Herman Landscape Service Inc
About us
We are a small family owned company. We have a landscape architect, landscape designer & master gardener on staff; our foreman average over 33 years with our company. We pride ourselves in being in the business for 3 generations and have worked with many of the same families for 3 generations as well. Our best advertising is our customers who often refer us to their friends, family, neighbors and coworkers.
Business highlights
Services we offer
Brick Patios. Retainment Walls. Lawn Installation. Landscaping.
Amenities
Free Estimates
Yes
| Number of Stars | Image of Distribution | Number of Ratings |
|---|---|---|
| 94% | ||
| 3% | ||
| 3% | ||
| 0% | ||
| 0% |
"Hi [Member Name Removed], Thanks for the nice review, but we are not plumbers, don't know who Dean is and do not work in the Dells. Julie"
First, the small stuff. After they seeded the lawn, wind blew much of the seeds into the mulch beds where the grass grew much better than it did where it was supposed to grow. It's been a couple of growing seasons and our grass hasn't fully taken off, largely because I suspect they didn't use enough top soil. It would have been nice if they had checked back with us to see whether the seeding was successful.
Many of the shrubs that they planted have failed (some were replaced under warranty). Again, I suspect inadequate topsoil is at least partly to blame.
The garden trellis that they built initially was flimsy, collapsed and had to be replaced.
Finally, they built a large patio out of pavers. This project was a substantial investment on our part. Within a year, the patio collapsed into a hole. When they came out to look at the job, they claimed that there must be some issue below the surface and thus was not their fault. They then presented us with a large estimate for repairing the patio. Because we were dissatisfied with their services all around, we sought alternative bids for fixing the project and went with a different company to repair it. During the repairs, the entire patio had to be excavated and we found evidence that the base underneath the patio had not been properly compacted (as required by the paver company). Moreover, there is other evidence that the patio was improperly installed in terms of the sand that was put in between the pavers. That sand began washing away shortly after installation and will take several thousand dollars to redo.
So, it was bad enough that our project had so many failures, some of which have involved very expensive fixes, but what was most disappointing was the unsympathetic and utterly unhelpful response on the part of Herman Landscaping.
A couple business days after calling Herman Landscape, Dan @ Herman came out to our house, looked over the situation and went over options for redoing the bushes on the south and west sides of our house. We talked about various pros and cons of various plant options and bark options and spacing. We also talked about placing the new plantings further away from the house and working around the gas line. In the end, we decided to go with the same bushes that were originally planted because they were very resistant to winter sun damage and the only thing we didn't like about the old bushes was how big they got after a few decades. Dan went back to his office to draw up a landscape plan. He left us with a McKay Nursery catalogue in case we had any second thoughts and wanted to substitute a different bush for some reason. About a week or so later, the landscape plan and cost proposal arrived in the mail. The landscape plan included color pictures of the bushes we selected embedded in it. Everything looked like we expected and the cost estimate seemed fair for the work to be done and equipment needed and plants & materials selected.
We called Dan to talk about scheduling our project and agreed on a target week (subject to rain delays). Dan called us to firm-up the actual start day a couple days in advance. Eric and 3 others showed up on the agreed Wednesday to do the project. We reviewed with Eric what was going to be done and looked at the location of the gas line and other utilities. Assisted with a Bobcat, the crew carefully removed old bushes planted too close to the house and carefully removed the huge junipers planted above the gas line. They removed some of the remaining roots by hand to make room for planting the new bushes. Dan stopped by to see how things were going and marked with spray paint the boundaries of the new beds and end/corner planting locations to make sure everyone was in agreement. The crew installed the new bushes, installed the edging, re-graded the planting area where needed, placed the bags of cedar bark, repaired & seeded the lawn area, watered the new bushes and hauled off a couple truck loads of sawed up old bushes. The project took less than a full day.
We were very pleased with the work on this project. There were no surprises, everything went smoothly. All the people involved were knowledgeable about the work and the plants, approachable and easy to talk with. Herman Landscape did a brick patio project for us several years ago and we were very happy with their work on that project so we wanted them to do this project. We would not hesitate to use Herman Landscape again for whatever our next landscape project turns out to be.
I received an estimate for some landscape work. We were only half sure what we wanted done - removal of the old landscape - and were less sure what to do to replace it. The employee, Dan, asked the important questions to get me thinking about what we wanted done, but did so in a way that was off-putting. He did not offer friendly suggestions as much as he implied disbelief that we did not have better plans what to have done. The estimate I received was very high, and when I called Dan to discuss, he again did not have a good customer-service attitude, but was somewhat unpleasant and eventually told me he would not waste any time revising our estimate because it would be way higher than everyone else because I live on the East side of Madison. It would have been nice had they just told me up front that they do not serve the East side. What is also odd is I received a quote from another landscaper, also located on the West side of Madison like Herman, and their quote was significantly lower than Herman's.
and quot;Jean, please note that we could only honor this price if we had other work in your neighborhood. Presently, we have nothing on the board on the Northeast side of Madison.
Jeffand quot;
Guess my job was too small. Too bad. Even If i had a huge job I would not call them or recommend.
"No job is too small, Jean. But our men are paid by the hour and the extra time from our yards west of Madison to your location would have increased your price by $100 if we did not pair it with another small job in your neighborhood. That would have increased your estimate by 1/3."
They are excellent. They do great design work.
They were there when promised and completed the work as requested. I have them back every year so they know what is expected.
Licensing
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