Hamel Bros Landscaping

I was very happy

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Family owned business, four bothers. Paul does the estimates, very knowledgeable and personable. They are very good at planting design consultaion and installation as well as general landscaping.

Price was fair and competitive. A pleasure to deal with them.  

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They came when scheduled and planted all the trees (these were not sourced by Hamel Bros, but by my builder). Year 1, all but one of the arborvitae trees died, last year, 2 additional trees died, and this year the last of the trees is appearing dead. 
When they did the planting, they did not bother to let us know any special care for the trees, watering schedule etc. 
I have had many landscapers come to review the trees, and to a person, they have said the way the trees were planted, in divots rather than mounded, was the reason they died. 
I am not sure if it is the way they were planted or the fact that we were never told to be incredibly diligent about watering the trees for the first 2 weeks was the reason they all died, but either way I feel Hamel Bros holds partial responsibility and contributed to their death.
I have tried contacting them to figure out a fair solution, and they claim they hold zero responsibility. They say that because the work they did was for my builder rather than directly for me, that they should not be held accountable in any way.
The callous way they have communicated with me, is in my mind another strike against them, rather than help me to understand, or try to find a compromise, they were dismissive. 
I know I could not recommend them for work to others in the community, so here I am writing my very first negative review on Angie's List.
-Kira

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There were some things that went really well and some that still need to be addressed.  I thought that Hamel brought some interesting ideas to the design and they also introduced a very good hard scape company that did a great job.  
However, too many of the plants did not do well.  They are good landscapers as far as getting the work done and coming up with some good ideas but they do not have horticultural specialists that know what to do when plants head south.  In fact, there were two specialists that I brought in that looked at the problem and did not address on problem that came up which was the plants were loaded with white flies.  Hamel was very concerned about watering but their specialist said that was not the cause of our problems.  
We are trying to get Hamel to give us a plan on what we will be doing in the spring at figure out who is going to take care of the bugs.  Some of the original plants came in with black mold so those may have come from the nursery with bugs that caused most of the problems.   As far as other issues, may be more due with beds and bedding material which if those plants continue to have problems need to be addressed.
As far as the lawn, they did bring in the good loam that we wanted but there were some issues with the sprinkler company they recommended with flooding the new seed and a number of alterations to the sprinkler system needed to be done.  Even after that, the lawn was coming in thin and I ended up throwing and extra $ 100 in grass seed on it and fertilizer to get it to come in.  So again there seemed to be more effort on my part for the new lawn than I originally figured.  
Therefore I can not give them an A rating but maybe a strong B.  They are very timely and the  work did get done in the time I needed it and they were a little cheaper than some other bidders. 
I am not sure how other landscape projects go but I am a little concerned about many of the plants coming in loaded with white flies as this was a fairly expensive project.
Depending on what happens next I will update this review.

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The Hamel Bros. are total professionals and they do truly outstanding work. They are totally responsive and truly care about their customers. They are detail-oriented perfectionists and they really aren't happy until you are happy.
But it comes with a price: these guys are expensive. You definitely get what you pay for, no doubt. But watch out, the bills add up!

Everything goes very well, and they're always on time. Ive' been using them for around 3 years, and I'd highly recommend their services.

I've hired the Hame Brothers for several projects plus ongoing lawn care and maintenance. They are a tremendous company, with a fantastic work crew and fantastic people. I highly recommend them for any landscaping needs.

Excellent in every respect. They were on time, did a great job and came in on the estimate. I especially like that they really listen to what you want, and they offer sound advice. I could not recommend them more highly.

They do a very good job and I never had any problems with them. They are very responsive and come right away when I need them. They are not very pushy and wait for me to call them for the work. The price is comparatively very reasonable. My lawn looks beautiful.