Why You Should Hire an Experienced Landscape Contractor
When it comes to transforming your outdoor spaces, the expertise and experience of the company you choose can make all the difference. Whether you are a homeowner looking to create a serene garden retreat or a business owner aiming to enhance your property’s curve appeal, hiring an experienced landscaping and excavation company is essential.
Today we’re excited to sit down with Cullen Linkenheimer, the owner of Missing Link Landscaping and Excavation. With years of hands-on experience and a passion for crafting beautiful, functional landscapes, Colin is here to share his insights on why choosing a season professional is crucial for your landscaping grading projects. Join us as we delve into the benefits of hiring an experienced landscaping and excavation company and discover how it can elevate your property to new heights.
About Missing Link Landscaping and Excavation
Colin, can you start by telling us about Missing Link Landscaping and Excavation and the range of services that you offer?
“So the range of services we offer at Missing Link Landscape and Excavation is a very wide range. Whether it’s hardscaping, you know, back transforming your backyard, making it to an oasis, designing a yard, or anything outdoors, we’re pretty much your go-to person there. We have experience in all the fields, whether it’s a fence, grading, walkways, patios, anything in that nature, walls, we can help you out there. So if you have any, you know, projects or any ideas that you want to make your outdoor space, you know, you want to transform it, you know, we got the experience and the people to make that happen.”
Advantages of Hiring Experienced Professionals
Now what are some of the key advantages of hiring an experienced landscaping and excavation company compared to less experienced contractors?
“Some of the big advantages that I’ve seen at least in the industry is not every job usually goes as planned. There are things you run into, whether it’s, you know, pipes that weren’t marked, bad soil, sometimes supplies aren’t as as well as you thought they would be. But with our experience, and we are very detail oriented, we make sure to get the things done at 100%, you know, customer satisfaction to our satisfaction. We treat every project like it’s our backyard, and if I’m not happy with it, then we’re not going to do it.
“So, you know, we got broken pipes, we’re not going to cover it up. We’ve seen people take shortcuts, cut corners, and you know, we get called in because we had to fix a mistake that another company did. So that’s usually the benefit when hiring someone experienced is that we can get in there and do it right the first time, instead of you as the homeowner paying twice the cost because you had to pay for it and it wasn’t done right, and then we have to come in and fix it. So when it comes to hiring somebody with experience, always look for somebody that has experience in whatever you’re trying to do get done.”
Impact of Experience on Project Outcomes
“That’s great, it’s very important, especially when, you know, you’re trusting your home, which is most people’s largest investment, and also when it comes to businesses, so commercial spaces. So how does your experience in the industry translate into better project outcomes for homeowners and business owners specifically?”
“Well, just like you said, usually their homes are their biggest, you know, biggest investment. So usually when you do something to your home, you know, if you ever look to sell it or down the road, you can put that investment back into that home. And same thing with businesses, businesses, you know, they don’t want liability, but they want to stay clean, and they want to keep the business presentable.
“So when hiring somebody experienced like, you know, Missing Link ourselves, we make sure that the project is done, you know, to everybody satisfaction. And one, it will up the value of your home and it will also up the presence, what we like to call, I guess, road appeal or curb appeal to your home and as well as your business too. You know, there’s nothing better than having a clean appearance as a business, looks more professional on the business side. So we’re here to make that happen.”
A Specific Project Example
“Now can you share a specific project where your expertise made a significant difference in the quality and efficiency of the work?”
“Actually, we just finished a project that we wrapped on. We were on the project for about six weeks, and we pretty much transformed the whole backyard. Before we started, they had issues with water running into the basement because they were on the hillside, and so we had to take care of that. We pretty much regraded the entire yard, put a walkway in, put new drain pipes in, and we made sure the water was going away from the home and not towards the home.
“And some of the things that we ran into, like I said, you know, earlier that you asked a question on why is it good to hire an experienced contractor or landscaper, is we ran into a couple pipes, a couple drain pipes that, they were old, they were inactive, but we got them out of the way.
We double checked, we made sure that, you know, they weren’t still active. We also ran into a couple things where it looks like a previous, either a previous contractor or landscaper did not put the pipes incorrect, and we had to fix those. They were actually getting water near the house. So while we were there, we took care of that to make sure that our drainer system was working as well as, you know, any other drainer systems they had.
“So that was actually, like I said, that was the last project that we did, and so far I don’t see anything, you know, anything in the future, but we’ve had a lot of big rains and all the rains are running away from the house. The customer is very satisfied, no complaints, no more puddles in the yard, and so that’s one of the projects we did.”
Common Pitfalls for Less Experienced Companies
“That’s awesome. What are some of the common pitfalls or challenges that less experienced companies might encounter, and how do you interest…”
“No, the less experience, like I said, the biggest one is usually bad soil or not prepping. Whether it’s a wall or walkway or patio, not prepping your surface well enough. We have been called in because they’ve gotten a wall installed and within 2 years the wall either started to lean or it started to shift and stuff like that. Now, if it’s done the right way, it should not be moving anytime, you know, in the near future.
