We had a wooden two-tier retaining wall that was starting to fail and wanted it to be replaced by a boulder/rock retraining wall. Being new to the area, I read Angie's List reviews for different businesses in this area that could complete a rock/boulder two- or three-tier retaining wall. I rec'd several estimates, but decided to go with Gibson Grading and Construction after reading their reviews and meeting with Mr. David Gibson (hereafter referred to as David). Even though David's estimate was slightly more than others, he was more knowledgeable and said he would do the work himself instead of handing it off to others as some of the other companies said they would (and just come by to check on their employees). The fact that David has a civil engineer degree helped in my decision. I did have to wait a few months to get on the schedule as Mr. Gibson does prioritize his jobs since he has some urgent requests (road washouts, etc.), so I completely understood. I am sort of a worrywort, and David is very laid back so that helped and he walked me through the process and let me and my husband go with him to choose the boulders/rocks we wanted for the wall so we were not surprised and worked with him throughout the process. Once David got into the job, he realized that the previous retaining wall had been built on sandy soil and that is why it was giving way (that, and other trash and concrete blocks in the sandy soil didn't help matters). They (yes, just David and his dad, Mr. Joseph Gibson) removed the old retaining wall/trash, and brought in some dirt. Utilizing two dump trucks and a tractor that had a fork lift, backhoe, and bucket (oh, and a gas-powered wheelbarrow!!), they were able to bring in huge boulders for the lower wall and medium size/smaller rock for the upper tiers and finished it off with mulch and river rock near the road. We live on a busy residential state road so they had to deal with all the traffic every time they set a boulder, etc. In addition, our road had just been re-asphalted this year so I was concerned they would hurt it with their equipment. However, I was just amazed at how clean they kept things as they worked and you can't even tell there was equipment on the asphalt as David brought in a rubber mat so that the tractor didn't crumble the edges of the asphalt. David used his amazing creativity in envisioning and building the curves for our retaining wall, picking just the right rocks to give it a very well-balanced uniqueness with textures and colors, and also in coming up with ideas so that I could maintain the plants on the bank safely. He worked some steps and another very small walking area at the top of the slope so that I wouldn't have to climb a steep bank to weed and maintain plants, also making sure that an electrical box on the hill was accessible and stable. In all of Gibson Grading and Construction Angie's List reviews, the theme that came through was that they were very dedicated and went above and beyond. This job was the same! If he had an extra boulder, or rocks, or mulch, or whatever from the job, he asked where I wanted it and put it there. His Dad Joe is his right hand and can also handle everything David does and they pretty much know what the other needs by just looking at each other! They are an amazing team and and it was my immense pleasure to have been able to work with them for that short amount of time. I will definitely call them back for my next project!! Oh, and the neighbors have ALL given their thumbs up to the beautiful work they did!
Problem all started one day, when our cable TV installer told me that he had noticed a significant accumulation of water in our crawl space -- located under the main part of our home. Without hesitation, I knew the man that I wanted on this job-- David Gibson (Gibson's Grading and Construction).
David came out to the house within a day or so. After a thorough examination of our home and property, he gave me the diagnosis. Due to improper drainage of our backyard - coupled with an improperly installed & faulty Gutter System, the ground in and around our Home's foundation was completely saturated with water. In fact during periods of prolonged rain, a small pond would develop in our backyard. Over time this problem resulted in a significant amount of water forced its way into the crawl space under the main part of our house and the crawl space under sun room). Further, the high moisture content (in the crawl space under the Sun Room) resulted in a significant amount of mold to build up over time. (Fortunately, because Dave is a licensed and certified Mold Remediation Specialist in North Carolina, he was able to completely eradicate ALL Mold under our Sun Room.)
Note: David also pointed out (during his initial inspection) that the water buildup in the crawl space under the main part of our home, had also resulted in the ground under the foundation's "Footing" to significantly erode to the point that a complete "reinforcement" of the footing was needed.
The bottom line-
A. Upon Dave's strong recommendation, prior to Dave's arrival, I had a Gutter company replace and relocate our downspouts so that the water was properly channeled away from the house.
