Burl Oak Landscaping

The scope of the job was extensive, including:

- Replacing an existing set of steps with a new patio area
- Building a new set of steps in a different location for a newly-installed set of patio doors
- Re-designing steps that lead to a pool
- Extending the patio by building a new patio area on the other side of our house, which required escavation and a bit of a retaining wall as a result of the grading of our lot
- Re-building an existing retaining wall, including the installation of a new weepage system to allow for proper drainage

I contacted Burl-Oak after spending six weeks on the quoting process with another landscaping company. Despite several site visits, the first company was only comfortable providing a quote that was conditional at best, with the price depending on a number of noted variables.

I contacted Burl-Oak on July 15. I was immediately impressed by Lou'ay Sulaiman's professionalism. He phoned me within a couple of hours after I sent my e-mail and was honest that Burl-Oak's schedule was full and that they were booking jobs well into the fall. Though we were hoping to complete the job during the summer months, we realized that many landscaping companies were booked and appreciated that Burl-Oak would have been able to squeeze us in at all, and elected to proceed with a quote.

Lou'ay visited our home that night, discussed the particulars (such as the re-use of as much of the existing material as possible to keep costs down), and provided a quote broken down by major aspects of the job within 15 minutes. The quote was very competitive -- 20% less expensive than the best "conditional" quote provided by the first landscaping company we were working with -- and we decided to proceed with the project.

The work took place the first week of November. I've posted an annotated picture of the "before" as well as a few detailing the results. The job took six days and we found Burl-Oak Landscaping to be very professional. Given the scope of the work, we feel we received very good value for money.

Note that the price for the scope of work was tax-inclusive (just under $6900 before taxes -- that includes the last-minute change), and that we were able to achieve that price in part because we re-used as much of the existing material as possible. (e.g., from the sliding door steps, pool steps, and retaining wall).

Burl-Oak did a great job incorporating the new sections into our existing interlock patio and we are very pleased with its transformation. We look forward to enjoying it next summer, and feel that the re-design will makes our backyard more functional. We appreciate the big part Burl-Oak Landscaping played in helping us to achieve our vision, and we would not hesitate to recommend them and use them for our future landscaping needs.