Five Star Lawn and Landscaping

BEWARE- I hired Five Star Lawn & Landscaping on November 4, 2022 to complete multiple projects around my new fiber glass pool. Their new PM told me they were more expensive than the competition but the best contractor in North Alabama for concrete, landscaping, and pool coping. I strongly believe that you get what you pay for, so I felt good about my decision to hire them. That decision was a huge mistake. They told me they would complete my project in about 2 1/2 weeks and it would be complete before Christmas, but it might take longer because of the weather. I completely understood that it could be delayed by a few weeks and I was willing to wait. They started work in early December and made numerous mistakes with the travertine pool coping install and even damaged my pool in the process. They made numerous mistakes with their concrete work (December to May) which ultimately required two pours to be removed and there is still concrete that needs to be repaired with a concrete overlay. They made numerous mistakes with soil grading, sod installation, and french drain installation. After many attempts to correct and with no success, they stopped construction in January and put my project on hold whether I liked it or not. They returned to my project in April and the nightmare continued. It was apparent they were in way over their head and the PM and the owner didn't seem concerned about the disaster they created in my back yard. As it was obvious that my project wasn't a concern or a priority, I decided it was best that we cut ties but only after they fixed the issues they created and then I would hire another contractor. They said they weren't finishing the job and they abandoned the project. They truly did me a favor by leaving the project because it was one disaster after another. They agreed to return about 30% of the money I paid them to repair and correct their mistakes and incomplete work. I had numerous contractors decline the work because they didn't want someone else's problems. They were shocked on the level of subpar work, and they had no interest in being a part of it. This has been a horrible experience that I don't wish on anyone. I"m attaching pictures of their initial work, and pictures of their attempts to correct their work. I tried to add more pictures. but no luck. I didn’t pay the total $59,000 and they refunded $13,500 but it wasn’t enough for all mistakes and headaches.

Terrible customer service. Bid was very high, but I assumed it was because of the plant selections made by the designer. They could not source the larger trees and plants but did not inform me of any of this. Instead they had the designer source them, which he did. They still charged me anyway and I paid the balance, not knowing that they sourced the plants elsewhere. When I received a bill from the designer who actually sourced the plants, they attempted to "reimburse" me at a fraction of the actual cost. They charged me labor to install weed cloth but I didn't actually want a weed cloth and asked that they take that off the fee beforehand. Yet, that labor was still included in the final total. The designer ended up planting one of the 2 trees on his own without them, but I still paid them for that too. As an icing on the cake, they have stiffed the designer and refuse to return phone calls. I cannot believe how dishonest people can be. It's shocking.

The only complaint we could have about 5 Star is that when we got the initial quote, it seemed a little bit high. However, we had gotten quotes from 2 other companies, and even though 5 Star's was the highest of the 3, it was in the same ballpark. So we hired them based on a neighbor's recommendation who had used them to work on their back yard. There were 2 workers assigned to this job who completed it almost all by themselves. They came to work on the days they said they were coming, they showed up on time, and they always had a good attitude about the work. Every project like this has a lot of little things that pop up in the course of the work, and these guys never complained about doing those extra little things that we asked them to do. The bottom line is that my wife & I are very happy with the results.

In 2016, I was very impressed with the owner of Five Star Landscaping Company, Todd Groce when we met to draw up plans and estimates for residential lawn mowing and landscaping services. His staff did a great job with the initial mowing and edging services!! And, the landscaping services they provided with creating new beds and pruning the trees was done very well. However, during the 2017, something changed during the new mowing season. The crew did not mow or edge the property similar to previous mowings resulting in a redo. The scheduled mowing times were not completed on schedule as promised. It became apparent that the residual services were not important to this owner. Therefore, with regret we discontinued the services. Kudos go out to Amber, who always was polite, professional and handled grace under pressure with class for this company. She deserves a raise!!!

They were timely and the work looked fairly nice initially. Unfortunately plants started dying, the big ones started leaning over and then several died. When we called Five Star (Todd Groce) they said they did not warranty their work (the plants). This work was very expensive for the limited follow-up/support after the job was done.