Subsiding Garden | Moving Patio | Uneven Turf | Leaning Fence Posts
Subsiding Garden | Moving Patio | Uneven Turf | Leaning Fence Posts
We employed P&P in Oct 2018 to landscape our back Garden. In short the (my) plan involved removing 50m2 of earth, level into 3 tiers: Ground level to be 19m2 of Patio with a 24m2 Conservatory Pad and build a brick 9x6ft wall at each end (for the Conservatory we'd ordered) and move the old garden drain and install new grill drainage in front of the pad. The 1st Tier to be 20m2 of Turf and the 2nd Tier to be 24m2 of Patio. All earthwork was to be shored up with 8x4" Oak 3m Sleepers with integrated stone steps to each tier. Including remove and replace all 21 concrete fence posts (Left / Right & Rear) with new concrete gravel boards and fit 12 new fence panels.
We was quoted £12,000* for this job which included materials and labour.
The guys we're great, polite, friendly and extremely fast and hard working and at first we believed the target timeframe was achievable. However it started going wrong when the best hot week was taken off as holiday in the middle of the job!
We made many compromises throughout as the job was overrunning, incorrect materials were purchased, timeframes we're dragging and the sting in the tail was that P&P misjudged the waste removal and wrongly calculated the sleepers which culminated in requesting another £1,500 which we did as a gesture of good will believing we was getting the garden of our dreams.
We was at work during the landscaping and we later found out from neighbours that the lorry removing earth was leaving half empty!
However, to keep this short, within 3mths we started seeing problems which we tried communicating with P&P who refused to acknowledge or offer help even when faced with warnings of legal action, they didn't care as they had the money!
1) Through P&P advice we stayed off the turf & waited until the New Year which is when we found that none was laid properly with deep unlevel pits that turn to bogs after rain.
2) 4 of the upright support sleepers started leaning severely.
3) The earth began sinking/subsiding making the 2nd tier patio slope down by 5".
4) Several fence posts are leaning and causing the fences to bow.
5) Patio slabs are moving, wobbling & are uneven.
6) P&P did not build the brick walls whereby excuses we're given which we later found out by the conservatory company who eventually built the walls that there was an issue with the pad.
7) We have cement support breaking away.
8) We have huge holes appearing under fence posts.
9) We have fences not fitted properly with no side batons.
We attempted contacting P&P in early 2019 when issues started showing but the chat was "What do you want us to do?" - Pretty obvious we thought - fix the issues! Even when told we was seeking legal advice P&P still didn't budge. Even to this day we have had no contact, aftercare or conversation!
We had an independent landscaper visit to assess the work and his words was "What Landscape gardener can't lay turf and patios or even erect a fence post?" he also informed us that the Oak Sleepers appeared not to be 'pressure treated' to ensure long life. We won't say what else he said, but you can guess!
We are an honest, humble and hardworking family and saved a long time for this garden and did everything we could to be fair with P&P and ensured they we're not out of pocket to get our garden finished. The reason for this levelling of the garden was due to my wife suffering from arthritis and couldn't access the garde previously - after over £13,000 - she still cannot enjoy the Grass or use the 2nd Tier Patio!
We're unsurprisingly disappointed, angry, feel exploited and ripped off and this and all review on other sites are an honest representation of our genuine experience.
We welcome P&P to contact us as our contact details have NOT changed to discuss to remedy of this situation.