225 N Broadway #203, Santa Ana California 92701
We read a funny review that said if you were looking at yelp for recommendations on a backyard contractor/landscaper, you didn't get any good recommendations from your friends and family. In our case, this was partially true. We got around 3-4 quotes from qualified contractors/landscapers, and a recommendation from family. The 3-4 quotes from qualified contractors/landscapers were a joke; one quoted something like 60% above the verbal estimate, the other stopped responding when we had a few snowball questions on the estimate, and one literally told us to put plants on top of a concrete foundation. I think what he meant was to let some weeds grow in between the pavers. Lastly, the worst was the family recommendation, which you'd think would not be the case. Not all was lost, however, since some design ideas from discussing with the first few contractors filtered into our final design for our backyard, which I would recommend if you are the DIY type on coming up with a landscape design. We made an appointment with Will to come by to discuss. He was prompt, courteous and made a real effort to get to know us and hear out our ideas/plans while making some light recommendations of his own. It also helped that their bid was within our budget and very competitive. When we were close to pulling the trigger on selecting CCC, we noticed a discrepancy on licensing that we needed clarified. Will did no hesitate to put us in touch with Chris, the owner, who clarified what we noticed immediately, and appreciated the forthrightness. We were put on the list to begin 3-4 weeks after signing and making the deposit payment. Sean was assigned as our PM and we were glad we got him. Not only was he on top of every aspect of the project, but he steered us into making some better decisions, and ultimately, save us a little money in the process. Texts, emails, etc were all returned very fast, and I didn't ever feel like I was chasing Sean or CCC to get anything done (which seems to be a common thing in many contractor/landscaper reviews I read). Some notable things that I'll highlight during the process and in closing the project out were: - That CCC started and ended mostly on time. - That CCC allowed us to use our own design, help refine it through suggestions, and didn't try and take any shortcuts with what we wanted. - That CCC was flexible in allowing us to choose some of the materials (pavers, lighting) and did not limit our options. - That CCC worked w/ us to add or remove line items, well after the contract was signed, to allow flexibility in the project for things we did not use or things we needed that we didn't factor in. - That CCC provided written contract changes, or agreed through emails, etc when changes did occur to keep the paperwork straight, so there wouldn't be any misunderstandings later. - When there was a mistake made in the pricing of one of the contract line items, that was in our favor, CCC honored the price agreed and did not try and upcharge me for the difference. - That CCC cleaned up, put away, and were generally consummate professionals while onsite. We love our backyard, and we are very glad we went with CCC in the end. One other thing also: these guys do massive, large dollar value jobs. But they also did ours, and they didn't look down on us or treat us any differently than the million dollar jobs they may have been working at the same time. Now, that's respect and commitment. I would recommend Chris, Sean and the CCC team for any job, big or small, and they would be the first ones we'd call if we have future home improvement projects. Thanks again guys. Side note: Don't be a Danielle Downer below, and be realistic on what can and can't be done, especially given timelines around holidays. Side Side Note: The plants were bought at H&H Nursery, the planting of the plants were done by Armstrong Garden Center of LB (off 10th street), and the mulch/stones were supplied by SiteOne Supply (in Los Alamitos). All other items were done by CCC (concrete, paver