Carolina Outdoor Living Design was hired to build a retaining wall 10' high by 90' long to prevent further erosion in the backyard. The design itself was basic and not aesthetically pleasing; the designer gave the impression that no other design would work for this project and that I could plant trees in front of it to prevent only seeing the bricks. I had to call to receive the final proposal since the designer did not send it when promised. The project was to take 4 days—after 4 months I had had enough and called it quits.
The wall was built in 2 rounded sections with my existing stairs in between. They did not remove the rotten wood retaining wall (like they wrote in the proposal) so it remains very visible.
The walls went up quickly, but the largest one cracked under the weight of a hybrid fireplace they put at the outermost point on the curve. They had to rebuild that section 2 more times because the 1 worker who started it over left gaps between the blocks that were unacceptable. Then the fire hydrant at the end of the driveway was cleaned out sending a river of water into the backyard and 2 dump truck loads of dirt and gravel into the lower yard! The new fire ring was now hanging without a foundation.
The final rebuild was as sloppy as the previous one, and the gap they left between the wall and the steps allows the yard to wash over. They placed a large stone to cover it up.
They reluctantly removed some of the dirt dumped into the lower yard—they were going to spread it out, gravel and all! They never buried the drainage pipe even after being asked 4 times.
The equipment they used was not well maintained. It took over 30 minutes to cut down a tree
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