McCarrell Landscape Construction

Complaint ID number [redacted] Dear [redacted] ,I have received your letter containing the information regarding a complaint filed against my companyUpon review of the information that you sent me, my construction notes from the job and all the documentary photos taken during the project, I feel that I completed the job appropriately and according to the product manufacturers recommended installation standardsHowever, it is obvious that there is a problem, and there seems to be a lot of information that is in question and needs to be discussedTherefore I am in the process of making verbal contact with the owners of the project and myselfI have requested an onsite meeting so that I may see what exactly is happening, document my findings and discuss a potential solution to the problemI take my work and the quality of the work very seriously, and will make every effort to provide a mutually agreed upon resolutionIf you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.Thank you for your time, [redacted] McCarrell Landscape Construction PA Contractor # [redacted]

Complaint ID number ***
Dear *** ***,
I have received your letter containing the information regarding a complaint filed against my companyUpon review of the information that you sent me, my construction notes from the job and all the documentary photos taken during the
project, I feel that I completed the job appropriately and according to the product manufacturers recommended installation standardsHowever, it is obvious that there is a problem, and there seems to be a lot of information that is in question and needs to be discussedTherefore I am in the process of making verbal contact with the owners of the project and myselfI have requested an onsite meeting so that I may see what exactly is happening, document my findings and discuss a potential solution to the problemI take my work and the quality of the work very seriously, and will make every effort to provide a mutually agreed upon resolutionIf you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.Thank you for your time,*** ***McCarrell Landscape Construction PA Contractor # ***

Complaint ID number [redacted]Dear [redacted],I have received your letter containing the information regarding a complaint filed against my company. Upon review of the information that you sent me, my construction notes from the job and all the documentary photos taken during the project, I feel that...

I completed the job appropriately and according to the product manufacturers recommended installation standards. However, it is obvious that there is a problem, and there seems to be a lot of information that is in question and needs to be discussed. Therefore I am in the process of making verbal contact with the owners of the project and myself. I have requested an onsite meeting so that I may see what exactly is happening, document my findings and discuss a potential solution to the problem. I take my work and the quality of the work very seriously, and will make every effort to provide a mutually agreed upon resolution. If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.Thank you for your time,[redacted]McCarrell Landscape Construction PA Contractor # [redacted]

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and have determined that this does not resolve my complaint.  For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below. Thank you for investing your time and efforts into this issue.  I appreciate your willingness to mediate.  I have reviewed [redacted]’s response.  Unfortunately, we are not in a position to accept his suggested process.  It is simply too late, and here is why.   My wife and I both called [redacted] numerous times over the past couple of years and left countless messages for him.  When we first discovered the water harvesting system he installed was not functioning, I called him several times and my wife called and pleaded to him, but he didn’t call us back.  He abandoned us and the project.  We eventually had to pay approximately $3,000.00 to restore only about 85% of that system – our only source of water.  The balance of that restoration work will be completed in conjunction with the overall redo.   After numerous failed attempts to contact [redacted], I finally felt I had to resort to contacting Versa-Lok to see if they could help us, and they sent their regional rep from [redacted].  As a favor to the [redacted] rep, I called [redacted] again early this year to tell him he had one last chance to respond before we had to hire someone else to do the work.  He did not respond, so the [redacted] rep furnished alternate contractors for us to contact.   The last time [redacted] actually answered a call from my wife he promised he would call us to schedule a meeting within days, but he never called.  I won’t try to describe the anguish this entire situation has caused us for years now, and my wife and I have not always agreed about how to deal with it all, but the last time he lied to my wife was the last time I will allow him to have the opportunity to lie to us in a meaningful way.  He has missed countless opportunities to discuss the details of our situation, and now he is no longer welcome at our home or on our property.  A professional Forensic Engineer has been hired to review and document the issues as they exist now, and will document the findings as the existing defective work is dismantled.  I will be happy to provide you with a copy of that report when it is completed.  We have a legal obligation to mitigate the damage to our home and property.  The option for McCarrell Landscape Construction do any more work on our property does not exist.  The initial work is defective and we no longer trust [redacted].  We have already agreed to hire another contractor to perform the redo.  The only possible resolution is for [redacted] to reimburse us for the cost of the repair work.  Although we won’t know the entire cost until we fully reveal the problems and complete the redo, the minimum amount we are going to have to pay to make the situation right is $21,000.00.   Two Forensic Engineers, one of which was sent by [redacted]’s insurance company, have confirmed the work was not performed correctly and is defective, yet [redacted] seems adamant he did nothing wrong.  The necessary steps to fix the defective work have been identified by the engineers, so [redacted]’s assessment is not needed.  Another contractor will be performing the work, so we have no need for any of [redacted]s‘s services.  The only thing we want from [redacted] is a commitment to reimburse us.  Thank you again for your help.  I sincerely appreciate your interest in mediating this terribly unfortunate situation.  We are still hopeful for a quick acceptance by [redacted] of the only possible resolution, reimbursement for the cost to repair. 
Regards,
[redacted]

