Herba Lawn LLC

Our landscape & fence was a huge undertaking, As with any home improvement project we had our share of challenges, bob was a delight to work with he explained everything, gave us options and we are so grateful for his expertise, and professionalism.

Bob Foote, came out to discuss and measure for our fence project in advance. When we got the OK from the HOA, he came right out and started building the fence, which he finished in three days, doing a very nice job. He and his helper also were kind enough to hang a very heavy mirror for us. Bob does a good job and we will certainly call him again.

Bob, owner Herba Lawn, contacted me to submit a bid on a job I had advertised. The job was replacing the 30 year old skirting and rodent riddled insulation under my mobile home and replacing the back wall on my attached storage room. He came to my home to meet me and measure for the project. He was thorough and noted some other minor repairs that needed done while walking around my home. I appreciated his attention to detail. He did do something that in retrospect was weird in that he came back to my home unannounced the following day and started to walk into my fenced back yard without coming to the door and letting us know he was even there. He said he needed to look under the mobile home again because it needed a vapor barrier if it wasn’t on cement. He’d been under there the day before. Although his bid was actually the highest of the ones submitted I hired him to replace my skirting with all new Hardie board and remove and replace my rodent riddled insulation. When questioned about time to complete I was told 4-5 days and that he had a 3 man crew performing the work. He was to start on Monday 9/12/16. Monday we anxiously awaited the start of the project. Bob arrived with a single worker (Tyson) around 10:30. We had agreed to paint all the Hardie board and trim to offset some of the cost. He brought supplies that day which were painted by my spouse same day. He and his worker removed a few pieces of skirting and trim and left a couple hours later and did not return for the rest of the day. Tuesday same drill. Arrived around 10:00 pulled the rest of the trim and skirting and a few strips of insulation before Tyson got ill and had to go home but not before he spent the whole morning complaining loudly about how gross it was under my home to the extent of all my neighbors being made aware. They were gone by 12:30 and never came back. I texted with Bob that day and expressed my worry about the slow start and he told me the amount of rodent droppings under my home was making him ill so I hired a man for $300 who came and cleaned the pad until it was snowy white again. Wednesday Bob was onsite around 8:30 with Tyson and one additional worker. Tyson again was literally yelling about how sick it was under our home. They worked hard that day. Most of the insulation got pulled and Bob got some of the new framing up. When I got home to pick up my spouse to take her to dinner we walked around the house to see all that had gotten done and noted immediately that there was a big wet spot on the pad. I ran inside and turned on the shower to confirm it was that that was leaking. They had pulled the drain pipe off and broke the ring that secures the pipe to the drain. I contacted Bob and he immediately was defensive saying his guy didn't do it and accused the man I had that cleaned under the home the day before. I said, "Bob I showered this morning was it wet when you got here?" His answer was no so I said "then you guys did it because Amy showered after you left and now it's wet." The next morning he showed up and I stayed home to speak to him about it. He tried to fix it by hand then offered to "pound up a board or something" to hold it up there and silicon it" to which my spouse looked alarmed and said "call the plumber." That bill was $98 which I paid. I also asked him about vents in the skirting which he hadn't thought about. We had to order vents off Amazon for $200. Both of his workers denied even working in that part of the house (apparently the insulation magically removed itself). Bob went back to framing and the guys were under the house still removing insulation with Tyson complaining loudly the whole morning. He was told by Bob that he wasn't allowed to have "any emergencies today" because Bob wasn't driving him home. Shortly after lunch Tyson walked off the job. My spouse, who was completely concerned about the job getting done at all at this point, went under the home herself to help the remaining worker pull rodent dropping riddled insulation complete with skeletons of 30 years in it out. We also had to provide his remaining worker with gloves and a face mask as well as garbage bags because Bob didn't have any. My spouse worked under the house all day. She worked long after they left at 3:30 cleaning up the mess left behind. Wednesday night I again expressed my concern to Bob he would not be done by Friday. He said he hadn't planned on the issues with his crew and said he hadn't anticipated how bad the rodent issue would be. Mind you I told him we had had numerous dead odors in the house over the years and had forbidden him to put in ANY insulation until he was ready to enclose the skirting on the same day assuring him they would be right back up in the new skirting same day if he did. He said that he had a friend that was a framer coming on Friday and that they should be done. I explained again