Patio, walkways and driveway project
This review will be part one, as I am unsure of when the job will be completed. I was initially satisfied with the service Land-Con provided. Of the 16 quotes I got for my project, only Land-Con and one other company were prepared to do a thorough job. Christel was very professional, had some good ideas and communicated the process to me very well. The work was started two weeks early, which I thought was a bonus. The three day project as I was quoted, began on July 4th. The crew worked very hard the first two days to get the job done. There were some minor imperfections as can be expected, but overall the quality of the stone work was very good, and many neighbours complimented us on how good it looked. However, on the second day of the job, I learned my driveway would not be completed on the third day. Land-Con does not do asphalt work themselves. It is contracted out to a third party vendor. Jeremy told me the asphalt guy would be out on Thursday to see how much they needed, more gravel would be put down and then the asphalt would be put down the following week. I was not too happy about this as it had not be communicated to me at all that there could /would be delays with the completion of the job. I emailed Jeremy on Thursday, July 7 for an update but got no response. On Friday July 8, I had not heard from Land-Con or an asphalt guy, so I phoned Jeremy who said the asphalt guy had called him and they would be out next week to put more gravel down, and then another week or two after that the asphalt could be put down. He then told me this was better for my investment, ensuring the driveway was done properly. Which made me wonder, if they had've been on time and done the driveway on the third day as expected, would that have meant it was not done properly? I asked Jeremy to try and find another asphalt company or at least get back to me with a time line of when the asphalt guys would be out to lay more gravel and then the completion of the project. By Wednesday, July 13th I had not heard back from Jeremy, so I called him and he still had no firm dates on anything, and no other paving company was available to do the job. I was now told that the paving crews have to be doing an "area" and won't come out for just one house. Again I told Jeremy I was not happy, and mostly because none of this was communicated to me until after the contract was signed and the work started. He told me I was the first customer in 13 years who was unhappy with having to wait. My primary unhappiness stems for the lack of communication, not with having to wait.
So, now I am stuck waiting for who knows how long. We are happy with our patio and new walkways. Here are some tips to learn from what happened to me. When they quote you a three day job, ask them for the DATES they will start and be finished by. Because a three day job doesn't specify the actual dates. I'm still waiting for the third day to come. If you are in Milton, and in a newer subdivision with little topsoil, skip having Land-Con put down sod. Ask them for as much soil as they can give you and plant grass seed instead. You can't throw sod down on top of the Milton earth and expect grass to grow. Ask them if they will do all of the work themselves, or if they contract out any portion. If they contract out, you'll have something to think about. Keep in mind that the contracts are worded such that you pay for the majority of the work before it's completed. They determine if a"substantial" amount of the work has been completed. And finally, you are going to have to keep on top of them with regular phone calls. Christel is great, always returning emails and phone calls, so you won't have a problem with her.
When the job is completed I'll submit my final review....
Update
The job was completed by King York Paving, the subcontractor for the driveway. Although I was initially concernced about them based on the reviews on this website, they seemed to have done a very good job. They compacted the gravel very well, seeing as how it wouldn't be settling for a few weeks like on other jobs. The crew arrived on Friday afternoon and was done in about 1.5 hours. The driveway looks very good, and the crew did not leave a mess at all. After my previous comments regarding the lack of communication on behalf of Land-Con, they did redeem themselves by keeping me up to date as to what was happening with the driveway as the job neared. This was again led by Christel, and Ofer. When they thought there might be delays due to the heat and limited work hours, they let me know what was going on and when I could expect the crew to come out.
Overall I am satisfied with the work done by Land-Con. The crew worked very hard on my patio and walkways, and I think this was based on the work ethic illustrated by Jeremy on the job site. The issues of communication were resolved to my satisfaction.
- Approximate cost of services:
- $17,000.00
- Company Response
First of all, Jay, we just want to extend our sincere apology for the lack of communication on our end that caused this whole problem in the first place. We work very hard on maintaining professionalism and communication and when it falls down, it’s very disturbing to all of us.
There were two things we did badly: 1) communicate our very common reality that an asphalt driveway sits with gravel in it for several weeks before it’s paved and 2) coordinate our schedule with our asphalt contractor so that we could give you a firm date. We were ready to go early but certainly did not check with them (knowing it would sit for a few weeks anyway). We definitely should have brought you into the loop on that one.
We do work with subcontractors and will continue to do so because we do not want to pretend to be experts at everything. We would rather be specialists rather than a jack-of-all-trades, master-of-none. The tradespeople we work with are people we trust, whose quality & work we can count on. However, they are not perfect either. They have their own businesses to run and scheduling dilemmas to solve: the obvious downfall to not doing the work yourself is scheduling amongst a group of people who are all back-logged and trying to fit everyone in. I will admit that in your case, we scheduled very poorly indeed.
This has been a learning experience for us and a problem we will give very detailed attention. Again, I apologize for the frustration and having to chase us down. That’s never the taste we want to leave in your mouth. I hope the feelings you have about your patio & walkways will rise to the top – thank you for the feedback and thank you for the opportunity to create something that you’ll enjoy for years to come.