Hoyt's Classic Lawdcare

unknown

We have used this company for the last 4 years for all of our irrigation and lawn maintenance. The workers are nice and do a good job, and the prices are very good. It's also nice that they offer other services such as gutter cleaning and snow removal. In fall of 2012 we hired them to lay mulch in all the beds and change the bed irrigation system from sprinkler to drip. We asked for an estimate first, then hired them to do the job, and received a bill that was nearly double the estimate (the drip system part was more than double the estimate: $400 estimate, $880 actual charge; mulch estimate was $660, actual charge $880). We were never informed part-way through the job about the price increase, so the bill came as a shock. The owner, David Hoyt, promised to cover any problems with the system for the next 2 years. We had multiple problems with the new system throughout 2013 - the smaller hoses leading to the individual plants kept popping off of the main line, so we had leaks all over the system that wasted a lot of water while some of the plants were getting no water. We had new leaks popping up each week, sometimes as many as 5 per week. Multiple calls and emails to David went unanswered, even when he was informed that some of the leaks were spraying the house and I was worried about damage to the foundation and needed them repaired ASAP (we had to fix these ourselves). Even a certified letter was ignored. Only when I withheld payment and emailed him that I would not pay until the problems were addressed did he finally respond and come to fix the leaks. His explanation for not responding to our many messages was simply "I'm not very good at getting back to people".
As he promised to cover the system through 2014, we have been calling him to startup the system and so far, he has not responded (it's been 3 days). I will update this review if/when I hear from him, but at this point I cannot recommend him. He is a very nice guy and his workers are great, but the lack of communication on his part is unprofessional and unacceptable.
Note that the cost of service above is for the mulch application and irrigation conversion only, it does not include weekly maintenance or any other services. I gave a "B" for quality rating because even though the quality of the drip system is much lower, the weekly maintenance was of good quality.

The price depends on how much they do, but their standard charge is $26 a visit. If they do additional work like bring in mulch or add fertilizers, it will be a little more. The quality of their work is very good, and they have been very responsive to special requests. I found them to be cheaper than the other ones that I got bids from.