Nu Perspective Design & Landscape

Matt N is the contractor I have ever dealt with. We paid him in full and he never finished the job. Do not use this company you will have to beg for him to complete and it still will not get done. I have heard every excuse under the sun of why he never shows up when he swears he will be there the next day and never shows and never calls. He came recommended by one of our customers. unfortunately for our customer he is also getting the run around from Matt.

Matt N came to us upon a recommendation from a friend, for whom he did a simple patio a few years back. His workers are experienced and do great work. Unfortunately, Matt as the owner of the business is inconsistent and disorganized. We gave him allowances because he claimed to have acute health issues during our project. However, he seems to make an appearance only when money is due. If you pay him that day before his scheduled arrival time, he doesn’t bother to show up.
We started the job request with a desire to create a small patio next to a new pool, replace an existing patio to match the new travertine patio, and use pavers for a small basketball area in a side yard.
He kept pushing for us to have artificial turf, but we declined and never even brought that up as a desire even initially. When we realized his company was named Nu Lawn, we realized why he was pushing this. He offered to redo the irrigation for the lawn, and mentioned backyard lighting as well. We assumed he was used to all sorts of varied jobs for a landscaping job. He brought a designer with him (though she did not present her credentials) to the house at the 3rd visit, and this was a relief because he at that point had not scheduled a meeting to discuss details of the design plan.
We thought, assuredly, a design would be forthcoming. However, he never offered one, even when his team arrived to start the digging and demo. He claimed later that we declined ‘a 3-D design’ that he had offered, but we assume he got us confused with someone else, because no design was ever offered. As I told him, “I would never decline a design plan.” I had to draw one up myself and presented that to his team.
Surprisingly, even though there was a lot of stone removal and demolition of an old patio, he never arranged to have a dumpster rented from the city to be placed in the alleyway. One of his men asked us, “How are you planning to get rid of this?” They knew and we knew that they would have to dig it up 2 times if things kept us this way. Our perplexed response was, “Don’t ask us! Ask Matt?!”
After the first day, we didn’t see Matt again for over a week. He texted on Friday and asked if his guys could come on Saturday; we agreed, but they didn’t come the next day and there was no word from him. At one point, his guys left at noon on a Thursday—again, no notification why. We didn’t see them Friday, or Saturday or Monday. We texted Matt that if he didn’t have guys show up the next day, the side yard and electrical was off the plan. We didn’t have any confidence he would finish the work in a timely way. The guys did show up and we conceded to let him do the entire project.
Because he never showed up to supervise, it was up to us to periodically check in on his team, and answer questions about details of the layout that arose as the project progressed. Thank goodness covid allowed us to work from home, and fortunately, I speak Spanish!
Overall, we were very happy with his workers who were straightforward and hardworking men, doing outside work in the hottest time of the year (July). But after a week of really hard work in 100 degree weather, they didn’t show up. We got a text from Matt that they quit on him! In fact, the impression we got from different occurrences is that Nu Lawn is not managed well.
What took the cake was that at the end of project. Whenever he asked for the next installment of payment, he had it in record time—maybe 15 mins after the text/email request. However, out of the blue he scheduled what we later found out was “the walk through” [he never called it that until afterwards] and we paid the last installment---minus $2000 because the hauling of the demolition was not done, and it was a huge pile in the city utility alley. We let him know that the last amount would be paid when the work was done. His office manager berated us in an email and made vague threats and false claims. We were shocked! We know this is the standard—the full amount gets paid when ALL the work is done. This went back and forth. He finally arranged to have the hauling done—he had to contract with another company, and it took them 2 trips and many hours to get it all. We paid the $2000 immediately, and then guess what happened? He said after sending the “final” invoice that he still needed to be paid an extra $1000 for closure of the wall. This was a standard 2 columns and additional 9 concrete cinder blocks for 2 low walls. We had to request a breakdown of how such a small portion of the job could possibly cost $1000; of course, he never got us the cost until that moment (we had assumed it was tallied into his “final total”), and the details he provided did not seem reasonable to us. We requested confirmation in an email that this in fact was the last additional cost, and paid him just to end the hassle.
The yard looks great and we are happy, but it left a bad taste in our mouth thinking of the unpleasantness, unreliability, inconsistency and unprofessionalism of Matt N. We would never recommend him. You can get similar patio work with a more professionally-run business.
And we have to tell our friend, “What were you thinking??!!!”