Pacific Landscaping provides Contra Costa County homeowners with a variety of residential landscaping services, including new installation, remodeling, drainage, masonry, planting and irrigation. The company can also build decks, retaining walls, hardscapes, arbors, patios, gazebos and more.
Owner Vic Cvijanovic established Pacific Landscaping after spending many years working for other landscaping firms in the Bay Area. He says he wanted to work for a company that embodied his standards for quality and good-faith business practices, and he felt creating his own firm was the best way to offer the excellence that he felt homeowners deserved.
Pacific Landscaping also offers design services to clients with landscaping construction or remodeling projects. “We work with our customers’ budgets and select the best materials to create functional designs that stand the test of time,” says Mr. Cvijanovic. The company works on a project-by-project basis, which allows it to focus on quality and keep to the schedules it sets.
“We proudly stand behind our motto: ‘When promised, as promised.’ We never promise work we can’t deliver, and we won’t compromise on quality. Our ultimate goal is to develop lasting relationships with our clients so we can serve all their future landscaping needs.”
No matter how good your landscaper’s ideas are, they shouldn’t be implemented without your prior approval.
Often, contractors have ideas—perhaps at the last minute—for improving your landscaping project, but then unilaterally implement the changes without prior approval or even discussion. “It happens many times,” says Vic Cvijanovic of Pacific Landscaping. “Contractors shouldn’t do anything before they explain it to you in detail and get final approval.”
He recommends you and the landscaper meet every morning, if only for a few minutes, for the duration of the project. Ask the landscaper to review activities scheduled for that day. Find out whether the landscaper plans any revisions, however minor, to the project’s original blueprint. Use the meeting to ask questions and make proposals of your own.
“I always recommend customers be heavily involved in their project,” says Mr. Cvijanovic. He also recommends you scrupulously check the company’s record. Find out whether complaints have been lodged against it, the nature of those complaints and whether they were satisfactorily resolved.
Beyond that, it’s always a good idea to just spend some time chatting with a prospective landscape professional to gauge the quality of the communication. “I hate to say it,” says Mr. Cvijanovic, “but some people in this industry are difficult and close-minded. You simply can’t work with them.”
Be sure your landscaper buys high-quality material from new stock, says Mr. Cvijanovic. For example, the PVC piping used for underground irrigation comes in several grades. If you happen to strike a low-grade pipe while digging in your yard, the shovel will break it and cause a leak.
According to Pacific Landscaping's owner, Vic Cvijanovic, the most common reaction to his company's jobs is, "It's much better than I anticipated." Mr. Cvijanovic attributes his company's success to an unwavering commitment to superior workmanship and an absolute refusal to take any shortcuts.
In 1986, frustrated by the less-than-stellar work turned out by his former employers, Mr. Cvijanovic set off on his own. The result was Pacific Landscaping, a company that embodies his standards for quality and good-faith business practices–doing "what the customer likes and not just what I like." Mr. Cvijanovic's ultimate landscaping goal is to build beautiful, functional, long-lasting designs that fit his customers' budgets.
Pacific Landscaping has a "perfectly neat and clean record," a 23-year history without a single complaint to the Better Business Bureau, says Mr. Cvijanovic. It's a distinction he believes sets him apart from the majority of landscaping contractors, and it's helped him grow a loyal customer base and made him the beneficiary of many enthusiastic referrals.
Mr. Cvijanovic and his team are obsessive about punctuality. In the rare event that they're running late, they alert clients in advance. It stems from the company philosophy: "When promised, as promised." Mr. Cvijanovic believes in this so fervently, it's printed on his business cards.
Because Pacific Landscaping limits itself to a single project at a time, clients never have landscapers showing up late or rushing off early to other jobs, says Mr. Cvijanovic. Until it's completed to your satisfaction, your job is the company's sole focus.
Pacific Landscaping keeps its prices as low as possible, but Mr. Cvijanovic draws the line at cutting costs by cutting corners–a practice he likens to cheating. If he can't bid a price that the customer can afford, he willingly refers them to other contractors.
