Getting established
Darsan grew from humble beginnings, with its first office operating out of a spare bedroom in Aiello’s home; down the street, a makeshift ‘yard’ (10 rented parking spots in a local lot) served as an equipment storage space. The partners later moved to an office in Concord, Ont., complete with a small equipment yard, where they spent the next five years establishing their reputation and growing the business.
“Our passion has always been the residential work,” Aiello says. “The gratification is phenomenal. When the project’s done, it’s just overwhelming, both for the homeowners and ourselves. That’s what we’re striving for.”
Pools have long been an important element of Darsan’s landscaping work. The decision to add a full-time pool professional was made in part to streamline operations.
“A lot of our clientele were into gunite pools and would hire their own pool companies,” Shaver says. “We also had pool companies that would bring us into their jobs. We really didn’t get involved in the swimming pool end of it until recently, when we started our in-house vinyl-liner pool company.”
Though Shaver and Aiello say gunite pools are ideal for their high-profile projects, they also recognize these pools don’t always fit into a customer’s budget.
“Some of our landscapes are $300,000 to $400,000, but they have a vinyl pool in them,” Shaver explains. “The rest of the landscaping costs so much money that to spend an extra $60,000 on a gunite pool is not feasible. The problem, of course, is most clientele want a vinyl-liner pool to look like a gunite pool. We have to do the detail around the pool to make it look like its gunite.”
Open and honest
Whether or not a pool is involved, Shaver and Aiello are always mindful of the bottom line, especially when it comes to quoting on projects. Shaver says even the slightest bit of price flexibility can make a lasting impression on a client.
“We will try to give a customer a break on things, try to make it work within their budget,” he says. “We try to educate our client from day one about every option prior to starting the job. In our industry, a lot of people will give you a price beforehand, but when the work starts they say, ‘Well, I never priced this; we need to put it in.’ They trick the client and, at the end, come in with the big ‘extras.’ We don’t believe in unforeseeable extras.”
The pair says their experience helps them create and provide a more complete assessment of the project, unlike designers who may not have a firm understanding of labour and material costs.
“Designers will draw up the design, present it and even provide the price, but there’s a lot of grey area, because the designer doesn’t know enough about the construction end of things. We’re a lot more informative because of our construction background.”
