Landscaping reviews in Fort Collins, Colorado

Backes Landscaping is the epitome of personalization, detail, pride and so much more. We are extremely pleased with the work they completed on our yard. We recommend Backes for your landscaping needs. You will not be disappointed.

We hired Backes Landscaping to install a patio and unfortunately, it was the most stressful and disappointing experience we’ve ever had dealing with a contractor.

We were excited for the work to start when their crew arrived. We experienced a few issues within the first few days.

First, I noticed movement out of my office window and motion detected on my camera system. Throughout the day, the workers were urinating down both sides of my house. I have a child and my neighbors have children. I explained that I do not appreciate people exposing themselves and relieving themselves on my property and the behavior stopped.

After the excavation was completed and the workers started to cut and lay the patio pavers, we mentioned a few additional issues. The cuts around our new pergola posts were in an irregular shape and looked unsightly. One worker blamed the foreman for that and said that he’d ask for the cuts to be done again on new pavers. That was not done.

During the initial consultation, we picked a Belgard step to lead from the upper concrete area to the new patio area. Instead, we ended up with two retaining wall blocks with block caps for the step. This is not what we agreed to in the design. The step looks cheap and the height between the concrete area, step, and patio is irregular, which is a trip hazard. I guess we’re stuck with this now.

The pavers were also laid in an odd pattern and sealed before we had a chance to look at the work. We chose some high quality, expensive concrete pavers in different shapes for a randomized pattern.

One of the block caps for the step was damaged. My wife asked for that to be replaced. When the foreman came back the next day to install a replacement block cap, he installed it so that it is not level. So now when we’re sitting on our patio, we’re looking at a wonky step.

During his visit, the foreman sealed between the remaining pavers using polymeric sand and wet it with the garden hose. I was out of town on a business trip at the time. The foreman told my wife to be careful not to get polymeric sand on the pavers themselves as it dries like concrete. When I returned home, I found that the foreman had gotten polymeric sand all over the pavers and I had to scrape and sweep it off.

Fast forward four weeks. We had some rainfall and I noticed that there was 1-2 inches of water standing in the corner area of my patio where it should have been draining off onto my lawn. The patio had clearly settled/sunk within the first four weeks. I sent a video to the owner of Backes Landscaping, Michael asking him if he could fix it.

They sent their foreman out again who said he would “look at the problem and give me some options”. He called me after an hour or so and showed me that he had drilled a hole in the polymeric sand between two pavers and scraped out more sand between pavers to allow water to drain underneath my patio, chipping some pavers in the process. Drilling a hole to drain water under the pavers isn't a long-term solution for Colorado's climate. With rain, snowmelt, and freeze-thaw cycles, that water will cause more significant damage over time. I’ve spoken to another professional who confirmed that concrete sand was not used over the crushed rock to ensure proper leveling.

Michael offered to come out to take the pavers off and try and correct the leveling and drainage, but we were so worried about them coming out and making problems worse yet again that we canceled the appointment. We are stuck with some permanent features that we didn’t ask for and shoddy work that we now have to pay another contractor to fix.

Finally, the owner of this business stopped answering my calls altogether and included his attorney in his email messages.

We are disappointed that we spent so much money and are left with poor quality work that we have to pay someone else to fix. My wife and I feel taken advantage of. I also have to pay someone to fix a broken sprinkler zone and fill in a trench that’s been left around the patio

Mike built a beautiful retaining wall for our home that will definitely last a long, long time. Mike was great to work with and really allowed us to take the time needed to choose the design and materials. His team if very professional and the work was very high quality.

I'd like to give shout out to Backes Landscaping. They did an incredible job on the many tasks I asked them to do. Thirsty included repairing a retaining wall, stabilizing a tool shed, excavating some embedded rock, and installing gravel on my driveway. Michael is both courteous and prompt with responses. I asked him to come back and recompile the driveway and he had a crew here the next morning. I also found that all the crew members courteous and a pleasure to work with.

We highly recommend Backes Landscaping for planting and hardscaping needs.
We have used Backes Landscaping for all our projects for our new home and will continue to, when needs arise and we add to our landscaping.
Michael is friendly, easy to work with and quickly responds to questions or when giving an estimate. He also is very helpful when problem solving and has experienced suggestions.
Michael’s crews are respectful, hard working and efficient. Getting the job done in the amount of time you were told the job would take.
Backes Landscaping does beautiful work and if you are not happy, will keep moving a rock until you are satisfied. To top it off they are very fair and reasonably priced.

Highly recommend Michael and his team for any project. We worked with him from out of state to install side and backyard landscaping which included drip irrigation, rocks, boulders, stepping stones, grass, bushes, and room for us to install our own flower bed. Being new to the area his team was super helpful with explaining irrigation. I have worked with many landscapers professionally in the past and Michael and his team are the best!

We highly recommend the Backes Landscaping team! They supported us through all the stages of our project, helped us break it into financially manageable chunks, and have been quick to help us with any questions that we have. Michael is always responsive and really listens to what we need. Then he supports his team to build what we wanted while making the end product even better than expected!

Backes Landscaping did a great job on my retaining wall. Careful consideration of our needs, minimal yard intrusion, expert work, continuous communication and good value for the service. I highly recommend.

Michael Backes was one of 3 vendors that we asked to quote reworking an existing stone patio and adding another stone surface as well as finishing a stone walkway that we had started to build. My wife swears that he could see the vision that she had for the back yard.

He gave us a reasonable quote for the work and a reasonable window to start work. We accepted the quote.

Michael and his PM, AJ, came onsite we talked over the job and AJ came back the next day with equipment and material ready to start. Overall it took 5 days to complete the work - including some extra work that we requested.

Overall, I can't say enough positive things about Backes Landscaping. 5 for Quality, 5 for doing what they said that they would. Would I use them again? Yes...