Buyer Beware! -Do Your Research Before Hiring a Landscape Contractor Or Designer

So you have been saving pictures you find online or in a catalog for months, or maybe even years, and now you are browsing the internet trying to decide who to hire. How on earth are you supposed to make a decision? You may have talked to several contractors, why was the one contractor's estimate so high priced? And the other is so low you wonder how they could possibly do it for that budget? What about finding a contractor in the middle somewhere?

Stick around and read on. We'll offer some pointers on things you can do to double check and make sure you are hiring a respectable trustworthy contractor. 

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Actionable Steps You Should Take With Any Company You Consider Hiring:

1. When reaching out to your contractor, you should always ask to see past work they have done, and go see those projects in person. (Pictures can be deceiving)  
2. Ask for referrals, and then talk with those referrals and ask them how they felt about the project done for them by the contractor. Was the company professional and knowledgable? Was their work built to last? Did they complete the project in a timely manner? Did they have a list of upcharges at the end of the project that the homeowner had no idea about and was not communicated at the beginning of the project? Was the craftsmanship of their work satisfactory to you? All of these questions can be very revealing of the way a company does business.
3. Ask what kind of guarantee or warranty they provide on their work.
4. Are they certified in their industry? Such as an ICPI or NCMA certification for hardscapes. Or an Aquascape certification for water features.
5. Educate yourself on what things cost. You want to know if the pricing is too low or too high. Is there such a thing as too low? Remember, the cost of cheap; is usually expensive in the long run. Especially so with outdoor living space projects. Once you have a project installed, and it hasn't been done correctly, you suddenly have a very expensive problem to fix. Often homeowners that got burned this way; spend twice as much as they would have spent on the "high" price to have a quality job done the first time; by the time they rectify the problem with the incorrectly installed project.  

A failed retaining wall being repaired.

To Find Out What Your Dream Landscape Project Costs:
We have developed a Project Planner, where you can browse all the different elements that can be implemented into your Outdoor Living Space. You can quickly find out what the industry standard price ranges are for a certain size patio, or a water feature, etc. Check out the Project Planner here!

Read below or watch the video about potential red flags if an estimate you are getting does NOT fall in the price ranges shown in the Project Planner.

Details about the Project Planner:

• National Industry Standard Price Ranges

The price ranges shown on each element are in line with national industry standards. With the prerequisite of installation completed by an experienced company that builds for a lifetime durability.

• Engineered for Lifetime Durability

Companies that have been in business for decades and have stood the test of time, have seen just about every way something can fail. The things that your contractor can do to shave costs or submit a proposal to you for less than what’s shown in the Project Planner are endless. A respectable company will reject that way of doing business, and will refuse to build a project that does not have the budget to be engineered for lifetime durability. They will not compromise installation to save on budget.

• Don’t Buy Yourself an Expensive Problem

Every year experienced companies across the industry rebuild projects for unfortunate homeowners that had a poor quality installation done. This is speaking just for those that have the means to rebuild it the second time. So many people invest all of their budget into the first project, and when that fails they are left with no options.

• Beware of Red Flags - Know What You Are Buying

If the contractor you are working with is submitting pricing to you for less, or more, than what is shown here in this Project Planner, it raises red flags that demand further examination. What or why is causing this. For your own protection, you should inquire as to what is causing the out of industry standard pricing. Is it technical or artistic details that are raising the price? Or what key construction elements are missing that are lowering the price? For your own peace of mind; ensure that the contractor you are working with has the proper equipment, certifications, and ability to install a lifetime quality project.

The last thing you want to do is invest your hard earned money into a project that will fail.

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