Oaktree Property Care

Have used Oaktree Property going on four years now. Team Oaktree Property performs excellent work; very creative, experienced, and thorough.  They deserve an A+

Dave and Angie are very responsive if I have a concern about my lawn or other property care needs.  I have been using Oaktree for about four years and am pleased with the look of my lawn.  Dave does a tremendous job explaining what each service will do for my lawn and allows me to decide which services I want for the year (the services are packaged, e.g. fertilization, aeration, mowing, leaf removal, etc., and you can pick the packages that you want to include).

Service is every Tuesday unless weather is an issue. They catch up quickly on those weeks.

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Locally owned and managed company that does 1st rate work.  They have provided routine and emergency service to us for several years and they do a great job.  The company owner is hands-on, personally responsive and knowledgeable. 
One of the best things you can say about any company doing business which we say here about Oaktree is this:  if you have a question or problem about service provided, they listen and explain or fix as appropriate to the situation.  This company pays attention to their customers.  They care if you are satisfied.  They have been around for a while, and they are not going anywhere.
We highly recommend them. 

I can't imagine anyone in the Washington Metro area knowing more about professional-grade, expert, high quality lawn restoration and maintenance then Dave Freeman.  His crew is also excellent. Very happy with Qaktree?s work.

They did a beautiful and through job.  Showed up on time, worked all day, left the property spotless.

We really like them. We called them and they called us back. The owner was friendly and he took pictures of everything. He gave us a very detailed estimate outlining exactly what he thought needed to be done. It wasn't just trim bushes, it was more like trim this bush and that bush. We cruised up there couple weeks ago and it all looks great.

Oaktree and Dave were great.  He is very knowledgeable and takes the time to explain your options.  He is honest in his assessment.  He did well with a bigger job, but also was competitve on basic services.

Excellent! Would use again.

We have employed Oaktree for about five years in a variety of tasks, so the firm is familiar with our property. We started early with an appointment to determine the scope of the project and went from there. The work was completed in two days and much to our satisfaction. (The crew even helped me thin the peaches.) Mr. Freeman is utterly professional and knowledgeable about suitable hybrids for the area. If he does not know what might be a hardy plant, he has access to a network of experts to advise him. His landscaping suggestions are also spot on. He is also honest about what he does not know; as Mr. F will admit, he is not as expert with fruit trees. His work crew is excellent, and Mr. F ensures that every planting goes in as it should. 

One final note. I do not expect landscaping (or snow removal) to be cheap. I do expect, however, to get value for money. Oaktree and Mr. Freeman provide exceptional value for the money. We have been very pleased with Oaktree's work and will continue to use the firm for our landscaping work and lawn care. We recommend him highly.

UPDATE: One measure of a landscaping job is its durability given proper care. The weather has not been kind this summer. We've lost the honeysuckle and a butterfly bush. Not bad for the stresses that the new gardens experienced. And as any gardener knows, there's always next year. 

Working with Oaktree was a great experience.  The owner spent time with me discussing the options over two separate meetings.  After the first meeting he left me with very good/insightful questions and it truly helped in the final design of the garden.  He was also on-site for the final project, which I really valued.  The employees are hard-working and knowledgeable, too.  I now how an amazing garden to work with ... everything I have planted in the high-quality soil has done wonderfully.  I will be using Oaktree again in the future and highly recommend their work.

If I had to complain, it would be the price, but I've shopped around and they're competitive -- just a lot more than a neighborhood kid. But they do a better job (and are more reliable).

They are very knowledgeable in their profession. They come out and test the soil, look at the condition of the trees and walk the property. They give alternatives on how to care for our property. Whenever there is an issue, they are well researched and outside experts are used when necessary. I know when there is a problem, I am presented with all of the best options for me to choose. They are full service but tailored to my specific property.

Representative arrived right on time, reviewed status of lawn, gave good explanation of his proposed service. Price seems a little on the high side, but I have not reviewed a lot of other contractors, so hard for me to be really accurate on this. We decided to go ahead and have them do an ongoing program of lawn care, since it is gettingto be too much for my husband to handle.

The crew was very quick and professional and kept their scheduled times as weather permitted. Their pricing is very competitive and I have contracted with Oaktree to provide my lawn service for the 2011 season as well.

At first they did not do the job as expected. However, after contacting the owner, he, himself came out and reviewed the situation. He did a good job cleaning everything and in the process also let us know about some defects in our yard that need to be corrected.

The owner was very responsive to my need to have our yard cleared of leaves and mowed while my husband was out of town. Their team quickly cleaned our lawn, and it looks great. We'll use them bi-weekly this Spring because they were so great!

Excellend. Dave Freeman responded promptlly to inquiry and inspected yards. He described problems and possible solutions. Estimate was provided promptly. Work was done in one day and it was done exceptionally well. I would highly recommend Oaktree.

This is a great company, and I had a great experience. Dave Freeman has been doing this work for over 25 years and clearly knows what he is doing. Dave is responsive and truly cares about doing the best job for you. His staff is also very professional and skilled.

