Burl Oak Landscaping

We're thrilled to have found Louay and his BurlOak team. We've been planning to upgrade our "curb appeal" prior to putting our house on the market. Louay's upfront and honest approach was greatly appreciated. Although other's quoted a little less, with Louay, we trusted we'd get a quality product with an awesome warranty-and we were right. He was extremely accessible. Getting work done is stressful enough, but we could not have asked for a better experience. In a world of corporations, it was nice to support a local Canadian business. I've already recommended them to friends and family.

Just over two years ago we had our front porch, steps and a walkway down the side of our house done. This summer we noticed that the cement was cracking between the stones and two stones that are part of the top step were wiggly. They returned to glue the steps, fix the cracks at no charge and made everything right even though by the time I called we were outside of the warranty period.

We needed to lower a concrete walkway at the side of our home because water was getting into the basement. We decided to install an interlock walkway and used Bur-loak. Mark was fantastic and provided above-average customer service responding promptly to my initial call for a quote and was there to answer any questions we had during the process as well as provide explanations for things that came up.

We did have some communication issues during the project and we felt as though the crew on site was trying to rush the project to get it all done in a day. Also, ensuring a clean worksite during and after the job needs to be more of a focus for the crew on site.

The finished product looks good and we are happy with the look. Ross and Tony came out to complete the project and were very professional and did an excellent finishing job.

Standing the test of time.Still looks great. Many people write immediately after a job is done. I am taking the approach of writiing after approximetly 2yrs later, when things have time to settle and experience two winters. We had stone work done to our front entrance way and a 35ft back walkway to our pool done in Nov 2012 and it has not moved or shifted and It is stable and looks great. Lou'ay was professional and curtious. He team as well. He was on time and informative about the progress of the job. They cleaned up perfectly. I would recommend them and will be having them back for other projects. Good Job

Lou'ay and his team were awesome to deal with! They were very professional and informative. Any time we had questions or concerns they were dealt with immediately. Lou'ay takes pride in his work and has excellent customer service. We have recommended them to many of our friends. He did a great job!

I can't say enough good things about Louay and his team. They were professional from start to finish. The work they did was outstanding and we absolutely love the end results. Many people have stopped by to ask who did the work. Louay understood exactly what we wanted, he delivered everything that he promised and more. This company is honest and hardworking ... qualities you don't see enough of these days. They also worked clean, respectfully. I would not hesitate to recommend this company and use them again. Thanks for a great job team Burl-Oak.

We had Burl-oak replace our walkway and driveway with interlocking bricks. The company, at the time, was operated by Ziad and his brother, Lou'ay). Ziad was who we signed the contract and he is the one that oversaw the work. He did a good job of design and getting the guys to do the job on time. He told us that we don't need to dig up our driveway because it's been compacted already, so he is going to just take the asphalt away and lay the layer of small rocks and then the bricks on top. We were given 2 year warranty, 3 if we write a review on HomeStars. I thought to wait for a year so I can write a real review based on some experience. Good thing! After a few days, we had issue with polymer sand not drying enough and and it was basically washed away or crumbled off. At the base of the driveway (about a 2 meter width area), all of it washed away in a few months. I called Ziad and was told to wait until spring to address the issue. In spring, we also noticed some of the stones had been lifted and some collapsed. I called Ziad to ask when will he come over and fix the issues. Ziad said that he is no longer in the driveway business and I should contact his brother. His brother, Lou'ay, said that it s too cold and I have too wait for a few weeks. I called in a few weeks and he said they are busy with new contracts and won't have time for another few weeks and I should call back. After a few of these conversations, I said to him that it is not fair that since they have my money, they are putting me on the back-burner and prioritizing the new customers. He said that this how the business goes! Anyways, this went on until June where he had two folks show up to fix my driveway and walkway. This is now June 12. I forgot to mention that I had to give him my address more than once. I guess he didn't want to write it down. Anyways, the two guys should up. The adjusted one of the issues but said he couldn't fix the other brick issue because they might break it if they try to move it. I said okay, do your best.
They also said that I should have had the driveway dug out before laying the bricks and that is why all the polysand is being washed away. They always recommend the excavate the driveway so these kind of problems does not happen!

