How to Choose a Lawn Care Service

When it comes to choosing a lawn care service there are a lot more factors to consider than simply the price. The company you hire will be more intimately involved in your life than you may realize. Consider this: your lawn service will be on your property once a week, sometimes more, and be responsible for maintaining one of the most important features of your home—your yard. Most often they will be unsupervised, performing their job during the day when the house is typically uninhabited. Will your lawn service divulge mishaps to you for which they were responsible? A shattered window, broken sprinkler heads, or damages to the exterior of your house are not unheard of accidents in the lawn mowing profession. Even the most seasoned workers can make an honest mistake. How much trust can you place in your lawn service?

This is where a company’s reputation becomes paramount. Ask your potential lawn service the following questions:

How long have they been in business?
How many accounts do they have, and what are some of the more prominent ones?
How many crews do they have, and will the same crew be on your property each week?
Can they provide references?
Are they licensed and insured?

Unsatisfactory answers to any of these questions give cause for concern.

Next, find out what services your potential lawn company offer. For instance, do they do tree work such as pruning, removing large branches or fronds, or cutting a tree down and grinding the stump? Do they provide fertilizing services for the lawn and the shrubbery? Can they treat your lawn and shrubbery for weeds, pests and fungus? Are they able to do irrigation work such as repairing broken pipes, adding sprinkler heads to an existing system, replacing solenoids and timers, or installing a complete irrigation system? Can they install new sod? Do they provide landscaping services such as replacing old or dead plants, designing a bed, or applying mulch, rock or other ground cover? Determine the costs of each of these services. Find out which ones are included in your monthly fee, and which ones you’ll be charged extra for.

No one knows your yard better than you. You may have areas in your yard that past lawn services have had trouble with. Maybe there is a berm that is constantly scalped by the mower, or a pool that always seems to catch the grass clippings. Perhaps you have some rotary sprinklers that protrude from the sod and have become the target of one too many mower blades, or trees that past weed eaters have scarred beyond repair. Ask your potential lawn service how they intend to deal with these obstacles. If they cannot provide a solution then their level of skill and degree of professionalism must be questioned.

Finally, the topic of cost must be discussed. This is actually the easiest of all tasks. To determine the going rate for a property of your size and technical demand, call three different lawn companies and request an estimate. By gathering this information you’ll be equipped to know who is overcharging and who is being fair. If you have interviewed a lawn service adequately, taking into account all of the above information, and you feel very confident about a particular company yet their rates are higher, remember that as long as they are not grossly overcharging you, a few extra dollars each month may be well worth the peace of mind and confidence you’ll gain.