Carnswell

Communication: Before hiring him Kevin was following up with us periodically, always available but once the work started, it was hard to reach him. He didn’t receive texts, his v-mail would be full and wouldn’t call back. He would say he would come and then not show up or show up much later than convened without communicating with us.
Timeliness: Kevin came more than three times to the site. We highlighted the conditions: a tree with protruding roots in the property an old house so possibly unknowns underneath the yard. Kevin said “I’ll finish in about 3 days, but let’s say a week just in case” It took him more than 3 weeks and he didn’t even finish. He and his crew would arrive one day not come two, come and work 2 hours and then leave and the when the neighbours hired him to their backyard he finished theirs first, which would have been nice to have been consulted.
Quality: He assured us he knew what he was doing, being an engineer. By the first week it was clear he did not know how to build the gates or deal with the tree and fence. Fortunately, he hired a carpenter and the fence turned out relatively well. However, the landscaping was shoddy at best. He said he would install crushed stone for the driveway but he just mixed topsoil with some stone. After one week we already have weeds growing! He supposedly built a French drain – but he just dug a hole and put in the weeping tile- we had to go buy gravel and do it properly!
Cleanliness: We had had renovations so the backyard wasn’t clean and we told him to remove the soil and bring new one for the sod. But he just moved it over and left it around the tree with all sorts of trash. He also left the extra sod and broken tools. We had to pay for all of this to be removed by another company.
Honesty-As detailed he was not very honest about his capabilities and at the end he asked us to pay him the balance and he would come over the next day to finish the project. We were hesitant but he assured us he would come back. He never did.