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F.A.Q.
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| About Us D'Urso Landscape Design was founded by John D'Urso in 1988.
John has worked basically in every phase of Landscape Construction & started in the trenches so to speak. This experience coupled with a great sense of design & spatial relationships has turned him into one of the finer Landscape Designers in Los Angeles. Very few designers are intimately familiar with every aspect & nuance of what it takes to pull off a spectacular job both on a technical level and an aesthetic one as well. You'll also see by browsing through our galleries, the diverse amount of styles & designs. This is because he listens to his clients' needs. His goal is to clarify that "foggy" image in their head of what they want and make it a reality.
Given his very busy schedule & many hats (designer, sales coordinator, chief technical supervisor etc.), he has developed the ability to walk through a project & see everything that's wrong (and right) immediately. He prefers to have problems fixed right away rather than waiting for the client to bring it up. He also likes to take advantage of any creative ideas that may come up and will sometimes alter his plans to further enhance the design.
He started at the age of nineteen designing, installing & maintaining tropical plant layouts for offices, homes & restaurants. Little by little the business grew (no pun intended). Clients started asking for outdoor work & things just went from there. First with maintenance crews. Then into planting & hardscape etc. While educating himself in all aspects of design by taking landscape design courses (at night & on weekends), he started working for a large spec builder, which was run by the grandson of Better Homes & Gardens magazine founder. The first job for them was a paltry $500.00 to design & install a small entryway planting. Recognizing his talents they quickly gave him very large estate homes (mostly built on spec) to do on small budgets. His work for them was received with literally glowing reviews. The builder subsequently spent well over a million dollars with him as he became their chief Landscape/Hardscape Contractor.
Today John does the main conceptual design work along with his assistant Jadzia (Jad) Baillon. She does most of the final drawings as well as all the 3D virtual Reality animations (her specialty). He likes to personally oversee every job himself with almost daily visits to each project going on. At the peak he can spend upwards of 6-7 hours a day just driving from site to site making sure everything is progressing as it should be. He takes his work & reputation very seriously. He prides himself in being both an advocate & advisor to clients. It's very important to him that his clients trust him on all levels because he likes to work on a common goal ~ making the project as beautiful and functional as possible. This in turn has built long lasting relationships with his clientele base and he has become friends with many of his clients. Just call our client references & we're sure you'll be impressed!
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| Are you licensed? Yes. Lic# 749557 You can check any California Contractor License Status here: https://www2.cslb.ca.gov/OnlineServices/CheckLicense/LicenseRequest.asp
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| Do you have your own crews? Yes. We have a base crew of 10 men. We do most of our work in house including; grading, drainage, lighting, irrigation, soil preparation, planting, ponds/waterfalls, flagstone, brick work, retaining walls, block walls, fencing, fire pits etc.
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| What type of Hardscape work do you do? We do the complete gamut - Fireplaces, BBQ's & Outdoor Kitchens, Patio Covers, Pools/Spas, Ponds/waterfalls, Flagstone, Brick & Stamped Concrete, Block Walls/Retaining Walls, Sports Courts...pretty much everything outdoors.
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| Do you build pools/spas? We design & oversee construction of pools/spas & related. We draw up plans for city submittal & get the engineering completed. We use only Experienced & Licensed pool contractors who give us substantial discounts so that we can be very competitive.
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| How long does a job normally take? Hard to answer of course but:
Landscape only 2-4 weeks
Landscape & Hardscape 3-6 weeks
Landscape Hardscape & Pool 8-12 weeks
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| Do you install Ponds & Waterfalls? A specialty! We build ponds, Streams & “Pondless Streams” All of our ponds have built in filters & skimmers, underwater lighting, water plants & fish. Because the pump is submerged, you hear absolutely no motor noise, just the relaxing sound of a waterfall.
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| Install Lighting? Not only do we design & install outdoor lighting. The owner of the company personally goes out in the evening & adjusts the lighting on every job BEFORE the client sees it. We take lighting seriously around here. There's lots of technical & aesthetic aspects to installing a lighting system & we would be more than glad to let you in on all the secrets. There's a lot more to it than you would think!
Nothing can create a mood like night lighting, when done right, it's magic.
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| What kind of warranty do you offer? Here is our standard contract warranty:
PLANTS
Groundcover - 90 days
1 gallon to 5 gallon - 6 months
15 gallon & larger - 1 year
Seasonal color/transplanting - no guarantee
All plants are limited to a one-time replacement
It is the intention of this guarantee to provide healthy & suitable plants for your
project, but we cannot cover the following: Wind breakage, frost damage, abuse,
vandalism or lack of basic care by owners. Please contact our office immediately if
you notice plants performing poorly.
