By The Woods Custom Landscaping

After initial large response delays, my experience with By the Woods was OUTSTANDING. The most competitive quote with a plan that met our needs and most importantly, a METICULOUS installation. I can't say enough about the attention to detail and quality I witnessed by the crew. A huge shout out to the team: Laura (design/owner I believe), Paul, Edgar (lead on install), and one other gentleman were TOP NOTCH. Truly, I looked at 4 additional firms / designers and could not be happier.

Met with Laura to discuss what we could do and she provided very good advice and came up with a great design that allowed us to use many of our existing plants (some that were transplanted) as well as incorporate some new plants which saved quite a bit of money. After a few 'delays' (due to weather), the crew came out and worked extremely hard for two days. Looks great!! We will be using them again in other parts of our yard to update landscaping!

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After trying to reach By the Woods several times through various forms of communication over the last 6 weeks, I have yet to receive the courtesy of a response. I can no longer recommend By the Woods and I will be taking my business elsewhere.

The designer got what we wanted and the design was both a great design and consistent with what we wanted. The installation crew worked very h****** some very hot days. It required removal of existing grass and plants to bare dirt and then installing sod, grass seed, flowers, shrubs, and mulch. It was done quickly and they picked up after themselves. Even the neighbors commended them on how polite they were and that they also cleaned up what slopped over into their yard. What was taken out had to be trucked away. It was done at the end of the work and they left no sign of the work having been done. Both the design and instillation could not have gone better.

Provider came out and charged a nonrefundable $50 for a design fee. About two weeks later they came back with landscape plan of about $1300. Two days later I called to accept the bid, left messsage on voice mail. Called a second time still not reply. I went with the second place contractor. Cost more but the job was done on time and target.

Without getting too elaborate, there is an easy way to sum up doing business with By the Woods. The work and craftmanship of the "employees" is of the best quality out there. The business acumen, follow-up, consistency, and everything that goes with running a successful client centric business gets a 0 on a scale of 1 to 10. Save yourself some time and look elsewhere unless you want a project that is filled with headaches and disappointments around every corner. As a fully paid customer of a $20,000.00 project, it almost got to the point of having to take legal action in order to get a response from them to have items that were under warranty, rectified. I don't wish an experience like this on anyone.

I too had the same unfortunate experience as some of the previous customers. I met with the owner early summer 2012 for design ideas and estimate for my backyard. She was to get back to me with a design and price. I never did hear back even after shopping at the Chanhassen store and running into/chatting with her. I admit I was in no hurry so did not press her but she mentioned my design was "in the pile" each time I ran into her. The last time we had contact at the store which by then was towards the end of summer, she said that my design was finished and the scheduler would be calling to set up a meeting. I never heard back from them. It was very disappointing since my neighbor has used them twice now and I really did like their work.

The initial setup to get the estimate going was fine. But once the estimate was done and I was ready for the work to start, Laura (the owner) or anyone else for that matter ever called back. In detail, here's the story...the initial estimate was in person on August 1, 2012. I thought it was odd that Laura wanted to review the estimate with me in person again on August 7, 2012, but I thought it was a part of their customer service. I guess it was another visit to see if they wanted to do the job or not. But why not tell me that then and there! Laura was honest enough to say that they no longer did what they considered to be lawn work/maintenance unless it was a previous customer, but that they would do it for me. Assuming this because a couple of my neighbors were already using their services. The one good thing was that Laura had some good info on lawn/tree care during the estimate discussion. Since that last visit I let Laura know that I was ready for work to start. Laura never responded. Even after my many phone calls/voicemails/emails this company couldn't even follow up to tell me that they were not interested in doing the work. I gave it to the end of August to give them the benefit of the doubt, but again there was no response! What a waste of time!!

We had built a new home and now had a blank patch of dirt for a backyard. I really enjoy gardening, so I looked for someone who would be willing to work with me to come up with a design, do the heavy lifting and leave the rest to me to finish. Laura fit the bill! She came out and reviewed our space and discussed with me what I had in mind. She came up with a wonderful plan that was flexible as the estimate for everything I wanted was priced way out of a realistic budget for me. But, we figured out what could be done for what I had to work with and set off getting things done. Her team was quick and resourceful. The hardscaping and boulders were all put in place as expected and ready for me to take over. I know she would have liked to have had a much larger project out of this, but it just wasn't in the cards.

Always on time, always calling if things needed to change ,they would come out if we had questions or respond to any questions on the phone

The owner came out to the house. We chatted about what i wanted. Then she did some measurements and took some photos. Later we met to talk about her estimate. She was mainly focused on the front entry, however what I needed the most was the backyard to be repaired. I had another quote for the yard to be re-shaped and I asked her if she could match it. She said that she would get back to me. I attempted to contact her. But she never returned calls or got back to me as promised.

They did an outstanding job in paving, lighting and landscaping. They were very responsive and answered all my queries at the earliest. They followed up on the work every now and then. They were punctual and made it a point to inform me, if they were going to be late. They were not aggressive about their job. They had fabulous designs and landscaped so well, that, all the passerby?s stop to comment. By the Woods is one of the best companies I have come across and I will continue to use their services in future.