“But a lot of times when that moves, that is due to bad soil or, you know, not enough back fill on the wall. That grading and excavation was not done correctly. So how we handle it is we do it correctly. I mean, it’s as simple as that, you know. We make sure that the foundation, you got to think of it as a house. The house has a good foundation, the rest of the house stands. It’s a bad foundation, the house will fall. So that’s how we approach every project, is that we have to have a good base with anything we do. If not, you know, it won’t stand the test of…”
Benefits of Dual Expertise in Landscaping and Excavation
“On the next question is how does having extensive experience in both landscaping and excavation, how does that benefit?”
“Oh, it benefits us is that we can offer the wide range of services that we can, you know, we can offer you. Landscaping sides, which is anything you would like to do in your outdoor, you know, in your yard or around your house, because we have the experience to do so, whether it’s just a mulch bed or, you know, water feature. Like I said, you know, anything outdoors, we can take care of that landscaping side.
“And on the excavating side, you know, if you have issues with water or drainage or stuff like that, we can also handle that. They go hand in hand too, because if you don’t have good drainage, you know, it may ruin your landscaping project, or it may not, it may make your yard, you know, you can’t work in it if it’s soak and wet or stuff like that. But they go hand in hand because as soon as you’re done excavating, usually when excavation requires a lot of dirt work, so usually it gets ripped up, but after the mess is cleaned up, we can turn it in and make it look presentable again.”
The Role of Proper Grading
“Now we’ve talked about drainage and we’ve talked about, you know, landscaping. Now let’s talk about grading. What role does proper grading play in the overall success of a landscaping project, and how does the experience that you guys have factor into achieving optimal?”
“So proper grading and drainage and everything go hand in hand, at least in this Pittsburgh area. Those two things are crucial. We get a lot of rain, you know, we have all four seasons here, and everywhere, everybody’s on a hill. So if you have poor grade, like if your yard sloped in a certain way, or water is running through the house, that’s usually when they, that’s what we call, we need to regrade your yard.
“When we talk about regrading the yard, we talk about, you know, directing water away from the house, either to a drain or at least down a hill somewhere else away from your house. So when it comes to grading, either a driveway, a hillside, or anything in that nature, we need to take the time to make sure that everything is going away from the house. We don’t have any puddles building up anywhere that can cause, you know, issues down the road or that can cause erosion.
“Erosion is another big one that we have to watch for, but with our experience, we know we eliminate the headaches that you may have as a homeowner in worrying that those things may happen.”
Local Regulations and Permits
“Now let’s discuss the importance of understanding local regulations and permits in landscaping and excavation projects. How does your experience help in navigating these things for customers?”
“As for the local permits and regulations, we pretty much will work with the homeowner as well as the township or, you know, the burrow in getting the permits that we need. So for example, fences, we need permits. We can provide the homeowner with the paperwork, sit down with them, help them fill it out, and get the permits that they need. We can also, if the township or anybody has any questions, such as they’re asking for blueprints or, you know, they’re asking, how are we going to do this, we can provide that information to them to allow the permit process to keep moving.
“We try to take as much stress off the homeowner as possible when it comes to getting the permits. I know it can be confusing, but with our experience, that’s why we’re here, is we’re here to help you, you know, move things along so we can get started as soon as possible.”
Choosing the Right Company
“That is awesome that you’re able to help homeowners and business owners through that process, because I know it can be frustrating, especially with all the hoops and red tape that you got to go through. Now, what should homeowners and business owners look for when choosing a landscaping and excavation company to ensure they’re hiring experienced professionals? How do they know?”
“Well, you know, in 2024 the best way to think about it is looking at reviews. We have references that we can give you as well, of past clients, the type of project we did, whether it’s residential or commercial. But the best way, I mean, social media can be good and bad, but, you know, we have a good presence on social media. We have a very large clientele that speaks very highly of us. You know, we try to please everybody we can.
“But when it comes to trying to pick between an experienced person or not, just ask around. Ask around, we can, you know, even call the people on our reference list. They’ll explain the project, they can tell you what we did, how long we were there, you know, what type of people we are and who I am as myself. So when it comes to looking for experience, ask around, and we can also kind of guide you so you can ask people for yourself so you just don’t hear it from us.”
Staying Updated with Trends and Techniques
“All right, last question. How do you stay updated with the latest techniques, trends, and technologies in landscaping and excavation to continually provide top-notch services to your clients?”
“So that’s a great, that’s a great question. I mean, there are constantly new things coming out. There’s new technology every day, even with our equipment that we have and that we use on the job site. We stay up to the day, even during like our slow season and stuff like that, we go to conferences, we try different machines, and we get up to date on technology. And, you know, we see what’s coming our way. If we find it useful, we may, you know, move forward with that and add that to our inventory of things that we have.
“But it keeps us, the good thing is, is that keeps us knowing what the industry is like, different news updates in the landscaping. There’s different products, you know, different types of stone that come out all the time, but they, they’re very good at least giving you, you know, the specifications on everything that comes out. We take that knowledge and we put that into your project.”
Conclusion
“That’s great. Well, that’s all we’ve got for today. Thank you for answering the questions and being here with us, and we hope to, you know, catch up with you again next week and see what you can share with us then.”
“Absolutely.”