How to Choose a Landscape Contractor for Your Home
There’s nothing quite like the joy of owning a home you love and are proud of. That includes having a glorious landscape that makes for that proverbial curb appeal. Then again, just like keeping your home interior looking fab, maintaining a beautiful landscape is something that requires just as expert landscapers provide.
The question is how do you choose a good landscaper? After all, there are many of them, and it can be hard to decide when you don’t even know how to start looking.
Your Needs
First off, define your needs. Do you want someone to create a whole new project out of your yard? In that case, you’ll need a full-service landscaper with all the necessary special tools and equipment. Otherwise, if you just want to maintain what you already have, then you can go for a smaller landscape maintenance service. By defining your needs early on, you will save yourself the time and hassle of dealing with landscapers who don’t even fit your need.
Insurance
Hiring an insured landscaper will keep you free from liability in the event of an injury or property damage while work on your yard is ongoing. Definitely, this must include workman’s coverage as well. On top of that, you want to insure your yard itself in case a landscaper ends up killing your grass or making mulch hills around your trees. Remember, this is not all about making your landscape look ugly. It can also drive your home’s resale value down.
Stability in the Industry
If you’re checking out a certain landscaper but find nothing about them on Google, that should be a red flag. Even if they don’t have a website (many reputable landscapers don’t), they should still be visible somewhere online, such as in social media or Google maps. If they’re not, then you have to look elsewhere. You need a company that has been around for at least five years. Not to say that new landscapers aren’t worth a try. It’s just that you might need to know more about them and their untested service before hiring them.
Specialty
If you’re just looking for someone to do regular cleaning on your yard, then you sure don’t need a specialist. But if you’re particularly looking for such specific services such as planting vines as yard borders or removing a tree ASAP, then you really need to look for specialists to guarantee high-quality results and safety, if applicable.
Work Deadline
Nothing’s worse than a half-finished landscaping project, so before you decide on a service to hire, make sure they are committed to completing the job. You don’t only need them to make your yard beautiful. They shouldn’t have time management issues too. Online reviews on different landscapers in your area are good to read (just choose your sources and stick to reputable consumer sites like Yelp and The Yellow Pages).
Sketch Plan
Lastly, if you’re planning to have your yard redesigned completely, then you’ll want to ask a full-service landscaping company to give you a sketch plan of their design. If you plan to use this plan, you will naturally plan a fee. However, they shouldn’t charge you just to look at the file. If they want you to pay something for the plan, take your business elsewhere.