Veteranlandandtree

Veterans was hired to reroute the downspouts from our front and side lawn followed by sodding to repair the damaged lawn. A small strip of grass in the back yard was also replaced with sod, in spite of the fact that I had asked for the area to be reseeded - not sodded.

It rained in April before Andrew began working, leaving the ground soft. He ran a small tractor across the back lawn to deliver the sod to the front and side lawns and in doing so damaged the (soft) preexisting lawn with deep ruts. He stated that he would repair it upon completion.

On 5/7/20 he was paid the balance on his $14,700.00 bill even thought he had not repaired the damaged lawn. He said that he would return the following week - but he did not return. If he did, I did not observe it nor did he notify me or ask if the repair had been done to my satisfaction.

I was not given a suggested schedule for frequency and duration of watering The grass grew rapidly with the exception of the small strip in the back, which turned yellow and did not appear to grow.

On 5/26/20 I emailed Andrew about my concerns. He replied, "With all the rain we just got so not water for the next 2 week…. Will be alright when the rain passes the grass will grow like crazy." When I asked him to clarify if he really meant no water for 2 weeks he said to only water when it appears dry.

On June 24,2020 I again asked Andrew to come and look at the sod, as the yellow patches remained, some turned brown and growth was poor. I sent a photo and he replied "…I would give it more time that sod will come back with the more amount of water some lawn food wouldn't hurt either…"

I reminded Andrew that he had previously said NOT to water for 2 weeks, then said only to water when the soil appeared dry. I asked for a recommendation on food. He replied "Lawn food basic nothing special."

When I told Andrew that my lawn care company could apply fertilizer he sent the following message: "I hope they know what they are doing fertilizer is known to kill sod if it's not after the first year." I replied that the words food and fertilizer are used interchangeably on the product labels that I had seen. I asked for clarification and again asked for a product recommendation. He replied "…. As long as it says lawn food for the 2nd time." But all of the products labeled as food said fertilizer in the product description. My lawn care company also did not know what distinction Andrew was making between food and fertilizer, so we did neither.

On July 3,2020 I sent photos of the area in which the grass appeared dead and again asked him to look. I also reminded him that he had not repaired the ruts that he left in the back yard. His reply was "…I did this area with sod as a friendly good will…I understand that your want to have us come look and find a solution. We are available for this at the end of this year fall…." He made no comment about his failure to repair the damage to the preexisting lawn.

While Andrew may have seen this as a gesture of good will, his failure to respond to my concerns invalidated any good intent. Had I been informed that he felt no responsibility for this area I would have foregone his friendly good will and had someone else do the job. Given that the sod looked bad within the first week, when everything else looked good, begs the question of whether this sod had a known or predictable problem before it was laid.

On August 28 following rain I noticed that the conduits he had installed to carry water from the downspouts to the drainage ditch appeared to not be working well as water was again pooling on the front lawn and the drainage ditches had no water. I emailed Andrew to ask him to look.
Andrew never responded.

Yesterday was October 5th and Andrew did not come.

UPDATE: November 2021
The problem that Veteran L&T was supposed to clear up by rerouting the downspouts was not better. The front lawn still looked like a little mud hole. Another landscaper came by and found that the downspouts were rerouted with an UPWARD slant - thus preventing drainage. I had to pay to have them rerouted again into the drainage ditch. IF THERE WERE A RATING LESS THAN ONE STAR I WOULD GIVE IT TO THIS COMPANY.