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"Sahar at Black Diamond was a real find for us! In a little over 3 weeks, she and her crew transformed our drab, worn out and outdated patio into a gorgeous space reminiscent of a Tuscan villa. The carefully selected pavers and retaining walls have given a new beauty to our outdoor living area. The real charm of the area is seen at night with addition of the carefully designed lighting, giving it a bit of a calm Zen feeling. Sahar brings an infectious, confident energy and exceptional design aesthetic to her work. We loved her ideas and recommendations and the ease of working with her throughout the project. She is very hands-on with the subcontractors and effectively managed all aspects of the work—including necessary design changes that arose as the project progressed. She was effective in managing costs so that the project stayed within budget. Based on our experience, we look forward to working with Sahar again and highly recommend for landscape design and implementation."

"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.""

"Excellent! Professional, responsive- From site review through testing the installation. Jose kept me informed of progress and explained how the system would work. I would highly recommend Jose and his team."

"Great! Great job, stayed on task, design and install, kept in constant communication. Highly recommend using V&M!!"

"Jessie is excellent on sprinkler/irrigation systems and lawn care. Highly recommend his work. He is reliable and his rates are fair. His phone number is listed incorrectly. It is (408) 561-2590."

"Martin and his team have consistently provided reliable gardening and maintenance services for my property. Their work is thorough, and they’ve been friendly and helpful with additional tasks like fence repairs. I'm satisfied with their work overall. I trust their expertise and look forward to continuing our partnership!"

"It went well. They consulted me to assure I was happy with the trimming. The clean-up was acceptable. The city of San Jose picks up all the green waste, but is a little fussy about the debris piles. I had to restack some of the piles to meet waste company's requirements."

"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."