"It's been a long time coming getting my fence erected and front yard redone. We live in a craftsman home and it's been really difficult deciding what look and design would be the perfect complement since it's so one of a kind. We met with several contractors and got a whole range of pricing and style opinions, but in the end chose GPB because Meir, the Project Manager was the most sincere and knowledgeable to us. He was well informed and clearly had many projects under his belt without being pushy or a know-it-all. From the beginning he was relateable and conscientious about not having us having to overspend, and had no problem working with us to get a quick fair and reasonable quote and estimate. He came over 3 times to make sure everything was right and didn't give any attitude when we had a concern with the contract and didn't sign at the second meeting, he made the change and worked with our schedules every time.
As with any contractors, be very clear in writing with everything discussed, because things might slip later on or be forgotten or unclear. Sometimes it seemed like he had a lot on his mind and would forget certain things we discussed, but I will say he was always quick to take care of any issues immediately. If there was ever a concern he would show up at my property to discuss it with me, so communication was great in that regard. He was there to oversee the crew almost every day and would check in with us to give us a brief summary of what they did and what the next steps would be.
They did change out crews several times, all the workers were kind and respectful despite it being in the 100's outside, some days no one was around because of materials being prepared or maybe because of the weather, but they usually would start around 8am or later. The only complaint there would be that two of the crews would fill our trash bins, which we wouldn't have even really minded but they would do it in our recycle or yard waste bins so we would have to manually take it all out and put it in the trash bin. Meir was quick to apologize and was upset because they shouldn't have used our bins at all. So other than that and them leaving other trash around the "work site", they were generally nice.
There was a little bit of an issue with the paving stones being the wrong color, in the pamphlet it was presented as a dark charcoal color similar to the color of the stucco we chose, yet when it was laid down, it was significantly lighter and looked like another grey option that was next to the one we chose. Meir insisted it was the right color and that happens when colors are printed on paper, they don't always match the real product, which we weren't happy with that. Eventually we made peace with it and our property will probably be cooler with a lighter shade of stones, at least this is what we're telling ourselves. The work is done pretty well, and he even threw in the middle medallion design for us as a gesture of good faith in the beginning, along with the smaller LED lights in the retainer section in front of our fence that'll accent our future plants wonderfully.
The only other mishap was some sort of strange miscommunication about a huge design part of the custom fence. I still don't know what happened but somehow we claims the design only included the frame for the roof, but not an actual roof.. We disagreed adamantly because the design and reference pictures all have roofs, and we even spoke about whether it would be shingled or wood planks etc. He was leaning on a hand drawn design I initialed certain aspects to since there were other concepts we spoke of, so like I said be very clear on the design and agreements made on your projects. He did fix it immediately after all of us panicking, and did try to add more money to what we agreed on paying for the whole project but we didn't budge and his general attitude didn't sour the relationship after. He found an quick affordable option that was better than the original solution and had it done promptly.
I am happy with the project overall, and love seeing the design come to life, it goes perfectly with my home, and I do appreciate that Meir generally genuinely and sincerely had enough attention to detail and his supervising during the project. We all wish the property and fence were in a boujie side of town, but hopefully this will inspire more care on our street. I would use them again and recommend them since they did much better than previous contractors we worked with.
Don't mind my partner's creepy face in the night time photos, as well as the odd angling of the LED lights, someone had fun messing with them and I was in a hurry, they actually do rotate to illuminate nicely and symmetrically"
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