Landscaping job done poorly

[soong]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Virginia

A couple of months ago we contracted with a landscaping company to have a few things done at our house. We had him install some plants and bushes in our front and back yards and install approximately 250sq feet of sod in out front yard. The entire contract was for $1000 with the sod listed as $300.

Unfortunately I wasn't home when the sod was installed, typically I like to keep an eye on this kind of stuff. I was home the next day and the owner of the company (I assume this is a small company) told me explicit instructions not to OVER water it and that 15 mins ever other day would be PLENTY of water.

Fast forward a couple of months, and the sod is brown and patchy all over the places, and really look a little worse then our grass did to begin with. Over the course of a couple of weeks, we tried to bring this to the landscaper's attention. He kept telling us that we would come out and take a look but he never would. We told him if he came by, to call us so we could talk about it. We finally got an email from him late on a Friday night saying that our lawn shows signs of OVER watering and that the PH is off. He said we need to lime the lawn and add grass seed to the patchy areas.

That seems wholly unreasonable to us as we paid for sod and not for seed.

We've been calling a couple of other landscapers and the one we've talked to said that it looks like we UNDER watered the sod and that for new sod we should have been watering it 3 times a day for 15 mins at a time. Also they were not sure if he put new topsoil down, they said any PH problems would have been solved by new topsoil. Also they suspected he was just using low quality sod and that he underbid the sod project. They gave us a quote for $750 much higher then the $300 we paid.

The other night we send an email to the original landscaper stating that because of his inferior job we would like a full refund of our $300 and if we received that no other actions would be taken on our part. He responded back in no uncertain terms that he would not refund out money, but he would be willing to seed the brown areas. We responded back that we paid for sod and are not interested in seed. If he would like he could re-sod the lawn. (That was just yesterday and we haven't heard back).

So it sounds to me we're probably gonna be heading for legal action. Does this sounds like a reasonable small claims case? Also it seems to me that we would be entitled for the full $750 (the price of the new landscaper), since that would be the price of redoing something he didn't do for the $300. We didn't pick him just because he was the cheapest, but it was a factor and if he said he can do the sod for $300 but it can't be done for that price that's seems unfair.

 

[BL]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Virginia

A couple of months ago we contracted with a landscaping company to have a few things done at our house. We had him install some plants and bushes in our front and back yards and install approximately 250sq feet of sod in out front yard. The entire contract was for $1000 with the sod listed as $300.

Unfortunately I wasn't home when the sod was installed, typically I like to keep an eye on this kind of stuff. I was home the next day and the owner of the company (I assume this is a small company) told me explicit instructions not to OVER water it and that 15 mins ever other day would be PLENTY of water.

Fast forward a couple of months, and the sod is brown and patchy all over the places, and really look a little worse then our grass did to begin with. Over the course of a couple of weeks, we tried to bring this to the landscaper's attention. He kept telling us that we would come out and take a look but he never would. We told him if he came by, to call us so we could talk about it. We finally got an email from him late on a Friday night saying that our lawn shows signs of OVER watering and that the PH is off. He said we need to lime the lawn and add grass seed to the patchy areas.

That seems wholly unreasonable to us as we paid for sod and not for seed.

We've been calling a couple of other landscapers and the one we've talked to said that it looks like we UNDER watered the sod and that for new sod we should have been watering it 3 times a day for 15 mins at a time. Also they were not sure if he put new topsoil down, they said any PH problems would have been solved by new topsoil. Also they suspected he was just using low quality sod and that he underbid the sod project. They gave us a quote for $750 much higher then the $300 we paid.

The other night we send an email to the original landscaper stating that because of his inferior job we would like a full refund of our $300 and if we received that no other actions would be taken on our part. He responded back in no uncertain terms that he would not refund out money, but he would be willing to seed the brown areas. We responded back that we paid for sod and are not interested in seed. If he would like he could re-sod the lawn. (That was just yesterday and we haven't heard back).

So it sounds to me we're probably gonna be heading for legal action. Does this sounds like a reasonable small claims case? Also it seems to me that we would be entitled for the full $750 (the price of the new landscaper), since that would be the price of redoing something he didn't do for the $300. We didn't pick him just because he was the cheapest, but it was a factor and if he said he can do the sod for $300 but it can't be done for that price that's seems unfair.

Unless this other Co. is willing to come into court with there expert testimony that the other guy bothced the job, I don't see a win for you.

Also ,it's a he said / you say instructions on the care of it.

If you prevailed , you would be entitled to your loss , not new cost.

 

[justalayman]

the cost of sod:


approx $1 sq/ft compared to $3 sq/ft.


have you actually priced out sod? Were those prices installed prices? Sod costs much less than $1 sq/ft (I'm finding around $.25-$.30 sq/ft for the product)


as to requiring topsoil: that is not how you address pH. You treat soil to effect the pH. Heck, you can have the best black dirt topsoil and still have to address a pH issue.

The addition of topsoil can help but if cared for properly, you can do without it just fine. I have seen sod laid over construction fill that was simply raked out first to remove larger stone. It grew absolutely great.

Also it seems to me that we would be entitled for the full $750 (the price of the new landscaper)

Nope. You are only due any damages and that would be limited to what you paid this installer. What you pay another installer is irrelevant. The new installer is not repairing damages caused by the first installer. He is merely doing the same work at a higher price. To get more than the first guy charged, you would have to prove he actually cause you damages the had to be repaired.

Think about it this way: if this new guy did the original work, how much would it cost? $750, right? So, if you got your $300 back, you would be "made whole" or in other words, like you were before he did the work.

So, if you would prevail or not is going to depend on whether his instruction to water 15 min every other day is what caused the issue and if it did, should you have taken some action sooner to mitigate, or reduce, your damages.

If you can prove he told you to water as he did, regardless of the fact the grass will start turning brown (as it often will regardless what you do) and you can get the new guy to testify that given your area, that is just plain wrong advice, you might prevail.

Personally, it it was me, I would ask the first guy for $150 and settle it. Since the ground was already prepped and it appears the roots never had a chance to grow into the underlying soil, it shouldn't be a big job to roll up the old dried sod, do a little prep to the underlying soil (dress it and add lime, if needed) and lay out your sod yourself. It's only 250 sq ft.