The Grounds Guys of Baton Rouge

I chose The Grounds Guys because of the good reviews. I’m hoping that this review will provide adequate warning to anyone else considering working with this location, or the Covington location, as it the same franchisee. I hired The Grounds Guys for drainage solutions and sod installation. First, the quote I was given substantially underestimated the amount of sod needed. I was told 3 pallets would be plenty for covering all bald spots caused by past tree removal. In fact, I ended up having to purchase an additional 5 pallets. Unfortunately, that’s just the start of my trouble with this location. This review won’t include everything experienced during the past several months of dealing with Corey, the franchisee, because there isn’t enough space. Once I contacted Corey regarding the underestimation of the sod needed, along with all the other subpar/incomplete parts of the job, he assured me all issues would be taken care of and the extra sod could be purchased at wholesale price – no labor costs included. I was expecting the crew to come out, finish the job, and fix the issues left behind from the first job – but no. Corey came out by himself, I would imagine so that he would not have to pay anyone for labor. As one would expect from a one-man, labor-heavy job, it was sloppy – giant gaps between sod tiles, overlapping sod tiles, new areas of the property flooding because of poorly graded soil, tiles laid on top of existing grass, tiles laid on top of unprepped areas of pebbles, dust, and old mulchy soil, tiles put in the wrong areas, bald spots remaining around the property, wheelbarrows upon wheelbarrows of compacted mud left on top of existing grass, tiles laid on top of existing plants, tiles laying several inches above the existing grass, showing very clear lines of demarcation, a drainage valley dug to where water would have to grow legs and walk in order to drain, and none of the issues from the first round of the job were fixed. I put countless hours of work into my property going behind Corey’s location to fix their shoddy work. I had to re-shovel the valley to make it be able to properly drain, cut around the bases of existing plants, move endless sod tiles to better locations, dig under tiles to create a more seamless merging of existing grass and the sod, remove the aforementioned pancaked mud, as it was killing existing grass underneath, do lots of detail/patch work, put new soil under the tiles that were, for some reason, put on top of areas that are not sufficient for anything to grow in, put new soil between all the gaps between tiles, cut/move the sod tiles that were overlapping, which was causing the edges of the grass to die. I also have permanent, noticeable indentations around the property from Corey driving around in the yard. Curiously, no indentions were left from the original crew driving around. I could go on. Corresponding with Corey very quickly became a maddening experience, much like trying to get a brick wall to understand English. I would send him long and detailed emails laying out my complaints, desired courses of action, etc., and would either get a reply addressing only one or two of the complaints, or he would say that he was “confident” the sod will turn out fine, or he would not respond to me for an extended period of time. The Ground Guys, and their parent company, Neighborly, have a Done Right Promise. Under the section of the site talking about sod installation, it boasts of following industry best practice. This gave me a sense of security – that the job would be done right, and if it wasn’t, they would make it right. I mentioned such things in my emails to Corey. Conveniently, these were some of the portions of the emails he chose to ignore. Lucky for me, I am in law school, am married to a lawyer, and have access to a network of lawyers. With this comes access to a wealth of information of how to properly navigate situations like this. Unfortunately, many others can get taken advantage of by “businessmen” like Corey. I am sure he will reply to this review saying that he tried to address my concerns. Know that this is not the case.