*UPDATE*: I had mentioned the owner's professionalism in my initial review, and because of that I am updating my review of Beechwood. As per his response to my experience with the work we had done on our property, he explained, in great detail, why our lawn had the issues it had, what we can do ourselves to improve it, and what they can also do for us. Although some of our experience with the results of the project were as we stated, for the most part I believe his explanation as to the late season, added to the topsoil issues that caused our weed problems, addresses pretty much the issues we had with the results of our landscaping project. I appreciate that they care enough about customer satisfaction to not only read and reply to the reviews posted, but also take the time out to try and resolve any problems that have surfaced with their customers.
We were initially VERY impressed with the owner, Steve, in the time and detail he put into the estimate on the work we needed done, and gave us two options on both the drain and the landscaping. He was also very professional and helpful throughout the process, even though were are disappointed in how it turned out.
We decided on the underground drain rather than just a drainage ditch, which was the first stage of the project. The work was done in a timely manner and looked to be a quality job, but it didn't work out how we thought it would. With the area of standing water being so low, the drain didn't work well enough without regrading, so we ended up having to get stage 2 done sooner than we thought, since the grading wasn't part of the 1st stage.
Again the work was done in a timely manner, and at first it looked as if they had done a very good job., so we had no complaints. As a lot of soil had been added, we spent a lot of time setting up sprinklers and watering to get the new grass seed to take, and at this time we noticed that the seeding looked "odd". I noticed in places that there seemed to be very little seed, and in other places there was this blue/green stuff on top of the hay they had put down over the seed. My husband explained that this was a combination of seed and fertilizer that they blow in when there are large bare areas, but this stuff was blown in on TOP of the hay; to me it looked as if they laid the hay and FORGOT to seed, then did the best they could to seed over top of the hay. My husband agreed that it DID look like that was what happened.
When we saw very little growth, we called Steve and explained to him that it didn't look as if they seeded enough. He informed us that, if anything, his people OVER-seed, and it was most likely due to the heat and lack of rain. I told him what I had told my husband, that it looks as if they laid down the hay covering and then realized they forgot to seed, but he didn't listen or didn't think I knew what I was talking about. I didn't want to keep complaining, so I let it go, but I know when I see NO seede and bare ground where seed should be; I've put grass seed down myself in the past.
While we were busy rotating sprinklers and watering like maniacs, I noticed that, rather than grass, we were getting TONS of weeds; ugly, thick, tall, fat stuff that you normally see breaking through the concrete in abandoned lots. Now, we all know EVERYONE gets weeds now and then, but you could tell the very spot where our old yard stopped and the new fill dirt began...not because there wasn't much grass, but because the WEEDS were so NASTY, all over the new areas. It was so pitiful; very little grass, tons of weeds.
I also noticed, within two weeks of having the work done, weeds starting to grow in the beds around the trees where they had lain the mulch. I called and told them that they forgot to treat the mulch beds for weeds before they filled it in, and they said they never do that. I explained that I wish I had known because I would have asked them to do it or I could have done it myself. I was told that it was too late in the season and that it never would have worked. I told THEM yes it DOES work, because I managed to weed the front of the house and half of the biggest bed, then treated it myself, and there were NO weeds growing. However, I had 5 trees with small beds around them, two fairly long beds in front of the house, two more fairly large ones inside my fence and a VERY large one outside the fence, and if I had known I'd be dealing with so many weeds, I never would have had it done, because it created MORE weeding for me instead of less. To add to the disappointment, these were the same huge, ugly, industrial-sized weeds as in the main yard. We have no idea where they get their fill dirt, but it had so much garbage in it, the only positive thing was they the weeds were green for the most part, so from a distance,l as long as we kept the yard trimmed, we were the only ones who knew how bad it was.
By this time, two other things happened; Steve called and told us he had done a drive-by to check on our lawn and saw how bare it was, so he said in the fall he'd have them come by and re-seed before they planted our bulbs (YAY!! I TOLD you!). The second thing was that, while I was trimming around the perimeter of the fence one day, I saw that they had apparently damaged it in three spots with their equipment when they had been here. I took pictures of the damage and sent it to Beechwood.
Throughout all of this, I WILL say that Steve remained very patient, polite and professional, and his foreman (also named Steve), was just as professional. Prior to them getting the repair done to the fence, the township had outside contractors working on adding handicapped curbs to all four corners at our intersection, and THEY managed to hit our fence as well. Steve repaired their damage as well as what his crew had done. They also stuck to their word and reseeded the lawn. But it wasn't how we were treated as customers, it was the quality of the work that was done. (EX: When they came out to plant the bulbs in the largest of the beds, they planted them all in the 2/3 of the bed closest to the driveway, and the other 1/3 got none at all.....150 daffodils, and none in one entire section, which looked very odd) When they came to do the mulch ring around our dogwood in the front yard that they had forgotten to do before, they AGAIN did not treat it, and didn't ask me if I wanted it done, even after the conversation we had. We had weeds in less than 2 weeks, even with the mulch.
I've seen the great reviews they receive, and that was one of the reasons we called them. Maybe we just got them on a bad season, or maybe a lot of the guys were new, but for $10,000, we expected a beautiful yard, but it was quite a mess.
This was all done last year. We have since added more seed (we still have more to do), managed to clear our the "trees" that are actually the nasty weeds that came with the fill dirt they used, and little by little are cleaning out the mulch beds that have no business being as weed-filled as they were.