Devlin Lawncare

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It always looks very nice. They are very responsive. It's a family business. They take pride in the work.

They have always been very good. They are a family owned business and they take great pride in doing everything right. The are very approachable if you have a problem with anything they have done. I think their fees are very reasonable.

Wonderful!  They were totally professional, and did a great job!  The new paver sidewalk looks amazing, and the lawn filled in so fast that the neighbors were amazed.  I would highly recommend them!!!

Mark Devlin, owner, arrived with 2 employees on Monday, August 25, 2014 in the early AM.  They removed a few items from patio (grill, trash containers).  Devlin left.  Employees first worked on taking front (east) retaining wall apart, then added the small stone wrapped in landscape cloth to front of wall.  They shoveled the existing soil in front to the back, which I thought was temporary.  They later worked on the other 2 walls, both for a minimal amount of time.  In the afternoon, the two employees worked on the patio.  At around 3:00 PM – 3:30 PM, I went outside to talk to them, and they were gone.  I called Mark Devlin, asked him if they were done or coming back?  The patio looked finished.  Asked him if I could start bringing items back to patio.  Devlin said no, polymeric sand needed to set up for 24 hrs.  I then complained about the soil that the guys had dumped on my plants/small Japanese maple at the back of the front retaining wall.  Devlin said the guys could come back & remove it.  I told Devlin I’d take care of this myself, was upset about this, got my wheelbarrow out & removed the excess soil that covered my hostas, maple, etc., & later took to the back yard, redistributed it.  The next morning, the two employees arrived, & I could tell by their attitude that Devlin had said something to them.  I pointed out to both of them that they shouldn’t just dump removed soil on plants (they had taken the easy way out).  Both brought back the grill & containers.  After they left, Mark Devlin arrived.  At that point, everything looked OK.  I received a bill shortly thereafter, which I paid.  However, some of the polymeric sand settled, there were spaces between the pavers, so called Mark Devlin, & he came out, filled the spaces & gave me some extra polymeric sand.  At that point, it was hard to see the band work (which surrounds the patio on 2 sides), as there was polymeric sand that spilled out onto the band, and my plants also covered the band in several places.  On the south side, there was  small decorative stone that covered the band.  I did notice that the band was not continuous, that it was in 3 sections.  Two of the sections were pieced right where the grass pathway goes down to my back yard.  The patio is slightly sloped away from my house (this is for water runoff), but my back yard slopes down approximately a foot or foot & a half to a lower level.  Mark assured me that the piecing right at the grass pathway was OK, but I was dubious.  However, I decided to not say anything at that point.   Last January, I was shoveling snow off a section of the patio and my shovel hit the band.  I was surprised, as the top of the band is supposed to sit below the pavers about an inch and not be visible.  I only shoveled a pathway to my trash/recycling containers & the heated birdbath, not the entire patio.  It was not until late March when all the snow melted that I saw the damage.  The band had popped up along the entire length.  I was shocked.  In addition, the pavers next to the pathway had sunk further down the path, with multiple cracks in the polymeric sand where it had separated.  At this point, I could see the spacing of the spikes that were holding the band in place, as the sand had washed away in a number of areas.  There was only 1 spike for every 5 or 6 empty spaces.  At the pathway, there was only one spike at the end of each band piece & many of the spikes had popped up.  At this point, I was really upset.  I took photos of the patio.  I wrote a letter to Mark Devlin dated 4/22/2015, including 3 photos.  Mark called me 9 days later, stating that he had moved, so the letter was forwarded.  Mark defended the job that had been done by his two young employees.  He claimed that the band had a sufficient amount of spikes installed and that “erosion” had caused the damage.  I reminded him that the patio pavers sat on a foundation (about a foot) of large & small stones, there was nothing under it to erode.  I told him that the patio band looked worse in April 2015 than it had in the past 10 years, done by the previous vendor.  As in my letter, I asked him to please come over and take a look at the patio.  He refused, saying “I, I’m too busy”.  Also during that call, Mark talked about giving me a refund of some sort.  At this writing, I have received no refund.   I then contacted a neighbor & asked him to view the patio.  This neighbor had installed his own front walkway, plus he is familiar with bands and polymeric sand.  He agreed with me that he thought an insufficient number of spikes had been installed.  My neighbor was aware that bands came in 8 foot lengths.  He also talked about the nature of polymeric sand, that it’s not like cement, has a tendency to move under certain conditions.    My feeling is that Mark Devlin is not only in denial on the spike issue, but he has no desire to revisit this job.  He is not a problem solver.  If he was, he would have made attempts to fix the problems with the patio.