1/5
Do not ever have Mr. Hartwell and crew do anything but plants for you. Even that now has fallen in workmanship. But the big issue for us is they took seven months to lay concrete for a small patio and build a small waterfall.
The waterfall was never completed and its falling apart exposing the liner.
The waterfall was built a few months ago but had a leak in it where it was losing over two inches of water a day. We checked with other reputable Koi pond and waterfall builders and it was obvious it had a leak. They tried for months to find and fix the leak, obviously acknowledging there was a leak and were unsuccessful. They rebuilt part of it, no luck. They patched and glued and glued and patched rocks to where the patching was all over. Once again to no avail. Finally after having zero luck at finding and fixing the leak, the builder came to me and said it was normal, he checked with current customers and experts. They are going to close the ticket (something we never signed to agree to it's completion). One mistake we did make is a few months earlier when they were wrapping up the build, we went ahead and paid the the other 50% we owed. And let me add, they never were there when they said they would be, they always put new clients ahead of finishing our job. Allowing them seven months showed we were extremely patient with them. So anyway, still not satisfied with them closing the ticket, I called the owner and told him the situation, obviously he knew about it and just kept sending the same people expecting different results. Mr. Hartwell did agree to and did come out to see it for the first time. He poured a bit of blue dye (actually algae cleaner) and let it run into the reservoir and said "no leak"
He stated it was probably a combination of the wind, splash and evaporation that taking water away so quickly. They did cut back on the strength of the waterfall via valves, but zero water was saved. We still are losing over two inches a day, and that was in the winter when it started. I emailed Mr. Hartwell and told him I checked with other companies and it is definitely leaking, over two inches a day would be over a foot of water in a small waterfall pond in a week. That is not normal. As far as falling apart, the rocks in the reservoir, they are falling off the sides and exposing lining to where it looks extremely "handyman" built. Mr. Hartwell with the exception of his visit has been very unprofessional about this and will not respond to any emails nor will his employees. They got their money and have moved on.
This has been extremely frustrating for my wife and I so we emailed Mr. Hartwell telling him to either come and finish the waterfall, pay the bill for a third party to complete his work, or give us a refund. His only reply was "I will not pay a third party". We haven't heard a word since. We unfortunately let them know we are in the process of suing them for the unfinished business since they left it incomplete. We will also be contacting the BBB to lodge a complaint and any other agency we can. We paid hard earned money to have something nice in our back yard that works properly and doesn't fall apart in less than a year.