Irrigation- 1 year Timers, valves & piping
Lighting - 1 year - Transformers & fixtures (no bulb warranty)
POOL/SPA
Pool Plaster (against leaks) - 10 years
Pool Shell (against leaks) - 10 years
Pool Plumbing -1 year
Pool Equipment Manufacturers Warranty - 3 years
Concrete
Due to the nature of cementitious materials, there is no warranty
against concrete/stucco/tile cracking, discoloring, scaling or settling. Furthermore,
we cannot guarantee actual color of concrete etc. when compared to manufacturers'
color samples or color charts. You may consider having concrete samples made (at
an additional charge) before finalizing color selection.
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| Do you charge for design? We generally do charge for design. We usually rebate some or all of the design fee back upon being awarded the job.
On certain jobs we will give client a preliminary bid & upon acceptance do the design for free.
Our goal is to do the job and not really make money off the design only. We just know from experience that the more well thought out the job is, the better (and sometimes less expensive!) the job is.
We have also been doing a lot of 3D virtual Reality animations. You can see them here:
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| Are you expensive? “If you think it's expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur”
How many times have you bought the less expensive version of something only to have it disappoint you enough to go back & buy the higher quality one you should have gotten in the first place? We've all done this and in reality it costs you more in the long run because you ended up buying two of them!
If you ask most Professional Architects, Engineers, Project Managers etc., they'll usually tell you the mid-level bids are the ones to go for. In fact it's quite common to take the highest & lowest bid & throw them away and then compare what's left. A low bid, while looking like it will save you money can sometimes be the most frustrating position to be in. If one Contractor is substantially lower than the rest you have to ask yourself why. We have personally lost bids to lowball contractors and later got a call from the client & were asked if we could salvage the project. It has happened more than a few times! The old adage “if it seems too good to be true, it probably is” generally applies here.
We've decided long ago that we'd rather not get the job than to sacrifice quality over price. The end result was ALWAYS disappointing to both us & the client. Most people forget how much it cost or how long it took. They only remember whether it was a good job & if the contractor treated them right.
We use only THE highest quality craftsman & a small select group of the best sub-contractors. We personally oversee every detail of construction, from both a technical level as well as an artistic one. We like when clients want to see our work. When they actually do compare our quality, they quickly realize that you get what you pay for. When you add it all up we think we're actually a bargain!
Also remember that besides being licensed, we carry Workman's Compensation (legally required) & have a one million dollar liability insurance policy (optional).
Below is a link to look up contractor status with the Contractors State License Board. A few contractors claim Exempt for Workmen's Comp - Which means that while they satisfy the State they also say that they have no employees (when they really do). We've seen this a lot & it's an unfair way to undercut properly insured contractors, so please check….
With all that said - get other bids & THEN go see the work of the contractors in consideration. If the lower price contractor does a great job & you're happy with what you see, then use them & save the money. It really depends on what you want. If want a complete job with every detail done properly then we recommend going into this with eyes open.
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| Do you have a minimum rate or job size? While we really don't have a minimum, we can sometimes be so busy that we may temporarily invoke minimum amounts for taking on new projects. Seeing as how this is a cyclical/seasonal business we sometimes relish smaller jobs to keep the crews busy. Some of our crew members have been with us for over 17 years and we feel a real sense of loyalty to them and their families. There are other times when we are very busy but there may not be enough work for our own crews, while we wait for larger phases of our projects to be completed. We also NEVER say no to either a past client or a referral (which is our primary means of obtaining new projects) regardless of job size.
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| Why would we use a company like yours? Can't we save money by contracting directly with different trades? You can always save money by doing things yourself. It really hinges on the scope of the project & the degree of complexity. Landscape Design isn't what it used to be. It's no longer just a big grass yard with some shrubs & maybe a bbq. Think of a Landscape Contractor a General Contractor for the outdoors. A Landscape Contractor is usually the best choice when a complete project needs to be done. In fact the biggest Landscape Conractor in the world, Valley Crest, started out with a guy mowing lawns. They now do some of the most elaborate projects anywhere. The best scenario is when you have someone that will take ALL factors into account & help you use your budget wisely.
You may want to read this article: KEY TO AN EFFECTIVE LANDSCAPE
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| Do you finance projects? Usually not but we can alter the time for each phase completed to work with your budget
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| What areas do you cover? We typically go from Thousand Oaks to Glendale & from West L.A. to Santa Clarita/Valencia. We have however been to known to go farther if the conditions are right.
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| Do you have references? Absolutely - Just ask - We love giving them out!
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