Summary of David Gibson's Work:
1. Dave and his wonderful 'dad' installed an "Engineered" drain system in our backyard. Important- while this more 'robust' drainage system was NOT initially quoted, after Dave began his work, he discovered that our backyard's soil was much too 'sandy' for a standard drainage system. And because Dave ALWAYS has his customers best interest in mind- "at his own expense" he installed the more expensive "Engineered" drainage system.
Something else that I want to mention. While some contractors may opt to run the downspouts into the "same" backyard drain system (to save cost and time)- Dave believes that there are times (during heavy downpours) that the water flowing from the downspouts could easily overload this drain system configuration. As such, Dave ran a TWO separate Huge (10 inch- I believe) Drain Lines- one for proper backyard drainage and the second for the downspouts. Very impressive to say the least!
Time to install the Backyard "Engineered Drain System" -- about 5 days.
2. After Dave had finished the work in the backyard, he began the work in the main part of the crawl space. ** Good news, thanks to Dave's outstanding professional expertise --- our crawl space under the main part of the house (which previously had in one place 3-6 inches of standing water) was now Completely free from all traces of standing water!
This then permitted Dave to begin the work on reinforcing our foundation's 'footer'. He completed this "extensive" work in approximately 5-6 days. I must say, that when you are dealing with your home's foundation-- obviously since a successful job is crucial --- it is essential that you find a contractor who is absolutely 100% TRUSTWORTHY . The point is this- it would be very difficult for an average homeowner (who is not a structural engineer) to determine if the job was correctly done. As such, I no choice but to put my complete and absolute trust in David that the job would be done Perfectly - Period.
I will tell you this -- after having worked with Dave over the first week -- I had determined that David was a man of exceptional "character"-- someone I could completely Trust. Whatever the problem (even if it was a unforeseen problem that needed to be taken care of) -- I was absolutely confident that Dave would take care of it -- and He would do it --- AT HIS OWN EXPENSE. This is just the type of guy Dave is. Truly, he is One of a Kind!
** (side note: I believe that he has been an answer to our prayers and as a result David Gibson has been unquestionably a Blessing from God ). I would give David Gibson ( Gibson's Grading and Construction) my highest recommendation. )
Description of work:
Installed a complete
Engineered Drain System throughout our large back yard - providing 'outstanding' drainage for our lawn and in addition, the gutter 'downspouts' were also tied into the system. Secondly, provided
Concrete Reinforcement -- for the entire concrete 'footer' that supported one of the main 'load bearing walls' in our 4200 sq. foot house. Thirdly, he provided
Mold Remediation for the crawl spaces (both under the main part of our home and our sun room).
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After David assessed the damage, he gave me a complete and detailed estimate of the work to be done. As it turned out, the cracks were present because there was no footer in two 8 foot sections of the house. He knew about the first one but not the second. This was important, for the reason that he did not change his charges for the work. He even found three other problems that needed repair, and charged for neither! I feel fortunate that he is a civil engineer rather than simply a contractor because of the nature of the project, yet he was able to describe the work to be done in terms a layman can understand Being an engineer, he is a perfectionist, that is, he made sure that the job was done correctly. In addition, he apprised me of the progress throughout the seven days it took. As well, he provided me with pictures of the work from the crawl space. His communication skills are, simply put, excellent. Furthermore, his manner remained pleasant, personable and professional, despite the fact that he had to drag 4 cubic yards of concrete, bag by bag, into the crawl space, mix and pour, and attach the new footers to the old ones with rebar. In sum, it is hard to believe that I was able to have someone who performed a job like this so accurately, professionally, and by a person who is so pleasant to work with and dedicated to his work. If I have the misfortune to have a similar problem in the future, I’d hire him in a heartbeat.
