Lerch Brothers Landscape Contractors

There aren’t words to describe how awful of an experience it was working with them. It took them forever to do anything and the work was so awful we had to bring on someone else to fix all the mistakes after giving them numerous chances. The final excuse from the owner after 8 months on a job that should have taken 4 months was, it was probably too hot outside for his crew which is why the work was done so poorly. Stay far away.

Initially, I needed a company to trench a water line to my garden. I contacted a few companies, some didn't respond and some quoted an exorbitant amount of money. Tom Lerch responded quickly and gave me a reasonable quote. Since we were interested in enhancing our backyard entertaining we also had Tom survey our property. He had a lot of opinions and since I had some specific design questions, he offered to put us in touch with a design architecture company. This was probably the only negative part of my overall experience with Lerch Brothers. The design company was talented, but they offered extra design ideas that I didn't request and attempted to bill me for them. This was resolved, but I found the experience a little distasteful. The installation of the garden faucet was seamless and my days of dragging 300 feet of hose is over. After brainstorming, we decided that we wanted to install a custom pergola over a patio. Tom was able to find a company that would design what we desired at a reasonable price. Once we agreed on a plan, things were very efficient afterwards. Each team that arrived for work were respectful to us and our property. They took great care to not disturb areas that were not involved in construction. When hiccups did happen, John Lerch (the project manager) was quick to contact me and resolve the issue. For example, the freight delivery was delayed in Baltimore. Instead of waiting for the local delivery company to find a truck to complete the process he sent his team to retrieve the products. I really appreciated that John was very involved in each step of construction. Even though we are just finishing up with the project, I can look at the overall experience with a great sense of satisfaction. You hear more horror stories about construction/renovation companies. I can definitely gives these guys my 100% support and recommend them to anyone.

We found Lerch Brothers from a search after having poor communication results from others in the area. Could not be happier. While we had a general idea of what we wanted, they worked with us to develop our ideas and provided guidance to what would work and what wouldn't. Never felt pressured to do any of their recommendations. The construction went quickly and the crew was incredibly respectful.. not just to the work, but to the rest of the property and my family as well. Given that I have elementary aged children, they were sure to clean up at the end of each day and secure any materials that would pose a danger. We have received numerous compliments from neighbors and friends and have been asked who did it. We are more than happy to pass on Lerch Brothers and will likely use them again for future patio and/or landscaping projects.

We have used The Lerch Brothers for years for both our personal home and business location. They do a wonderful job and will also plow in the winter when there is heavy snow.

I sent an e-mail on Aug 18 and quickly received a response. An initial meeting was scheduled for Aug 19 at Noon. Mike O'Malley arrived on-time. We reviewed our situation and discussed possible improvements. Mike agreed to provide a proposal within a week.

A meeting to go over the proposal was scheduled for Aug 25. We thought it was a good first effort but were skeptical that Lerch Brothers had addressed all of our problems. Mike suggested an additional meeting to include Tom Lerch. That was held on Sep 7, while we were being inundated with Tropical Storm Lee's heavy rain. The meeting proved to be very timely since Mike and Tom could clearly see the water problems at their worst. Using that information, a revised proposal was developed.

We were on vacation from Sep 8-17 so Mike presented the new proposal on Sep 21. Overall, this proposal was a big improvement. It addressed all of our issues and presented various options regarding what types of stone / paver paths to add, what trees to remove, and how many fence posts to fix. Of the three landscapers from whom we received proposals, Lerch Brothers was the only one who asked us to consider asking our neighbors to allow us to remove some of their large pines which were blocking sunlight to our yard. We have a good relationship with those neighbors and the pines were already in danger of falling at some point. Letting us pay for the removal proved to be a win-win situation. Overall, Lerch Brothers provided the best proposal for our situation at the most reasonable cost so we contracted with them.

Work began the week of Oct 10 and was completed over a 2 week period. (There were some weather delays.) Tree removal was first: 3 pines from our neighbor's yard, 3 more from our yard, as well as 1 Bradford Pear, 1 Blue Spruce, 1 Lilac, and 1 Hemlock from our property. Major overhang from other pines were pruned back. The tree work went well with one exception: the Bradford Pear trunk was felled toward our (new) deck, damaging a banding board on the side of the deck. Lerch Brothers apologized and immediately agreed to replace the board, which they did. Other than this minor glitch, their work was very impressive. The back yard was almost completely regraded, a beautiful paver path was installed from our garage to our deck, a swale was installed for water control, stepper stones were installed on the other side of the deck to a fence entrance, a subcontractor replaced 6 loose fence posts, and a variety of shrubs, perennials, and ground covers were installed in the remaining shady areas. Most of the yard now receives enough sunlight to grow grass and was seeded accordingly. A Japanese Maple was installed to replace the Hemlock. We were just as impressed with how well our property was respected. Due to the use of heavey machinery at times, some lawn areas were damaged. These were reseeded. The crew also thoroughly cleaned up after each day's work.

We have not had a repeat of T.S. Lee but we have had enough rain to see the water control is working pretty well. Mike O'Malley cautioned us that, due to the late season seeding (weather getting cooler), another seeding may be required in Spring 2012. He originally suggested using sod but we decided the additional cost was not worthwhile compared to the cost of reseeding, especially considering we only use our deck and the yard from roughly May through September. As of mid-November over 1/2 of the grass seed had germinated. We will have the lawn seeded next spring. Given the good results so far, we expect to have a beautiful yard by late spring or early summer.

We are very happy with the results and will probably use Lerch Brothers for ongoing landscape maintenance.

The crew of three workers arrived approximateely 8:30AM, and the job was completed by noon

They come out once a week. They do lawn work, pruning and mulching. They also cut down very small trees and clean my gutters. Their pricing is very inexpensive; they are reliable and do a decent job. They do a number of my neighbors as well so obviously others feel the same way I do. I will use them again in the future.

It went great. They are very courteous and thoughtful guys. They were there all day.

THEY DID A PRETTY GOOD JOB AND I WOULD USE THEM AGAIN IF I NEEDED THEIR SERVICE AGAIN. I DON'T THINK I WILL NEED IT AGAIN THOUGH. THEY'RE VERY GOOD PEOPLE, HAD GOOD PRICES AND OVERALL A GOOD COMPANY.