One stop garden soloutions

Landscape and related building work

Following a shout out on Facebook and having been let down by several other landscapers/builders during the quoting stage, I was initially really pleased to hear from Chris Hassett of CH gardening services and even better be visited, quoted and given a potential start date. Our contact largely consisted of messages between Chris’ partner and I over Facebook messenger. This seemed to be an easier way to make contact during the day whilst I was in work. The initial clearing of the garden was quick – removing rotten sleepers and large shrubs. Unfortunately that’s as far as my positive experience went.
My first concern and looking back now a clear red flag was after attending my property their tools (pick axes/ spades/ circular saws) were just left out (in the Welsh weather!) I was concerned and initially started to put their tools away, however, it became clear that was unimportant as more continued to be left. My post man even refused to deliver because there was no clear access. I was assured that mine was the only job, however, turning up at 11am and leaving at 2.30 made me question this.
The job was to include short 2 – 3 foot (9 bricks high) retaining walls over two levels of the garden, weed membrane and pebbles. During the initial consultation and quote process, Chris worked out how many bricks would be needed, what materials would be required and factored these into the quote.
I am not a builder and have no prior knowledge of materials needed, I showed Chris a link to bricks that I liked to potentially be used as a retaining wall. Initially Chris was happy with my choice, however, Chris was advised when he went to collect the bricks that they were unsuitable for the job and recommended a similar looking style. I went along with this for the above reason but questioned whether it would affect the price. I was assured that they were the same price and therefore, the quote would be unaffected. I was asked to pay roughly half of the quote up front for materials, I was happy to do so in good faith, especially after the year we have all had with Covid, I can appreciate times may be hard.
Following that I was asked again for £400 for materials and assured that all of the materials had now been paid for and no further money would be asked for.
As building work started personal rubbish started accumulating, bottles, cans, sandwich packets and cigarette lighters and packets etc. I addressed this with Chris and his brother, some were tidied up and placed in my recycling.
A wall was built and I was pleased to see some progress, however, this was short lived as they were unhappy with the standard of work and it was taken down. The wall was rebuilt and a further wall and footings for two other walls were put into place. An employee left Chris and his brother, I was asked for a further £400 to cover wages. I obliged, reasoning again that some things cannot be helped. I was then told again that they would require no more money until the job was complete.
Along the way there were various stories of mixers breaking and time away needed away for personal reasons, which all added to less time on the job. It further transpired that the mixer belonged to the employee that left and we had to wait for a mixer to be delivered before further work could commence.
After this I was assured that they would work on the job until it was finished during daylight hours, this happened for 2 days before shorter days started to become a recurrent issue.
I queried what would go on top of the wall to finish it off as the current bricks had holes in them, Chris told me that there would be different bricks to the ones already on site.
Unfortunately on the 7th October I received a message from Chris partner to inform me that he would need an additional £480 to collect bricks for the next day to finish the job as he only had 50-70 bricks left.
By this point my alarm bells were ringing too loudly to ignore and I queried whether this money was included in the original quote only to be told that it wasn’t and there wasn’t enough money left for the labour. With this in mind I queried whether the membrane and pebbles were already purchased as part of the initial quote and was informed that “2 lads that had left the job said you wanted top soil so the pebbles and membrane hadn’t been purchased.”
I refused to give them the additional money and queried how he got the calculation for the bricks so wrong, to be told “Its just a different pack of bricks compared to the original quote and especially with covid, materials/quantities have dramatically changed.” We reached a loggerhead at this point and Chris said that he couldn’t continue. The next day Chris came to collect his tools.
I have since had another builder to look at the job who was dismayed at the standard of work. He has pointed out that actually, the brick work completed does not tie together on the returning wall with one seam running straight down either side which weakens the structure. Not great for a retaining wall! The walls and footings will also have to be removed because of the standard of work. The footings in place for the second wall are not correct, they are sand and cement and not concrete.
I feel like I have been let down after trusting someone and giving them the benefit of the doubt on more than one occasion. I wish they had just been honest and said that the job was too complex for their experience and ability. More...

Good clean job and happy with the work.

Fast, professional, tidy

Very impressed with the service, would reccomend and will be using again