Drexel's Tree Service

I'm saddened by the review giving Mr. Drexel a D rating. This is not only unfair but the rabid reviewer is apparently not from the South and does not understand how to work men or get along with contractors. In this region most landscape work is done on a handshake, with an understanding of what needs to be done and how to continue as more work is becomes necessary. The reviewer talks about deadlines, contracts, performance - the sort of thing a banker would require for a mortgage, not appropriate for a few thousand in landscaping. Mr. Drexel is a good Christian man with a crew of local laborers; he has always done good work for us in a timely manner. The previous reviewer makes a complete fool of himself, in my opinion. Thank you for your good work, Mr. Drexel, and I will have you over to the house soon.

We had 2 good recommendations for Drexel's Tree Service from neighbors with one caveat - he is very slow. This led us to write up a contract that included a completion date and a late fee of 1% of the contract price for each day past the completion date. Drexel is a very nice man who seems to have good intentions and I believe he fundamentally desires to provide a quality job, but has problems with execution and managerial skills. This was immediately evident during the initial visit when we noticed that he did not take any notes as our work scope was being explained, claiming the he had an excellent memory. In fact, we had to take it upon ourselves to write up a detailed contract and provide it to him.When asked whether or not he had a work crew on his payroll, or if he sub-contracts his labor, his answer was that he has his own crew. However, we later learned by speaking to some of his crew, that he does not have a consistent work crew under his payroll, but instead, apparently acquires helpers on a daily basis. This would later turn out to be his Achilles heal.Another concern of ours, included in the contract, was that he be at the Job-Site for 85% of the day - to prevent the possibility of workers being left with no supervision or direction. This also would later turn out to be another Achilles heal.Upon the first day of work, his lack of organization and managerial skills became immediately apparent. Though he did appear on the first day of the contract at 10:00 AM , he only dropped off some equipment and a couple of helpers, but immediately left for over 2 hours. His disorganization was readily apparent when he called and providing an excuse for his lengthy disappearance - which was because he lost his license and had to get another one at the DMV. My wife, who works from home, noticed that the workers spent most of the time remaining idle, with one worker sitting on the curb the entire time doing nothing. This was the pattern throughout the entire job - Drexel dropping his workers workers at the Job-site, upon which they would spend most of the day smoking, sitting under our tree, or on cell phones until Drexel re-appeared, usually several hours later. Roughly speaking, his workers, remained idle for 80% of the time Drexel wasn't present - and he was only present an average of 20% of the time - contrary to the contractual arrangement.On 6 instances throughout the job, neither Drexel (nor his workers) arrived on the job site, despite phone calls from him informing us he was going to appear. When he did appear on promised work days, it was usually from 1 to 6 hours after his scheduled promise times and he usually reduced his work hours short each day. He also had several equipment problems, even not being able leave the job site for almost 2 hours one evening trying to to get his work truck running. As the Completion Date neared, we became concerned and almost cut ties with him due to his continual inability to follow through with his promised work schedule and for fear that he would reduce quality to meet the completion date. Regarding the Job Quality, these are the Grades I would give him for each of the Job phases: 1) Tree removal, Stump Grinding and Tree Pruning A2) Landscaping, Weeding and Cleaning flower beds C 3) Pruning of Large Fern A4) Planting of 3 small fruit trees A5) Lawn Sod removal and replacement D6) Garden Installation of 6 vegetables D7) Installation of Fence Gate B8) Removal of old Basketball Goal C Sod Replacement:Our primary concern and the most expensive portion of the project was the Front Yard Sod replacement. Drexel appeared to know proper top soil removal, preparation, and grading techniques and had a Bobcat. However, the time between application of the Weed killer (Kilz) and installation of the new Sod was over 3 weeks. The day before the Sod installation, several areas had new weeds already rooting. Furthermore, Drexel stated that he was going to have real difficulty hand digging the portion of the yard that had buried Telephone and Cable wires, stating that our neighbor and quot;scaredand quot; him into not wanting to replace the sod in that area due to the potential service interruption. We verbally agreed to modify the Work Scope to allow him to only and quot;patchand quot; the bare lawn areas with less expensive and quot;St. Augustineand quot; and to remove the Basketball Goal. Drexel and his workers were still laying sod on literally the last day of the contract completion date, working late in the afternoon. It was apparent that they were rushing things and began