G&E Landscaping

After some research, we hired G and E Landscaping to do work on the front of our house...stone steps and sidewalk, stone curb around perimeter and planting in the lawn area. George struck us as friendly and straight forward and someone with plenty of experience. His approach seemed efficient and we appreciated he would stay on one job at a time until finished. He listened quite well to what we wanted, had good suggestions and was eager to get going. Apart from some minor communication issues, things went fairly well. His price seemed reasonable.

The work started on schedule and took about a week to complete as estimated. George had a good crew of experienced guys who seemed to know what they were doing. The only problems were that they went ahead with finishing a stone curb in a certain way that we did not get a chance to approve. We had them redo that which they did without a problem. We also noticed that the stone slab stairs should have been about 1 - 2" higher but we let that go, realizing it would be unreasonable to redo them but it is a noticeable error.

A related problem to the work had to do with a wrought iron railing we put around the property. George recommended we work with Nelson at BTL Railings. Apart from some slowness in Nelson responding to our communication needs and a slow job start, things did get done and the entire job was about 90% satisfying in the end.

The problem with BTL Railings became apparent after we realized there was some damage done to the stone step from the railing install. After repeated attempts to call Nelson, he made no attempt to call us to assess the issue even though he promised us several times that he'd deal with any problems that might arise. I have reviewed BTL Railings on this website and would caution people not to work with them given our experience. I include this caution in my review of G and E Landscaping because if I were George, I would discontinue using BTL Railings and never recommend them to customers.
In our experience, they are obviously an untrustworthy company.

George on the other hand showed more responsiveness to dealing with problems and thus seemed to be trustworthy and professional with regard to customer service. Overall, I'd say the chances are quite good that you would have a positive experience with G and E Landscaping should you choose to use them.

George was recommended by the deck construction company. After visiting properties where George had done similar work in the past and talking with the owners who were more than happy to share their positive experience with him, we were convinced that he was the right contractor for us. We were not disappointed. George and his team were on the site working non-stop for 2 weeks starting at 7:30 a.m. until 6 p.m. and sometimes later. Always in a good mood even though it meant that they had to break 6 inch of concrete. They called it just a normal day at the gym. Daniela coordinated all the work with the pool, fence, gas and electrical companies and she was always available to respond to my questions. I wish that all contractors would be like George and his team.

G & E was great, from the initial quote to the finished product. George and Daniela were very responsive to our constant questions regarding the project. Crew was always punctual and very hard working during the entire 12-hour work day. They took care of arranging EVERYTHING: delivery of bins for garbage, delivery of all materials, pick up of bins, cleaned up the work site everyday. Would highly recommend G & E to everyone. Was a joy to have the work done by such professionals. They did the job in three days - in and out - loved it!

Very unhappy with customer service post installation. Within less than a year the sidewalk is seperating due to the lack of a suporting edge. Biz owner simply will not honour his workmanship. Very disappointed. He offered to touch up ploymetric sand after my 3rd email, but that does not address the incorrect installation which will cause future problem every year. Plants/Cedars had similar "pass the buck" attitude. When I challanged owner on these matters he simply got angry and hung up on the phone after he continuously side stepped my email concerns. Be very carefull about spending money with this company. He will site how long he has been in business but i doubt my experience is unique. I sympathize with the customer from Vaughan. Owner will probably reply about how he replaced $1,000 of cedars which died prematurely. He actually had me dig them out and replace them myself after i paid him to plant the orginals. My neighbour just asked us while we were walking the dog who did our front walk, and we said we woudl not recommend this company.People are shocked when i tell them that he hung up on a concerned customer. I even emailed an apology in case i came across too angry as I feallt maybe i pushed him to hard, he never responded.

Mediocre work and quality, especially given what I paid
I am writing this review in the hopes that anyone considering hiring G&E Landscaping is aware of the quality of workmanship and incredible lack of aftercare customer support.
I had multiple issues aligned with their lack of attention to detail, below are just a few of the issues:
1) Pergola - DO NOT have G&E build your pergola. I spent $5K only to have warped boards installed AND have the structure start falling apart less than a month after the work was completed. When I called the owner/operator - to inform him the boards were caving in, he told me he wanted $200 to fix the pergola (I had to cover his employee’s labor costs).
2) Landscaping: G&E will charge you a significant amount for "softscape" and claim that they are providing you with the highest quality plants, shrubs, and trees. Don't believe the sales pitch, most of my plants died shortly after they were planted (despite continuous watering). I spent almost $7K on a few shrubs and small trees. When I informed the owner/operator - NOTHING was done.
3) Finishing: I was told before the project began, that my property would be "like we were never here". Unfortunately this is nowhere near true. My front lawn was left a mess (I paid close to $40K on this job - and they couldn't spend an extra $50 for an extra couple of grass rolls). They also put the disposal bin on my driveway. The result of doing so is a driveway that was left with dents and divots. Again, when we called to complain, we got stonewalled.
4) Luckily we had some issues addressed before we paid for the project in full. While the issues were resolved - we had to hear constantly how fixing issues caused by G&E's STAFF was impacting his costs and profit on the job.
5) Bylaws & Compliance: I urge ANYONE CONSIDERING G&E TO READ THIS CAREFULLY. Do your own due diligence on bylaws. The owner/operator will essentially tell you whatever you want to hear to appease your concerns. I had asked them to confirm all bylaws before they started the job. I am currently in the process of spending an additional $1K on a "Variance Adjustment" with the City of Vaughan. When I called to confront the owner/operator I was told I was on my own and to call his lawyer. I’ve leveraged other vendor for various projects – this was definitely a first.
Overall I am very disappointed with the overall quality of work and lack of customer follow up. You will hear a great sales pitch on how “G&E is about the awards, not the money”. Don’t believe a word of it. It’s about the money – and after you’ve paid it – you can forget about any follow up or customer service.

From the initial consult through to the finished product, G&E Landscaping was on-time, on-budget and did an incredible job with our backyard interlock patio. George and his crew pay particular attention to detail and to cleaning up as well. Thanks for amazing work.

The guys always do a great job. Last year I had a lot of brickwork done around my backyard gardens & it looked great so I decided to do the front of my house this year. They show up on time, with a large crew & get the job done beautifully & efficiently & always clean up. The brickwork they did in my front yard recently, looks fantastic and I’ve had lots of compliments from neighbours.

our experience with G&E Landscaping was such a positive one. George was very patient with us until deciding which route to take.The team showed up on the date they said they would and worked hard,non stop until completion. Meticulous in grading away from house, cleaned job site, and always smiling. Definately would recommend them!! We now get so many complements on our front stone work. Thank you team!
S.O'Shea