Yelp can be a helpful website to find reviews of local businesses from real people. The site goes to considerable lengths to ensure that the reviews posted are from actual people who have built a sincere relationship with the company they are reviewing. The only problem is that their “review filter” algorithm has mistakenly filtered several of Eco Brooklyn’s reviews despite our certainty that they are from actual clients. As you can see, we are not alone in our frustration with Yelp’s system which filters comments from users with “insufficient” profiles. http://localvox.com/how-to-avoid-the-yelp-review-filter-and-get-more-positive-reviews/
We love when our customers, whom we work with personally for weeks at a time, decide to express their thoughts on our work. When they are we happy, we are happy. When they are unsatisfied , we try and fix it. In the green building and sustainability business philosophy, transparency is critical. Hopefully Yelp and other websites like it will figure out a better by-case method of filtering and our clients words will help build us forward.
Without further ado, here are the “unaired” comments from Yelp that we recognize as clients.
http://www.yelp.com/biz/eco-brooklyn-brooklyn
Topper B. from Brooklyn, NY on 7/8/2013
We have worked with Eco Brooklyn on a couple home repairs over the years and they have always been great. We first approached them to install a green roof on our building but decided to postpone the expense in favor of other fixes (we hope to have them do the green roof one day soon though!).
Most recently we hired them to install a large planter and trellis along the length of our building that was getting hammered with sun. They were amazing in their design. Using all salvaged materials, rainwater capture and native plants they designed and built the most beautiful green wall.
We love it. It is so far from your generic planter and trellis. It looks incredible and comes with all sorts of sweet smelling climbers and edibles (grapes and blueberries for one).
The crew was so considerate and friendly. Having worked with a few contractors, can’t say enough how important that was. They started on schedule and stayed on schedule as promised despite heavy rain. They went above and beyond in working around our schedule.
We highly recommend Eco Brooklyn as a green builder. We can’t say enough good things about them.
Emma W. from Brooklyn, NY on 7/5/2013 (5 Stars)
If you’re looking to have your garden landscaped I would highly recommend Eco Brooklyn. We’ve been renovating our brownstone working with general contractors and subcontractors over the period of about 2 years, Gennaro Brooks-Church and his team have by far been the most reliable and efficient we have worked with so far. Thanks to Gennaro we now have a beautiful garden made entirely from low embodied energy raw materials and found materials. Working with Gennaro is an education in of itself, if your interested in having a sustainable house or garden without compromising on design, timing or budget then eco brooklyn is definitely the right choice.
Lisa G. from Brooklyn, NY on 6/11/2013 (4 Stars)
Gennaro Brooks-Church helped to restore the backyard of our apartment. The soil was heavily polluted w lead and other heavy metals, was unplantable and not safe for our son. Gennaro and his team we were able to execute a beautiful and sustainable hardscape and planting bed using salvaged bricks, reclaimed blue stone and organic top soil. He worked within the landlords budget and was able to adjust the design to reflect our needs while keeping it “green” – and it looks like it has been part of the property for years. His team was helpful and kept the apartment clean and safe during the work process and they completed the job in a timely manner just in time for summer!
Samaa H. from Brooklyn, NY on 9/24/2012 (5 Stars)
I found Eco Brooklyn by spotting some reclaimed wood shelves in a store that looked almost exactly like what I was trying to find for my living room. I called Gennaro Brooks-Church, and in no time, he came to see the place and designed a beautiful shelving set for the living room. He spent a great deal of time discussing every aspect of the shelves (thickness, color, degree of wear on the wood) to make sure that I would be happy with the final product. I was having some doubts about the color finish and he helped me think it through and come up with a fantastic finish that matched the character of the room and the wall colors. He took little time to fabricate the shelves and in no time, was ready to have them installed. His installation folks did a great job on the installation, and spent hours fitting the shelves in (even working through a piping tube that they had to carve holes around) and the result is magnificent. The shelves look like they always belonged there, and they truly add a lot of character to the living room. They are simply gorgeous! I highly recommend Gennaro and his team. He is friendly, resourceful and has excellent taste, while being very reasonable on pricing. Overall a great experience!