to space the last of the sod out since they were running short. Upon completion, it was immediately noticed that over a third of the newly laid grass appeared dead (i.e. brown and dry). When confronted regarding this issue, Drexel admitted that his sod supplier may have given him grass that was and quot;cut too close to the rootand quot;, but that it should come back in 2 weeks. He stated that he would replace the sod if it did not root, and we agreed that we would withhold $250 (10%) until we were satisfied. Two weeks later, Drexel requested the remaining monies. Though the grass in the dead area did fill in approximately 80%, we noticed that it was full of about 3 different types of weeds - in only this section, which happened to be the same section where most the weeds had been taking root before the sod was laid. Furthermore, the areas that we allowed to only be and quot;patchedand quot; with St Augustine was dead and several areas were not completed. Drexel stated that the weeds may have been in the sod to begin with and the he didn't guarantee and quot;completely weed-freeand quot; sod. He blamed the and quot;dead patchesand quot; of St. Augustine on lack of watering, and that the areas that he missed would eventually and quot;fill-inand quot;. We informed Drexel that we feel that the quality was not what we expected and that we would like to hold final payment until the end of his 6 month warranty due to our concerns of several items, one of which was that he hadn't taken the Basketball Goal off of our property, instead leaving it at the curb. We offered a punch list of items for Drexel to complete before final payment, but he refused to accept it, stating that we should instead trust him to followup on these issues, as well as his handwritten 6 month warranty. We refused, stating that due to his lack of ability to follow through his past promises (i.e. not being present at the job per contractual arrangement, not showing up on prescribed times, etc) we believed it to be necessary to keep 10% to hold him to his word, his warranty, and to verify the quality of the lawn.Additionally, the Basketball goal disappeared from the curb one day, and we assumed that Drexel had taken it. We later discovered that the CIty had picked it up when we received a $35 bill on our City Sanitation bill. Garden Installation:Not being professional Gardeners, we relied on Drexel's claim of being skilled in growing vegetables to prepare and plant a garden at a cost of $900. Based upon Drexel's input, we chose 7 vegetable for Drexel to plant, after proper preparation of the soil. (contracted for Butter Beans, Tomatoes, Purple Hull Peas, Squash, Seet Potatoes, Okra and Corn.) However, he later stated (after the contract had been signed) that he could not plant the Sweet Potatoes since they would kill off the rest of the vegetables. At the time of this writing, only the Purple Hull Peas, Okra, Tomatoes and Butter beans remain alive. The Squash is completely gone and the corn appears to be dying. Though we believe that we have some responsibility in our lack of skill and knowledge of garden maintenance, Drexel planted seeds, did not even provide us with a map of what was planted where, and we had to ask about how often to water. Also, I later discovered via conversation with a farmer, that the corn was planted too close together for this area and at the wrong time of year. Additional information regarding growing methods for the Butterbeans, or the fact that Okra shouldn't be watered as frequently as it the rest of the garden was not offered, or apparently unknown, by Drexel. Furthermore, my wife had to intervene because, as usual, Drexel wasn't present to supervise the planting of the garden and his workers had no clue as how big to make it according to the contract. The rest of the work was performed with sufficient skill (i.e the Tree Work, Stump Grinding, Gate installation, Fern Pruning), but Drexel failed to pull up any of the weeds in the beds prior to covering them up with pine straw. Overall, the experience was stressful, and we feel that,regarding the lawn, the quality was average. We still are with-holding 10% of the Lawn replacement costs due to the lower than expected quality and the lack of completing the entire task. (i.e. the basketball goal, and incomplete patchwork of areas). One of the neighbors that had provided us with the earlier and quot;goodand quot; recommendation later informed us that they, in fact, had to call Drexel after 2 months to come finish their sod installation. Another informed us that he never came back to grind up the stump of a tree that he has removed. He did a good job on the trees, stump grinding and gate installation, but I would definitely suggest a detailed contract with a late completion date clause be included. Be aware the he uses workers that are unskilled and they depend upon his presence for direction, and even motivation. Also, I wouldn't pay him the complete amount until you are completely satisfied, and include that statement in the contract. He works informally and doesn't appear used to providing detailed, professionally written documents or warranties, but rather prefers to rely on his memory and yours regarding work scope and price.

I called for an estimate and got it the same day. When I called for the service, Drexel's was very prompt and stayed with the job until it was finished (2 days).