Review: Unfortunately, weve had a devastating experience with [redacted] and McCarrell Landscape Construction. We spent just under 30K on several Versa-Lok retaining walls, a large paver stone patio, sidewalks, steps, stoops at two other entries, a stone driveway and miscellaneous landscaping, including decorative stone and mulch installation. Now, only about 3-1/2 years later, the vast majority of project must be redone. Walls are moving in multiple places creating large gaps in the face of the walls, they are sinking, twisting and leaning in multiple places to a point that is obvious by casual observation, wall caps are separating, the patio has sunk several inches in multiple places creating large ponds of water when it rains, that water is seeping into the patio and destroying the supporting retaining walls, sidewalks and steps are sinking and tilting, and some of the Versa-Lok wall stones are popping straight out of the wall because Versa-Lok retention pins were not installed, at least in certain areas. We contacted [redacted] numerous times about the problems when they started to develop, but we received no response from him. I eventually contacted Versa-Lok and a local representative reviewed our project and confirmed that we have major problems that must be fixed or they will continue to get worse. Our project was then reviewed by two independent Forensic Engineers who both confirmed our problems are the result of defective workmanship. McCarrell did not follow some of the most basic installation guidelines specified by Versa-Lok regarding drainage, backfill & compaction, wall assembly and overall layout & design. We eventually had to file a claim against McCarrells liability insurance because [redacted] refused to take any responsibility and would not contact us, but I was told by his insurance company adjuster that McCarrell Landscape Construction did not have insurance coverage for defective workmanship and, at least in our case, [redacted] does not warrant his work. We had been planning our landscape project for years and had finally reached the financial position to proceed. I met [redacted] several years ago when we were both working on a few of the same job sites. He was invited to bid our project and came in at a reasonable price, and since I had gotten to know him a little, we trusted him. Unfortunately, I was seriously injured just before our project started and was unable to observe the work being done. This proved to be a huge problem. Not only was much of the work sub-standard and performed incorrectly, he destroyed our water harvesting system, which is the sole source of water to our home. We have no public water or well, we have only a cistern. He took it upon himself to reconfigure the downspouts and most of the underground piping to our cistern, and he used thin-wall, non-weight bearing plastic pipe extending out under our driveway, which eventually collapsed as his backfill settled and we drove over it pulling our cars in and out of our garage. It cost us nearly 3K to fix this problem. We had to replace gutters, downspouts, and we had to replace all the underground piping out to the cistern with schedule 40 pipe. During this work we discovered McCarrell not only used the wrong type of pipe under our driveway, he used several different types of black and white pipe attached together in a hodge-podge fashion with different kinds of fasteners, some of which were not designed for underground use. Worst of all, one downspout is no longer connected to the system so weve lost about 15% of our water harvesting ability. This cannot be restored until the defective work is completely disassembled to allow for additional underground piping to be installed. We have obtained several estimates for redoing the defective work, which means tearing down walls, tearing up the patio, sidewalk & steps, and rebuilding from scratch. No one quoting will build on a defective foundation, so its a total redo. Most of the estimates for fixing the defective work exceed the cost of the original project, and that does not even include over 1K of plants, shrubs and trees installed after the project was originally completed that will have to be replaced when the redo is complete. Unfortunately, until all the problems are fixed, the value of our home has fallen. Not only is this a financial disaster, but I actually liked [redacted] and considered him a friend. My wife & I even socialized with him a couple of times, and I have spent a little time at his house and met his wife and family (dogs). We trusted him and had faith that he would do right by us. In reality, he seriously set us back as we dig into our nest egg to fix this disastrous situation. It appears this project will eventually cost us more than twice what we should have paid.Desired Settlement: I hope McCarrell Landscape Construction will refund an amount equal to the cost of the necessary repair/replace work performed by another contractor.

Business

Response:

Complaint ID number [redacted]Dear [redacted],I have received your letter containing the information regarding a complaint filed against my company. Upon review of the information that you sent me, my construction notes from the job and all the documentary photos taken during the project, I feel that I completed the job appropriately and according to the product manufacturers recommended installation standards. However, it is obvious that there is a problem, and there seems to be a lot of information that is in question and needs to be discussed. Therefore I am in the process of making verbal contact with the owners of the project and myself. I have requested an onsite meeting so that I may see what exactly is happening, document my findings and discuss a potential solution to the problem. I take my work and the quality of the work very seriously, and will make every effort to provide a mutually agreed upon resolution. If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.Thank you for your time,[redacted]McCarrell Landscape Construction PA Contractor # [redacted]