Of the three contractors I met with, Laura who came out, was the only one who mentioned that out drainage may have concerns with the Minnehaha watershed. Even without obtaining the work, she did some checking to make sure that what we wanted to do would be allowed (we also back up to DNR land). Her approach to some of the issues we were trying to resolve dealt more with softscaping (plantings) instead of hardscaping (more retaining walls). I discussed her approach with my brother who is a landscape architect. He indicated, as she did, that the hardscaping would also require planting to solve the issue. Laura worked with me to adjust the bid a few times until it reflected what I wanted. The job took approximately a week for the bulk of the work. Some came later as we needed to wait of city approval of work around the drainage ditch. They were good about ensuring drainage around the house, including in an area that was surrounded on three sides. Laura selected plants to provide flowers and interest for all seasons except winter. She designed the changes and the plantings and we are pleased with the results. The crew worked long hard hours and the person placing the boulders and concrete slab right next to the house using the skid steer was a pro, the movements and results were precise. Paul, who managed the project, was very accomodating and concerned with making sure not only that I was happy, but that the job was done right. When I had concerns about anything, he was very responsive and knowledgeable. They gave me the feeling of being a family business and of treating customers as family. The whole crew was pleasant, polite and got the work done.

Everything went well. They were friendly, professional, and completed the job nicely.

They were very good in price. The young lady that runs the company was very nice and professional. Their price was about 1/2 the price of the other estimates we recieved.

I have never worked with a more professional company . Laura and her staff were an absolute pleasure to work with, they interpretted my ideas and came up with a very creative design and implemented everything to a T. Each worker that was here was very capable and hard working-and the wall was very hard work, and were extremely polite and answered any questions. Any delay , however short ,prompted a phone call. Paul, the supervisor stopped by frequently and made sure we were pleased with all of the progress. I would definetly recomment the company to anyone with no reservations and plan to use them again. It was a true joy to work with them

They came out when they said they would and gave me the plan. We have a ravine behind our house. They had to take out a big deck and put in a landscaping system which included huge boulders, and a granite slab. It was a major undertaking. There is no way to get back to our backyard; everything had to be hand carried, including 300 pound boulders and they undertook it. They had a wonderful design. They were extremely reliable. I had some planting which didn't work out the first year, they came out and replanted some thing else. The project it self was very difficult and they did it very well.

They had an excellent plan for a good price. They were very easy to deal with and were very flexible with their schedule and timing so that we could split it up and afford it. They were not very timely in getting back to us, they did get it done within the time frame but we did have to keep following up with them. The job they did is just beautiful. The quality of their work is excellent.

Due to the large amount of rain last fall September and October, our two week job turned into a two month job. We were reported to the City of Eden Prairie for not properly storing the equipment and materials totally within our own property (vs the cul-de-sac). Our biggest complaint is the lack of communication between the teams which resulted in huge cost overruns. In addition, we had many incidents with one neighbor including cut cable, phone, and dog fence, as well as unauthorized work on their property. The end result is that we paid about $8000 more than we had agreed to, and now I cannot get hold of them to honor their warranties on their work. We have at least 4 dead bushes, and at least 20 rolls of sod which need to be replaced. The couple who own the business have split up and the person who was identified to us as the current owner will not respond to our phone calls or email.

Due to the large amount of rain last fall September and October, our two week job turned into a two month job. We were reported to the City of Eden Prairie for not properly storing the equipment and materials totally within our own property (vs the cul-de-sac). Our biggest complaint is the lack of communication between the teams which resulted in huge cost overruns. In addition, we had many incidents with one neighbor including cut cable, phone, and dog fence, as well as unauthorized work on their property. The end result is that we paid about $8000 more than we had agreed to, and now I cannot get hold of them to honor their warranties on their work. We have at least 4 dead bushes, and at least 20 rolls of sod which need to be replaced. The couple who own the business have split up and the person who was identified to us as the current owner will not respond to our phone calls or email.

PROMPT, EASY TO WORK WITH, WILLING TO SPEND A LOT OF TIME IN DESIGN STATE. ALWAYS ACCESSIBLE. WHOLE CREW PLEASANT TO HAVE AROUND. GREAT WORK AND GREAT PEOPLE. CLEANED UP THOROUGHLY, EVEN SWEPT THE STREET!

SHE WAS NICE AND PERSONABLE; HER DESIGN WAS INTERESTING. I DIDN'T FEEL SHE LISTENED TO ME. SHE WAS A BUSY YOUNG MOTHER; HAD ANOTHER PERSON CALL WHEN SHE WAS SICK LIKE LESS THAN AN HOUR WHEN SHE WAS TO ARRIVE. HER COMPANY COULD NOT DO ALL THAT I WANTED SO IT HAD TO BE ANOTHER PERSON INVOLVED. SHE CUT THE DESIGN TO HER LIKING BECAUSE SHE DIDN'T WANT TO HAVE TO HIRE A STRUCTURAL ENGINEER.