KS' Landscaping: Impressions? Experience With? Are they competent and reliable?
- Thread starter irvine2008
- Start date
BettyBlue said:
I second that. The owner is pushy and insists on doing the design his way. So most of my neighbors who used his service ended up with the same patch of grass, limping carrot woods and the ugly quartzite tiles in front of the house. I'm glad that I walked away from them after the first consultation session.
lookinginirvine
New member
So besides KS' Landscaping, which other landscaping companies would you people on this board recommend?
I'd appreciate some good referrals so I can shop around for my landscaping....
I'd appreciate some good referrals so I can shop around for my landscaping....
Just met with Jo at Echo Family, inc. Sounds like he did quite a few homes in Irvine. Anyone have experience working with him? I feel like all these landscapers just talk about their work/referrals/competitors and barely take the time to hear what I want in my design. Hopefully the drawings will reflect that he was actually listening to me.
lookinginirvine said:
If you are after good rates and reasonable job quality but don't mind doing the creative side of things yourself, call Mike at 714 389 9515/949 680 9298. Bargain hard and you will earn his respect
PM me if you want to buy travertine pavers/tiles cheap, I have a good shop to recommend too.If you have a budget of 20k-50k, try www.swlandscaping.com. They did great work on lots of homes in Woodbury.
KS' Landscaping has just finished my backyard job and I strongly recommend them. They are absolutely professional and their work is top notch. Andru Kang is my project manager and he is courteous, attentive, and would make sure that all my requests were done to my (high) expectations, more importantly, they finished the project on time. Not a day late. His workers were diligent and were punctual to work. They would start work at 8 am sharp and leave at 5 pm, and they would clean up before they leave. During the day, Andru would come by and supervise the work at least a few times a day and I would get a progress report almost on a daily basis. During the 10 days of work, I didn't have to inspect the work of the workers because I know they would do a great job.
Hire them if you are looking for a reliable, honest, and trustworthy contractor. Another plus, KS' Landscaping is very familiar with the Design Guidelines imposed by the Irvine Company and the HOAs. All paperwork, plans, etc. would be submitted by them. All you have to do is review the design and sign the required documents, and in no time, your yard will be transformed into something beautiful.
Working with contractors can be excruciating painful and stressful, but there is NO headache with them.
Contact:
Andru Kang / Abraham Kang
949-285-5359
Hire them if you are looking for a reliable, honest, and trustworthy contractor. Another plus, KS' Landscaping is very familiar with the Design Guidelines imposed by the Irvine Company and the HOAs. All paperwork, plans, etc. would be submitted by them. All you have to do is review the design and sign the required documents, and in no time, your yard will be transformed into something beautiful.
Working with contractors can be excruciating painful and stressful, but there is NO headache with them.
Contact:
Andru Kang / Abraham Kang
949-285-5359
I actually just had KS Landscaping do some minor landscaping work in our backyard (putting in some evergreen trees w/ non-invasive roots, irrigation and flowers in a planter behind our pool), and we have been very happy with the work.
In the process of bidding out this job, we contacted Aloha Landscaping, Landform Construction, and KS Landscaping (all based on the recommendations here). Kendall was extremely nice but declined to do our job, as he deemed it too small for his business. He did send a landscaper that he worked with to see whether he'd be able to assist us, but we weren't happy with his proposal.
Mahe was very nice, but quoted us over 2x what both Kendall's landscaper and KS quoted us.
Finally, Andru was very professional and personable. He listened to what we were looking for, and gave us great suggestions. He gave us a timeline for how long it would take his crew to finish the job, and he stuck by that timeline, even though they ran into some minor issues (they found some large roots from a tree that the prior owner had in that planter). He was in constant communication with us and really seemed like he wanted to provide good customer service. In addition, when I told him that his crew may have accidentally cut a low voltage electrical line (since the pool lights weren't working), he offered to fix it on his dime.
Andru also gave us a quote to do our front yard, but when we told him that we were going to hold off on the frontyard landscaping, he did not pressure us to do the job immediately. Instead, we agreed to talk again in a few months to go over the front yard landscaping.
Overall, we are happy with their work.
In the process of bidding out this job, we contacted Aloha Landscaping, Landform Construction, and KS Landscaping (all based on the recommendations here). Kendall was extremely nice but declined to do our job, as he deemed it too small for his business. He did send a landscaper that he worked with to see whether he'd be able to assist us, but we weren't happy with his proposal.
Mahe was very nice, but quoted us over 2x what both Kendall's landscaper and KS quoted us.
