment may not exceed $1,000 or 10 percent of the contract amount, whichever is less." Contractor gave following reason why he asked for $15000 at start of project. Quote is directly from an email message he sent client. Client can provide the actual email message. Text of email message from Mr. McIntyre, in quotes: "My son is out of state at college and it is very expensive. My cash flow and bank account funds do not allow me to pay for your materials before delivery and pay my payroll in advance of getting paid by you if this is what the CSLB requires." --------End of quote from email message sent by Mr. McIntyre-------------- 5. Contractor made additional changes not in contract without a change order being added to the contract. Contractor's office manager then billed client for the unauthorized work. The Contractors State Licensing Board publication "Terms of Agreement A Consumer Guide to Home Improvement Contracts" (downloaded from the CSLB website) states the following: "Extra Work and Change Orders become part of the contract once the order is prepared in writing and signed by the parties prior to the commencement of any work covered by the new change order.""

"Natural Vibrations Inc. just completed our second project with them, conversion of a 1960s rumpus room into a junior ADU, including bedroom, bathroom, kitchen, and dining space. It required thoughtful design, placement of lengthy sewer and water lines, extensive new electrical work, addition of a window, HVAC heat pump system, removal and replacement of new sheetrock, insulation, porcelain flooring, quartz countertops, appliances, fine carpentry including custom shelving, restoration of antique stained glass windows, tiling, and a versatile lighting system with spectrum-adjustable LED illumination. This was accomplished with minimal disruption and maximum attention to our input at every stage. We enjoyed their cheerful company and parted, once again, on the best of terms."

"We are glad we went with Geico Builders for a full master bath remodel. They were very easy to work with everything went as planned and we were very happy with the results. Diane was our main choice, she knew exactly how to invasion perfect layout of our bathroom remodel. They set up a group chat with everyone to coordinate and they communicated very well. Inspections were schedule very quickly, and they forwarded us the results & paperwork as soon as they received it. Alex, the designer, was helpful in helping to putt together our design and vendor recommendations. She quickly responded to feedback & updates to our design, and she even worked through her vacation on our project. When on of the vendors got our order correctly, the Geico Builders team worked with them to quickly rectify the issue. During construction, the foreman, Tony was very well organized and good to work with. His team was friendly, careful, and they kept the place as clean as they could. They follow up with us throughout construction to ensure that every detail of the construction was built to what we wanted."

"The work done looks fabulous! Customer service was excellent; they delivered what they promised, they finished on time and they were very nice."

"Miguel was fantastic. Super responsive and professional. He explained the pricing and the fixes. He was on time. Really nice guy and very hard, fast working."

"So far so good. Snaking of kitchen sink with very old pipes. Hopefully snake did not poke pipes. Only time will tell. Keeping fingers crossed. They did a good job explaining and triple checked for leaks before they left. Of course they tried to upsell and gave us a metal trap they did not quote us upfront for. We would have chosen it over plastic, but price difference would need to be cleared upfront. That's the only negative. Otherwise, thus far we are very happy with the result. Thank you for coming on such short notice and on time! Super appreciated. 4.5-5 stars."

"When you need your project completed on time and within budget, I recommend Arciga Gardening. The Arciga Team have completed multiple projects for me and my neighbors, and everyone is happy with the professional high quality service."

"Very well. Excellent job."

"Fantastic. I never thought my backyard would ever look so good."