Outdoor Makeover and Living Spaces — Attraction in Atlanta

Overall, we were happy with our decision to engage with Navid and his team for our extensive (and expensive) backyard makeover project. It was a significant project comprising multiple permits, multiple skilled trades, and weeks of actual work. They demolished our old deck and patio, did grading and drainage work, created a new patio with additional retaining walls and steps, gas firepit, and built a new deck. They also installed sod and plants. For those that want to make sure the final product is first rate, I would not hesitate to recommend this company. There were a few issues that I feel warrant noting, however. First, the positives:

1. really good design process that helped us envision how to best use the space. We weren't sure what we wanted but had some goals. They helped us put those goals into actual design plans.

2. transparent pricing and payment structure. While they readily admit they are one of the more expensive options to go with (though they may argue they have no true peers in Atlanta), the price for the work was laid out in detail, and any variations from the initial estimate were communicated timely.

3. quality materials and craftsmanship. They use high quality landscaping and hardscaping materials, and they do a great job with the install.

The things I feel could use improvement are:

1. overall project management and communication. As stated earlier, this project was significant and involved multiple crews completing work. Though I believe their crews are employees and not sub-contractors, from my standpoint there was little oversight to these crews and their style and promptness of communication. Some crews communicated well, and some were terrible at communication. When this was escalated to the project manager, there seemed to be a bit of a "there's not much we can do" attitude. There was also a sense of pushing it back on me and telling me my communication expectations were too high. My expectations were to know if a crew was going to show up the next day, and if so, what was the arrival time estimate. I also wanted a daily update on if there were any issues, and the latest estimate of number of workdays left to complete the work of a given crew. That expectation has seemed reasonable to many other companies over the years, with the most comparable being our extensive kitchen renovation that also involved multiple crews.

2. permitting- i was told on the front end that i would be charged extra if I wanted the company to file the permits on my behalf. They said if I filed the permits myself then they would guide me and give me all the information needed to get the permits approved. They initially could not even tell me what specific permit application(s) to complete, and I was told different things by different people at the company. Finally, I spent a long time on the phone with the city of Roswell and determined which specific permit applications I should complete. I gave that information along with the required attachments and information needed to be submitted to the permit office to the project manager at Outdoor Makeover, and he turned around a set of documents within a couple of weeks. Both of the permit applications were rejected. I immediately reached out to the project manager and one of the two permits was adjusted and re-submitted. The other permit (deck replacement) took Outdoor Makeover a month to get back to me, despite repeated attempts to connect with them and see what the issue was. When the permit application adjustments were finally re-submitted, they were rejected again. Finally, after a third attempt, the permits were approved. This was a much more convoluted process that involved me doing much more than paperwork to obtain the permits. I had to drive the process, obtain information, and do quality control checks on the work of the company.

So, overall, I would recommend them. But don't read all the reviews and think there is no risk of significant issues or headaches in completing...

My husband and I learned about Navid and Outdoor Makeover & Construction after our neighbors had the company re-landscape their property. Our neighbors recommended them highly based on the quality of work they did for them. We originally met with Navid for a design consultation towards the end of January/beginning of February. He immediately addressed many of the extensive concerns we had regarding the grading and landscaping of our property. He designed an effective and aesthetically pleasing solution to the problems, while incorporating already existing elements from our property. To address our drainage needs, Navid incorporated multiple swells in the yard as well as a drainage system to direct water from the middle of the yard towards a protected tree space behind my property. We replaced the existing Bermuda grass with a heartier Zoysia grass which can stand up better to foot and dog traffic in the yard. Because of our schedules, we elected to wait until the beginning of the summer to have the work completed and Navid and his team were very understanding of our wishes to do this and worked to schedule this project when it was convenient for us. From the time of the initial consultation until the work was completed the company’s team worked with us to address changing needs and make sure that we were comfortable with the scope of work being performed. During the project we were met with an unexpected neighbor issue regarding our already approved design. Navid and his team were patient and completed other parts of the project while we came to resolution with our HOA. Once we had resolution, Outdoor Makeover & Construction worked very hard to re-configure designs in order to have the landscaping comply with ever-changing HOA guidelines. The team which was on hand for the work was very courteous, professional, and demonstrated excellent attention to detail. The team worked to reconfigure our existing irrigation system to ensure that all of the new sod and plants would receive appropriate water. The crew seemed to always be working, even doing extra complimentary jobs which were not in the contract and plan. In the end, the team did extra mulching, and tree trimming which would have taken us a lot of extra time and energy in the hot June sun. I felt like I had the ability to provide my input with the on-hand team throughout the entirety of the project and appreciated being heard as the work was being done. In total, from the time that materials begun being delivered until the project was complete was 3 and a half days. At the end of each day, the team cleaned up loose materials, debris, and any trash. At the conclusion of the project, the team worked very hard to restore my drive way to its original condition and status, pressure washing it and cleaning it thoroughly, making it appear as if they had never used it as a staging area for the literal tons of material used. Overall, we are extremely satisfied with the performance of Outdoor Makeover & Construction. They are a highly skilled team of professionals and re-created an amazing backyard space which our builder should have originally done. They took what had become an unusable backyard space (because of drainage, grading, and foot/dog traffic), and created a great outdoor space we look forward to using for years to come. We would happily recommend this company to all of our friends and colleagues and will definitely use them...

When we first reached out to Outdoor Makeover, our home was in bad shape.

We had found a previous contractor on Angie's List who had completed only a portion of the work they had promised on our project and left our house in shambles.

One of the areas in most extreme disrepair was a below grade storage area. Every time it would rain, water would pour in excess into the space leaving it wet, muddy and full of mold and mildew.

After firing our worthless, no-good, thief of a contractor, we searched for weeks in an effort to find the right landscape / hardscape company to complete the job.

Sounds like an easy task, but after receiving visits from several contractors, we still were not satisfied not only with the options presented, but with the time frames that we were being provided; being in the heart of the renovation season, landscape companies all seemed to be booked and were not sensitive to the urgency of our project.

Enter Navid and the Outdoor Makeover team.

Upon calling and providing a description of our challenges, Navid was at our house within 24 hours despite his extremely busy schedule. As a matter of fact, he offered to come during evening hours making it convenient for us while extending his workday well past 9 pm.

After surveying the site, Navid provided his expert opinion and knew exactly how to address the issue by extending a retention wall and installing a drainage system to properly divert water away from the house.

In addition, he had the aesthetic vision, sketched up the solution, and provided a firm timeline of when he and his crew could perform the work (within days despite a full workload he already had).

Ultimately, before Navid left my house that evening I had a firm scope and estimate in my hands and full confidence that Outdoor Makeover was the right company to perform the job.

Work commenced exactly on schedule and the labor crew conducted themselves extremely professionally, from a technical perspective as well as excellent customer service.

They maintained a clean work space and performed extremely efficiently. These guys knew exactly what they were doing.

Part of this can be attributed to them being highly skilled, but they also had on site direction provided by Navid who was sure to be there to manage the efforts and ensure that the project was going smoothly.

In addition to the agreed upon scope, they even trenched an additional drainage line free of charge.

I won't say that Outdoor Makeover was the least expensive solution, but they certainly brought the greatest value to the project. Anything less would have been insufficient.

The solution has performed flawlessly and we have had no water penetration at all.

Outdoor Makeover certainly exceeded all expectations on our drainage and retention wall project and I would highly recommend them to anybody requiring landscape or...