Finally, Andru was very professional and personable. He listened to what we were looking for, and gave us great suggestions. He gave us a timeline for how long it would take his crew to finish the job, and he stuck by that timeline, even though they ran into some minor issues (they found some large roots from a tree that the prior owner had in that planter). He was in constant communication with us and really seemed like he wanted to provide good customer service. In addition, when I told him that his crew may have accidentally cut a low voltage electrical line (since the pool lights weren't working), he offered to fix it on his dime.
Andru also gave us a quote to do our front yard, but when we told him that we were going to hold off on the frontyard landscaping, he did not pressure us to do the job immediately. Instead, we agreed to talk again in a few months to go over the front yard landscaping.
Overall, we are happy with their work.
irvinehomeowner
Well-known member
Self-inflicted zinger!ZeroLot said:
ZeroLot said:So glad to hear that you had a great experience with KS Landscaping Ribeye!
We're starting our backyard project with them in April and so far everything has been great.
I would start on a front yard project with them but IP wouldn't give me a front yard. hahah
ZeroLot, thank you again for the referral to Andru. Given this experience, we are likely to hire them again for our front yard.
dealcatcher
New member
Let me preface what I'm about to say by mentioning that I've done an in-depth comparison of several landscapers in the Irvine area. If I can lend my honest opinion, I think KS Landscaping is just OK. Like several people have said, their designs aren't unique. All his houses look the same. From a design perspective, you want to choose someone that tries to make each house look a little different. Like someone else above mentioned, if you try to get Abraham to stray away from his template, he argues against it. He should remember that we're the ones hiring him for the job, not the other way around. Most of his houses have pilasters that are extremely un-proportionate to the size of the yard. Also, he likes to use the same looking stone veneer, concrete cap mold, concrete color, and Versailles pattern travertine at his houses. Where's the originality? Also, his plant selection and placement isn't all that nice in my opinion when compared to some of the other mid to higher-end landscapers.
As for quality, their work is OK. Not terrible, not amazing. I will say that they're one of the more honest landscapers around. However, I've noticed that 3 of their past jobs have stone that is severely cracking where the driveway was widened. These are jobs that were completed in the last 2 years.
As I somewhat eluded to, Abraham has a difficult personality to deal with. Several people I've talked to have found him to be stubborn, a little arrogant, and annoying when he talks about how "his prices have sharply risen" (blah blah blah). I get that demand has risen, but nowhere near pre-crisis levels. Andru, his son, on the other hand is very pleasant to work with. He's very personable, professional, and cares about his customers.
I've found his prices to be on the high end, considering the designs are recycled and he doesn't hire an architect. If you compare his work against other landscapers in the SIMILAR PRICE range, his work is nowhere nearly as good as others.
PROS:
-Doesn't take very many shortcuts
-On the job most of the time (won't dissapear for several days)
-Andru is a good project manager (responsive, addresses issues in a timely fashion)
-Honest
CONS:
-Designs aren't that nice (recycles designs and materials). All his houses look the same.
-Abraham, the owner/father, is argumentative and arrogant at times. Doesn't listen to the customer.
-Overpriced for what you get
-Quality is generally OK. However, some houses experienced cracking stone pieces at driveway
-At one of their houses, I noticed the corners of stone veneer at the pilasters have gaps because they're lacking grout/mortar.
-Pilasters are huge
-Goes overboard with his use of stone.
Just some constructive feedback for you fellow members...
As for quality, their work is OK. Not terrible, not amazing. I will say that they're one of the more honest landscapers around. However, I've noticed that 3 of their past jobs have stone that is severely cracking where the driveway was widened. These are jobs that were completed in the last 2 years.
As I somewhat eluded to, Abraham has a difficult personality to deal with. Several people I've talked to have found him to be stubborn, a little arrogant, and annoying when he talks about how "his prices have sharply risen" (blah blah blah). I get that demand has risen, but nowhere near pre-crisis levels. Andru, his son, on the other hand is very pleasant to work with. He's very personable, professional, and cares about his customers.
I've found his prices to be on the high end, considering the designs are recycled and he doesn't hire an architect. If you compare his work against other landscapers in the SIMILAR PRICE range, his work is nowhere nearly as good as others.
PROS:
-Doesn't take very many shortcuts
-On the job most of the time (won't dissapear for several days)
-Andru is a good project manager (responsive, addresses issues in a timely fashion)
-Honest
CONS:
-Designs aren't that nice (recycles designs and materials). All his houses look the same.