First visit: Did a good job on the front yard. However, lawn mower tires ripped some of the grasses off the sloping section. Minor tire track damages on the lawn. Second visit: 6 days after the first cut, it was totally unnecessary to cut the lawn as the last 6 days were averaged 95F and had no rain. The lawn mower further ripped off a larger portion of the sloping backyard lawn and tires track damages were obvious. Combined with the hot weather, the lawn on the sloping section suffered severe damage. I called the owner and he was very apologetic about the damage. He offered to reseed in the fall and to use a smaller lawn mower to cut the grass on the sloping section with additional fees. I questioned why his crews mowed the lawn even it was obvious there was no need for it. His explanation is his workers make minimum wages and have a little to no education. Their judgment call for "as-needed" could be questionable. This is a big red flag for me because his workers obviously are not trained to "care" the lawn. They just want to work the hour and get paid. Also, they should have notice the lawn mower is damaging the lawn and use the smaller one right away. So, I decided not to use his service anymore and he agreed to credit me the last mowing for the damage caused (which obviously not enough for reseed and care needed). The owner is a responsible and very reasonable person. However, I don't trust the crew that mow the lawn as they are not trained to take good care of lawn.

*Updated comment:
Updated: Since Mr. Freeman took his time to argue my review, and I?d also like to defend my rating based on the service I received.  

Professionalism: C
This rating is based Mr. Freeman employees? carelessness and lack of professionalism. If you read my review carefully, you?ll find that I have said good things about the owner, Mr. Freeman. Despite he criticized my English level not up to his par, I still think he is a reasonable professional.  

My criticism is toward his workers who actually mowed my lawn. The crew foreman may earn more than minimum wage (I am sorry for discounting his salary for a few dollars), had the in-house educational training and probably can utter a few English words, but, like Mr. Freeman?s admission, the crew foreman is incentivized to perform the service, regardless it is needed or not. If they don't cut it, they don't get paid. Also, it is obvious that the lawn was damaged from the first cut; they disregarded the conditions of the lawn and further damage the lawn with their 36" walk behind mower. These are simply a display of lack of professionalism.  

OK, my bad again. The weather was not an average of 95F, but 91F. If Mr. Freeman has been in the business for 28 years, he should know in less than a week of average high 91F (97F, 89F, 92F, 97F, 94F, 90F, 81F) and average low 70F (73,68,65,67,73,74), and with minimum precipitation, average yard will not required another cut.  I am pretty sure if Mr. Freeman saw my lawn at that time, he will skip my house and go to another one.  But his crews didn?t, because to them, money is more important than professionalism.  

Quality: F
As Mr. Freeman have described, I have a sloped and shady backyard, it is very hard to grow anything there. It cost me money (expensive grass seed from Merrifield garden center, top soil, and a lot of water!!!), time and a lot of care to get the grass going. His employees damaged it in less than a week. It took me nearly a year to barely recover the damages that they?ve caused. The reason I rejected Mr. Freeman?s offer to repair my yard is also based the quality of the service I?ve received. 

Perhaps, pictures speak louder than words. Here are pictures that I took after Mr. Freeman?s employees mowed my backyard. I also included a picture I took in the spring before it was cut.  

https://picasaweb.google.com/2myemailaddress/DamagedLawn?authkey=Gv1sRgCIyr6fepv7ToowE&feat=directlink      

Price: B
I agree that Mr. Freeman?s bid was competitive. It was not, however, the lowest among the bids that I?ve received. Mr. Freeman?s justification for his price is the sloped and shady backyard. At that time, I assumed, for extra few dollars, he would take extra care for the condition of the sloped and shady yard. The outcome is not what I?ve expected. Therefore, I think B is a perfect rating.    

Responsiveness: B
Mr. Freeman did a pretty good job replying all my calls. He supposed to show up during daytime to evaluate the damages on the yard. But he arrived in the late evening when I was out for dinner and I believe it was rather too dark to see anyting. B is a reasonable rating.    

All in all, I respect the way Mr. Freeman handling this issue. However, I don't trust in his team. They are not trained to "care" the lawn. They are mostly immigrants trying to make as much money as they could, but not necessary the right way. I don't blame them, but their lawn service is not how I want to spend my money.

Currently, I have a contractor from the neighborhood to mow my yard. He noticed the sloped backyard the first time he came to provide an estimate and immediately offer to use a smaller lawn mower for that section. After the first cut, he noticed even with a smaller lawn mower, he might damage one small section (10? x 6?) that I reseeded last fall. He is using a trimmer to cut that small section without extra cost. Not only his service cost less than Mr. Freeman's, he and his crew can communicate perfectly in English (despite I am not an English Major) and they have common sense as when to mow the lawn. I can't complain.

the company was quick to schedule and they were on time the job was done well and they had enough man power. the price was what it was; we have never used a service before and it was a record breaking snow storm dtb.

I am happy with them. I have tried three or four different companies and they are the best we found. The owner has a lot of integrity and they address any problems. I have used them for 5 years and never any problems.