Avant Garde Landscaping

Two years ago my husband and I built a beautiful new home. My first landscaper did a fine job, but given the time constraints was unable to adequately address some important details. Our backyard sloped downward and within two years I was having major issues in my backyard with water drainage eroding the soil under the huge pillars holding up my fence, and causing damage to the rock retaining wall just outside the fence. Loose dirt and mud were also causing issues on the walkway along Utah Lake directly in back of me. A neighbor recommended Ryan Mitchell, an owner of Avant Garde Landscaping. Ryan suggested some lasting solutions to fix the problems that included rebuilding the rock retaining wall outside my fenced yard; and building a retaining wall across the back within my fence to level my downward sloping flower beds; the wall included a drainage system to redirect the water runoff. He also worked on sprinklers, weed barriers, and new plants. I was consulted regularly throughout the process about what plants I wanted and about how I wanted things to look. I felt free to ask questions and share my thoughts and concerns, and Ryan worked hard to incorporate my own vision as he shared his expertise. The members of his crew were hard workers, and were unobtrusive, respectful, and easy to work with. I would highly recommend Avant Garde to anyone needing help with any new landscaping or redevelopment projects. My neighbors have also made many positive comments and appreciated the improvements.

Avant Garde was wonderful, extremely flexible and helped us get exactly the yard we'd always wanted. Their workers were polite and finished the project promptly. I'd absolutely use them again!

DO NOT HIRE!!! I never receive a written estimate for services. When we received the bill it had no start or finish time on it! Part of his justification of the final bill was it took him 2 hours. The problem is there was no start or finish time written on the receipt, I guess I will take his word for it...LOL! The informal estimate on the phone he told us it will be between $150 - $350 depending on the job. It was only one $2 part that had a crack in the sprinkler system ( an elbo or 90 ) and we were charge at the top of the estimate. He charged $335! If he would have given us a written estimate before hand and let us know. Okay I have identified the problem. Here are the parts I need, and here is how long it will take. Here is the price point your looking at. I would have paid the $98 charge to come out and look at it and sent him on his way. He stated on the phone "that's what you should have done." I however was not give the opportunity to say no thank you! He just did the work and handed over a bill for the top end of the verbal estimate. I was not there when the work was done so my wife paid him. When I got home I called him and asked him what justifies this $335 price point and he had no answer for me. He said something like well the glue has to dry for 30 mins before her could see if it is fixed. So while he waited for the glue to dry he was handing my wife a bill for time he thought it would take before he left. So he is charging me while he was waiting for the glue to dry? Okay well that doesn't make sense! That's outrageous and so was the bill! So, I was paying him to hand my wife a bill and explain what he did???...ARE YOU KIDDING ME!!!! I also asked him, well what does a $150 job look like if only 1 elbo is cracked and need to be replaced? He never did answer that one! He just danced around the question saying...IN MY 27 YEARS OF EXPERIENCE....AND DEFLECTED FROM ANSWERING Yes, just another satisfied customer....NOT...!!!

Ryan was very detailed in his explanation of the quote he gave and what his work would entail. This was very helpful to me and my wife in deciding to go with Avant. At first the price seemed a bit high, but Ryan explained to us about Avant's quality and that they back their product, work, and services. That was very reassuring. Ryan was easy to work with. He kept us up to date with what was going on and answered our questions promptly. Our landscaping and sod turned out great. It turned out just as Ryan had helped us envision it would. We are so pleased with the finished product. Our money was well spent. Thank you Ryan and staff!