how no insulation was to go in until he knew for sure he could fully enclosed it same day. He said it was no problem and that it would slow them down some by limiting how many directions they could bring the new insulation in. I said I was sorry but that was how it would have to be. Friday he showed up with 2 workers which included his framer friend. It was that day while he was shouting measurements to his friend cutting boards of something being 33 and a half plus one more mark inches that we realized he can’t even read a tape measure appropriately. His framer friend Eric really is the only gem in this whole story. He is EXCELLENT. His work is top notch and he is very polite and likeable. Too bad he wasn’t found earlier in the week. He worked his backside off and finally there was some good progress however they did not get all the skirting on AND Bob let the other worker put in some of my brand new insulation. I was so upset it actually made me cry I was so mad. After seeing how upset I was about the lack of rodent proofing they stayed late in the rain that started Friday evening and screwed up sheets of board to cover up the holes for the night. They then worked Saturday which as luck would have it it rained buckets. 2 rolls of my insulation were ruined under my home sitting on the pad when my drains backed up. Bob helped my spouse attempt to bail water from around the pad for a hour or so then we drove into town and brought drain pipe to make it drain into the yard until I could call someone to unblock the drains. He assured me before leaving that the place was “locked in” and rodent proof as a lot of insulation went in that day but the job still wasn’t finished. Sunday I noticed boards that were not attached to the house on all corners leaning away from the house. I had had it by this point and sent him a scathing email that day. He showed up unannounced in the afternoon, went under the deck, blamed the issue on Eric (which I know Bob was the one who was under the deck working on Saturday) then said “it’s obvious you aren’t happy so how about I come back on Monday, finish up the skirting and insulation, you (meaning me) find someone else to finish the end room wall and I’ll knock $300 off the bill to account for not finishing the storage room wall and to reimburse for Amy’s time working.” He then went on to note additional things he had done that weren’t part of the original bid like fixing 2 buckled places on my cement pad, fixing a loose spot under one of my bedroom floors and “bailing water on Saturday for half the day”. I would have agreed to about anything to have my involvement with him done however it’s a little insulting that the bedroom floor WAS part of the original fixes and the “half day of bailing water” was in actuality maybe a hour and a half. I also had a $100 plumbing bill and the headache of having to order parts (vents) not to mention having to babysit the job and my spouse performing manual labor of a disgusting nature to move it along. We supplied garbage bags, masks and gloves for his help, and tools when his battery powered ones died on Friday before they were done. I did agree to the $300 to not argue and to just to be done with it. Monday he showed up around 9:30 and asked if anyone had come by looking for him! He had given my address to someone to come work for him for the day and I guess it was ok if I got to meet this unknown person at my home. Not that Bob knew him either. Just some stranger who would have been responding to an ad for a job. Not cool at all! He also showed up with a bunch more boards that my spouse had to drop everything to go paint first thing in the morning because he didn’t measure right and hadn’t brought enough in the beginning and he doesn’t have a trailer so hope you don’t need much hauled away because dump runs take hours despite the fact we live only 6 mile away from it. He came with Eric and another man who was installing insulation. Around 3:00 I was outside when the man working under the house came out and said he was out of insulation. I asked Bob what needed to happen and he said they were 2 rolls short because my house flooded and if I wanted them put in that day I needed to go get them myself. I left immediately to drive the 20 miles to Home Depot only when I got back the guy was gone and “they would get them in tomorrow”. Job still not done. Tuesday worker that was going to install insulation didn’t show up until after lunch time and the worker he had brought with him that morning got sick and had to be driven home. Today, Wednesday, 9/21/16 he and Eric came back and finished. I did have to make Bob pull a board from under my elevated deck that did not match up pattern-wise and replace it. I asked him to finish trimming out a corner they missed and he only did part of it. He left my rain gutters unattached from the house rather handed the brackets to my spouse and said “here you go when you get ready to put them back on.” He took them off but I guess it’s our job to put them back on. I’m done. I paid him minus the $300 and was so glad to see him leave. Never again. I know things happen but the man never did have employees of his own as promised. It took 9 days to do what I was told was a 4-5 day job. I have some really rough looking caulking spots that I know for a fact he did himself as well as some missing trim he took down and didn’t replace. The design is great and no doubt rodent proof but the cost was huge in $$$’s, time, and stress.