If you don't like it ..do you leave it?

Say you are doing a new landscape and have installed some plants of loose rock work or a pathway'or something like that..and it looked great on paper but after the installation you come to the realization that this is looking pretty bad,
you don't like it and it just does not "work" with the rest of what you had going on with that job.
Do you rip it out and start over with another idea or arrangement and do it on your own dime?..or do you walk away from it because what's done is done? done?

 

Hi, Haveing read some of your other posts / thoughts, I'd bet my bottom dollar that you'd just change it!!!!!....and by the way, did you get a breast augmentation or something?.......You look different now? or maybe you changed you hair style?

 

That's why it's always best to lay out the plants/material first in a dry run. I can usually tell just by the dry run whether I will like it

 

Lots of times the "as built" looks a bit different then the design but to answer your question...Yes it would get changed on my dime.

 

If you don't like it there is a good chance that someone else won't like it either. If left this will reflect your work and work that does not look well does not sell future work well.

 

I would have to explain it to the customer....If they loved it and didn't want anything changed then you may have to leave it. I always explain to them my thoughts and if they still don't want it touched then I move on.
Unless you were given artistic freedom and they were your choices and not the customers then I say on your dime brutha!!!

 

I always seem to think I could have done it better. I would ask the customer because they my think it is great even if I did not

 

Nope if they seen the design and approved it then thats the way it stays. BUT I would add to it at cost if its was something that the customer and I both thought would make it look better. I never run into a situation where it would be nessacary to change something altogether. 1 or 2 plants no problem but I think you could leave the bad choice materials and add another 1 or 2 small changes at cost and completly change the looks.

 

Usually you can tell before something is complete if it is going to look good or not.
Doing a dry run of plant placement is the norm and always a good thing to do,set out the plants per design and make sure it will work.
I almost always have artistic freedom when it comes to my landscape installations,but sometimes that can be a bad thing too,best to do your expressing on paper 1st.When using materials and design a customer has picked out or made up their mind on can be tricky,when you Know it's going to look bad,you gotta tell them that,if they insist and you do it anyway it makes your work look bad and reflects on your reputation,
sometimes it's best to walk away from a potential nightmare mess that a customer has designed to save yourself embarrassment,
but that is not always possible either so you do your best with it and that's all you can do.
Most customers are going to like whatever you do to their bare dirt yard cuz anything will look better than what they have been looking at,
but it is up to us as professionals to set ourselves a standard of quality and not walk away from something that has turned out to look lousy from how we envisioned in the design.The cust is gonna like it no matter what 99% of the time.
Like olderthan said,just changing the placement of a few plants may make all the difference in the world to your design .
I never walk away thinking I don't like the way things turned out,I will change it or fix it to my standard of what I think looks good and on my dime.
I have walked away from bad customer design jobs,
and lost money doing so,but in the long run this has worked out for reputation wise.
What I have lost in money from those jobs I have gained back in pride and reputation

 

If the customer likes it, leave it! Most customers won't see or realize things that you or me will.