Lake Jem Farms

AVOID...Avoid at ALL Costs! Paid $454 for 3 pallets of dead sod...nothing but dried-out roots in dried-out sand. (appears palleted and left out in a field somewhere for several months!) Immediately called and spoke to a women who said wait 2 weeks. Tried to find sod roots in all the sand and plant them. Our mistake...should have forced company to pick up all 3 pallets immediately! 2 weeks later called and text photos of dead sod...said will take care of us and had just been busy. 3 weeks now...NO response from company... we are putting grass seed.

The crew was very respectful, the jobs were done well ,and we were very pleased with the fact that they stand by their contracts, guarantee their work, and consideration for their customers, Their installations and SOD quality are excellent.

First let me begin with quality. My experience with the installers was great. They were respectful, fast, asked a few questions about how I wanted work done. They hit only one sprinkler head and when I wold them I would fix, they refused to allow me to fix it. They dug it up and made the repair with my spare flex pipe and fitting before they left. You can see in the photos the quality of sod. The area I see that this company should improve upon is the sales rep. I feel that Jim G did not do an adequate job. Maybe he isn't used to dealing with private res who's got questions about dumping $1200 into grass. Whatever info I was able to get required tele call after tele call after email after email. Most of the time he didn't ever reply except for the one question about invoice. That seems the only thing I could get an answer on. Even though some hassle, I would still use them again.

This was an expensive resodding job. Company representatives were pleasant and professional. Several things caused some concern on the install however:
1. The truck with sod arrived without the call in advance we were expecting.
2. After install, we waited for weeks to receive a visit from our salesperson, which was promised, so that he could inspect the job.for quality. We heard nothing until the company called asking where our payment was. We told them we expected the salesperson and he hadn't come out yet. They asked if we still wanted to have him out and of course said yes, as we had expected, and we paid that day.
3. We showed the salesperson several sections of sod along the driveway that looked near death. He said they were too dry and needed water.
The next summer of 2011, the sod looked good, except for those sections that had appeared dead to us. They looked better with lots of rain, for example, but never great. We have a regular lawn service that manages feedings and weed control. In spite of regular care, and watering as often and deeply as required and allowed by watering restrictions, the sod began to decline and fill with weeds and large dead brown spots in late 2011. By last summer 2012, our lawn looked awful. It is full of weeds in spite of having weed control applied, and much of the lawn looks dead as had the sections around the driveway from the get-go.
Our $3,000 sod investment was lost, within a year or so of install. In Lake Jem's defense, we should have complained after the initial steep decline in late 2011. Still, I would not use them again, nor would I recommend zoysia sod for our area.

It was a good experience, and I would absolutely recommend them to others. They really know their product too. He also had good advice for my grass.

Had a very satisfactory experience expecially with Jim Ladd in charge of the job. Kept us informed of the appointed times and always called if there was a change. He was always ready to answer any questions we had to our satisfaction.