Claran S. from Brooklyn, NY on 8/5/2012 (5 Stars)
From start to finish we really enjoyed our experience working with Eco Brooklyn. Gennaro and his team were incredibly knowledgeable, professional and always on time. We were looking for someone who experience in sustainable gardening. Our yard was a mess with old rubble and decayed tree stumps. Gennaro used most of these items in the new garden which avoided landfill etc. and reduced costs. All his ideas were great and they really work!! We would absolutely use Gennaro and his team again. We can highly recommend them.
G.P. from Brooklyn, NY on 6/4/2012 (5 Stars)
Eco Brooklyn designed and installed a green roof garden on the roof of an addition that extended into our back yard. To get ultra-specific, they installed a root barrier, a drainage layer, a water retention mat, a gaia soil green roof growing medium, a jute layer, a compost layer, a mulch layer, as well as stepping stones and a variety of plantings from sedum, to blueberries and garlic and wildflowers. They did a wonderful job and the garden is just crazy beautiful to look out onto from our kitchen window – it’s also a hyper fertile growing environment and so far we’ve had nothing but success with every item we’ve planted back there – the soil recipe is pretty magical !
Gennaro is an extremely innovative green contractor and he doesn’t just use the tag of “green” as a marketing ploy – he cares deeply about issues of sustainability and he has come up with unique and thoughtful solutions. He is extremely efficient and capable as well as thoughtful. Unlike most contractors, who never bother to check in once a job is completed, he has followed up on his work multiple times to make sure our garden is still prospering and that it is draining properly which has been much appreciated.
Dan S. from Brooklyn, NY on 5/17/2012 (5 Stars)
Eco-Brooklyn just finished isolating the old lead tainted soil in our backyard redesigning our garden, and making it into a safe space for children and adults alike. We decided to test our soil because we love spending time in the garden, and wanted to share the experience with our toddler. After testing the soil in our backyard we discovered that lead levels were quite high. The levels were probably not abnormal for Brooklyn backyards with many years of lead paint and pipes, but dangerous to our toddler nonetheless. When we looked around for a company with experience in dealing with lead in the garden we drew a blank until we discovered Eco-Brooklyn. In fact, it was so clear that Eco-Brooklyn knew what it was doing in comparison to other companies that we chose Eco-Brooklyn over another company, a nursery, that gave us a lower estimate.
The team at Eco-Brooklyn dismantled our raised bed and took the soil and spread it around the garden. They took apart our rock garden and put the components aside. They removed and put aside plants that we wanted to keep and carefully trimmed the trees in the garden. They increased the area in our garden by taking down a fence and trimming a bush that had reduced our space by about 40 square feet They then put down a root barrier over the old soil and covered that with six inches of untainted soil, carefully working around existing trees. They the rebuilt and refilled the raised bed, reconstructed the rock garden and subtly redesigned the whole garden giving us more space and a reclaimed hardwood deck in the far right corner. The result was beautiful! We look forward to playing in the garden, planting vegetables and flowers with our child and entertaining friends for years to come. Eco-Brooklyn’s employees were astoundingly careful, moving hundreds of square feet of soil through our house with hardly any mess, cleaning up every day. They took strict measures to keep the contaminated soil isolated and out of our house.
Gennaro Brooks-Church, the owner of Eco-Brooklyn was fabulous to work with. He was attentive to our vision and budget and at the same time full of ideas and enthusiasm, coming up with creative and attractive ways to achieve our goals. Gennaro is passionate about ecologically sensitive gardening and design. It is clear he truly loves what he does and that excellent workmanship and service are a point of pride. He was very generous with his time, extremely responsive to calls and emails. He wanted us to be delighted, not just pleased. We are!