David Gibson put in a beautiful road for us through our property when the road behind our house collapsed in late December of 2015. We needed to provide access for out neighbors to be able to get out and David did an incredible job at that time. This job which was completed in November of 2016 was annual maintenance, widening of the road and reinforcement of a steep area at the top of the road. As always, David did a professional, excellent job. He is one of the nicest people we have ever worked with and we trust him completely. He is professional, friendly, punctual and is always willing to work with his customers, especially if they are in financial straits. I would give him higher than an A if possible. Will definitely be hiring him again and recommend him highly
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"Put in new access road for neighbors after road collapse."
If we could give David Gibson and his father 10 stars, we would! Never in our experience with having any kind of work done have we had such an incredibly positive experience.
Due to heavy rains and other factors, the gravel road that runs behind our house collapsed. We knew of David Gibson through neighbors so another neighbor and I called him to look at this very dangerous situation. After looking at the road, David, a civil engineer, declared it unsafe. We are just grateful that nobody was hurt or killed when the road collapsed and totally agreed with David's assessment.
David notified his other customers of the situation and they graciously understood that this was a job that needed to be done as soon as possible (thank you all!) When we purchased our home, we understood that we had to provide an access road through our property in case of a situation like this, so we already had a rough area cleared and wide gates on our fence. David and his father came to work immediately and put in a wonderful new road for our neighbors to get out.
(At the time of writing this review, David is working with other neighbors who have lost total access to this new road because of their proximity to the collapsed road.)
But the story goes far beyond excellent work and professionalism. I have never met anyone who has cared so deeply for the safety of everyone and has done everything in his power to work with the seven of us involved in this unfortunate situation. At one point, David was ready to begin a fundraiser to help with neighbors who couldn't afford the work to be done! He stayed in touch with us daily prior to the job through emails and phone calls to all involved. He and his father were punctual, professional, friendly - in short - outstanding!
The job that David and his father did on putting in the new permanent road was excellent. Several large trucks have already been up the road with no problems. We needed our driveway graded and he and his father did that for us too. We will continue working with Gibson Grading on having the road maintained over the years, but hopefully will continue the professional relationship in friendship.
I called David to look at a wall project for me and my wife, he met with us and we was very impressed by him off the bat, he took his time with us for us to ask questions and go over detail of the project and made sure we was comfortable thru the process! We had 3 other contractors before him look at this project and his knowledge and expertise by far was light years ahead of them, he sent us a bid which was $5000 higher than other bids so I asked him why higher in that amount and David told me that the grade, watershed that extra measures with anchors, geo grid, drains will have to be took because if it is not the wall would fail within 4-6 months with conditions, the other contractors did not mention any of this at all and they said a standard build would work, I asked David if he could take that portion out to reduce cost and he said if he did then wall would fail and he told me that he would not build anything knowing it would fail and put his customers in a bad position! I let David know I was going to hire another contractor and I decided to roll the dice, David was very Gracious and told us he appreciated the opportunity and if he could be a help in the future let him know.
5 months after our wall was built it failed and fell over and I remember David telling me areas it would happen and he was right, this was a disaster, I called David and told him what happened and I was expecting him to tell us he told us so and rub our noses in it but he did not do that at all, David is very cool and humble in fact his attitude was let’s get this fixed and make sure this does not happen again, we hired him to fix the wall and unlike the other guy he involved us in each part of the project and gave us daily reports and he was a joy to work with and as we got to know him he is a highly educated and talented!
He done a wonderful job and people who reads this review I want them to know do not make this mistake I did not hiring David! He is the best at what he does and light years ahead of anyone else! He is honest, humble and will do what is best for you! Hiring anyone else but David is a mistake!
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"Customer Testimonials"
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Gibson Grading And Construction
Great work! David was so helpful and kept in constant contact throughout the project. We just bought the home and it was in need of some drainage and crawlspace work before we could move in. He exceeded our expectations and did extra work not included in our quote for no additional cost (installed a mailbox, built a new crawlspace access door, removed an old basketball pole concrete foundation in the driveway, repaired a well connection). After installing the drains, he seeded the area. He even put up with a snake problem we had. Gibson's Grading and Construction is a reliable company that you can count on to get your project done. We highly recommend David and plan to hire him again for other projects.
Candler, N.C.