Landscaping subcontractors    by David Abbott

in Other    (submitted 2010-12-13)

There are many companies in Calgary who currently use subcontractors to complete their landscaping installations for them on behalf of their company. In most cases, the customer is unaware that there will be a subcontractor installing their landscaping until after the contract or agreement is made. Most times it is not until the job is under way that the customer realizes there are subcontractors working on their property. The customer often finds out when they decide to discuss the specifics of their landscaping with the worker and they realize the worker is a separate company who has received their instructions from another company. I have many concerns with subcontractors working on behalf of companies and I have seen many of these arrangements go bad and the customer is usually the one to suffer. The main reason bringing in a subcontractor can be a problem is because it introduces another decision maker into the mix. There are many grey areas in landscaping that the homeowner and the landscaper have to work their way through. When you have a third person involved in the plan that can create more room for misunderstandings and mistakes. For instance; Mrs, Clark specifies her desire for removal of 1/2 of her garden bed in order to accommodate a new pathway. The company relays this to the subcontractor, who is installing the project a month later, by memory and mistakenly removes the entire bed including Mrs. Clark's prized roses. This is only one example of how subcontracting can go wrong. Payment terms including who to pay, are often a common problem as well. The Landscaping subcontractors can end up knocking on the customers door for payment, when the customer has already paid the company in full!
If you are planning a landscaping project in Calgary I would highly recommend you ask your landscaper if they use subcontractors. At Chinook Landscaping Calgary we have never chosen to use a subcontractor and that way we can better install your landscaping according to your requests.

About the Author

Website: http://www.landscapingcalgary.org
David Abbott has been in the landscaping industry for over 20 years. As the owner/operator of Chinook Landscaping in Calgary and Medicine Hat, he is also the creator of http://www.landscapingcalgary.net The leading on-line landscaping resource in Calgary