At this point, I asked to speak to Lou'ay. Lou'ay said the same thing. I told him that Ziad told me not digging up is the right way and he never gave me a choice of which is better. Lou'ay said, that he was not the one the doing the job and was not his decision and the fact that we didn't have the driveway done properly is our fault and he cannot warranty the work because of it. He said that he is DOING ME A FAVOUR that he is replacing the polysand and fixing the moved bricks.
Okay, so at this point, I realize that
1) he is not going to honour the warranty
2) he wants to get of any responsibility his company has
3) he has realizes that his company made a mistake on my driveway ($22000 mistake!)

Unless I go to court for this, I know there is no way I can fix my driveway without having someone take the bricks off, dig the ground, put gravel, and relay the bricks. That is not the reason I am writing this review. The reason I am writing this is that you the next customer know the kind of after-work service Burl-Oak Landscaping provides.

My husband and I spent a great deal of time reading the Homestars reviews of various driveway contractors. We narrowed it down to 4 and when we contacted them, two were willing to visit our home in February when we had plenty of snow. Lou’ay had no problems taking measurements in the snow, preparing a diagram, recommending a manufacturer for a stone driveway, suggesting a colour scheme and providing an estimate. No one else provided the information so quickly. We did a little more research and Lou’ay met with my husband where he answered many more questions that demonstrated his deep knowledge of his craft. Also, when we hadn’t made a final decision on a contractor, he followed up since he had our timeline for the work. The price was also competitive compared to the two other quotes.

They completed the job in one and a half days. Lou’ay phoned on Tuesday that his staff would arrive late on Wednesday with their equipment and a staff of ten men would start the job early Thursday morning. He also had some bad news that the stone we had selected was not available due to its popularity. Nevertheless, he recommended a substitute with a company that we had reviewed. The look and colour were virtually the same so we had no concerns about changing the stone and the overall price remained the same.

Although the city provided consent for the work, we were concerned about Rogers’ cable that was buried at the end of the driveway. Rogers had cut the asphalt and laid the cable from the box, two houses away and it continued at least another three houses beyond ours. We pointed this out to Lou’ay and he indicated that they would cut further out and then carefully removed the asphalt by the cable. Happily, there were no incidents with the cable. We also asked Burl-Oak to remove 3 old and large evergreens from our flower bed along with the basketball pole and cement. The latter was more challenging to accomplish but they did it and we were very pleased. We also had stone blocks edging the existing driveway and around the garden bed leading to the front door. The staff removed the stones to our backyard and piled everything neatly.

At first, Lou’ay thought the job would be completed in one day but the supplier did not send the complete shipment of stones so the job continued into Friday. My husband could not work from home the first day so when we inspected the work that evening, there were some adjustments to be made. Three of the stones were defective and had to be replaced and the garden wall was not spaced according to the agreed layout in places and needed to be adjusted. On Friday, they made these adjustments and the final result was stunningly beautiful. The work was completed by 1:00 pm including cleanup.

We also had slate cemented onto our existing front porch and were told not to walk on it for 24 hours until the mortar had set and cured. Being in a court, we blocked the driveway so no one would drive on it. To anyone who saw the work, it was obvious, that work had just been completed and should not be walked on. My husband was in the garage preparing a keep off barrier for the porch when he found that the Mississauga News carrier had already stepped onto the porch and cracked the mortar around one piece of slate. We were very upset and contacted Lou’ay immediately as well as the Mississauga News. In less than two weeks, the damage was repaired by Burl-Oak. This time they covered the piece not to be walked upon but still the Mississauga News carrier ignored the barrier across the porch and stepped over it to reach the mailbox. At least he did not step on the repaired section!!

We have few negative comments about this company. Lou’ay always had answers to our questions and was attentive, right from the beginning. His staff were polite, skilled and did a good cleanup job. He could have brought more sod and topsoil for the grass that had to be replaced and certainly we would recommend that he purchase and affix barrier tape around any areas that need to settle and not be walked on.

expecting the job to be in mid-August however received a call a month early and was told I can be slot-in their schedule. Three guys came in the afternoon and job was done by next noon. They provided professional ideas and suggestions. Job was done nice and quick! Great work!