-Abraham, the owner/father, is argumentative and arrogant at times. Doesn't listen to the customer.
-Overpriced for what you get
-Quality is generally OK. However, some houses experienced cracking stone pieces at driveway
-At one of their houses, I noticed the corners of stone veneer at the pilasters have gaps because they're lacking grout/mortar.
-Pilasters are huge
-Goes overboard with his use of stone.
Just some constructive feedback for you fellow members...
ZeroLot
New member
Several neighbors have asked me about KS Landscaping so I'm posting my summary of their work so far. KS is still working on my landscaping and it's been over a month since they started.
Cons?
Yes, the fact that our backyard is taking so long is a con for us. The reason we got delayed by 1.5 weeks was because Andru didn't confirm with us the pavers until they were ready to start working on the pavers. By then it took 1.5 weeks for the pavers to actually get delivered.
A couple other things are still in the works that could have been planned out better. But I think KS has a lot of business lately, probably the Great Park homes so our project is getting delayed.
But that works out well for me as in I don't need submit my final payment until the pavers are complete so more time for me to earn money in the bank. ;D
Other than that our yard is looking really amazing!!
I know some people say the designs are recycled, I don't know about that. Andru gave me an initial design and I revised it according to what I want for my yard. Since yard sizes and spaces are all similar, small, and HOA restricted in Irvine I don't know how much variety there can be??
All I know is no one in my hood has my backyard design and I'm copyrighting it because it's my design! >
Cons?
Yes, the fact that our backyard is taking so long is a con for us. The reason we got delayed by 1.5 weeks was because Andru didn't confirm with us the pavers until they were ready to start working on the pavers. By then it took 1.5 weeks for the pavers to actually get delivered.
A couple other things are still in the works that could have been planned out better. But I think KS has a lot of business lately, probably the Great Park homes so our project is getting delayed.
But that works out well for me as in I don't need submit my final payment until the pavers are complete so more time for me to earn money in the bank. ;D
Other than that our yard is looking really amazing!!
I know some people say the designs are recycled, I don't know about that. Andru gave me an initial design and I revised it according to what I want for my yard. Since yard sizes and spaces are all similar, small, and HOA restricted in Irvine I don't know how much variety there can be??
All I know is no one in my hood has my backyard design and I'm copyrighting it because it's my design! >
irvinehomeowner
Well-known member
5 digits?
Dang... and that's for a "zero" lot?
Dang... and that's for a "zero" lot?
ZeroLot said:All I know is no one in my hood has my backyard design and I'm copyrighting it because it's my design! >
Are you sure? I did bribe Andru to spell the beans about the design idea from that Marigold project he's so proud off. My yard might just looks very familiar to yours.
Just kidding ZeroLot! Andru will never do that to you. I'm having KS working on my yard too. So far the experience is pretty good. Andru is pretty detail oriented and very easy to work with. We are about half way done and should finish within 2 more weeks.
irvinehomeowner
Well-known member
@ZeroLot:
Not sure if you already have a job but maybe you should consider home contractor consulting. With OH and GP just starting, you'll have infinite customers:
ZerosList.com
Not sure if you already have a job but maybe you should consider home contractor consulting. With OH and GP just starting, you'll have infinite customers:
ZerosList.com
ZeroLot
New member
lnc said:ZeroLot said:All I know is no one in my hood has my backyard design and I'm copyrighting it because it's my design! >
Are you sure? I did bribe Andru to spell the beans about the design idea from that Marigold project he's so proud off. My yard might just looks very familiar to yours.
*gasp* You sending drone spies to my yard??
lnc said:
Congrats! Isn't it nice to have it done before summer starts and the kids are out of school?
I think it will still be a few more weeks before I'm done. I'm still waiting on the estimate for the synthetic grass and plants. I also haven't picked out the lights yet for my yard. I guess they are just waiting on the pavers to be done first before working on the other stuff.
But it's nice to know that I can communicate easily with Andru if something comes up. Like I spotted a chipped paver in my yard he quickly replaced it and asked the paver specialist to be more careful when choosing from the stock.
Not sure if I posted about my prior experience with KS, but we had them re-do a planter in our backyard. Andru was the job foreman and was really great to work with. We had a small job (installing new sprinklers, removing the old plants, and putting in new trees and flowers) in comparison to his other jobs in the area, but Andru has continued to stay in touch, even months after they completed their job. In fact, I received a call from Andru a week or two ago to see how the trees and plants were doing from the recent heatwave. It was surprising to hear from him, and I'm thankful that he took the extra step to ensure that we were satisfied with his work.