Blackstone Property Maintenance LLC

We had a water drainage issue with our property and a separate area that needed to be raked and seeded. Tim, the owner of Blackstone Landscaping, came over and looked at the project. He explained that the entire area could be re-graded to facilitate drainage and promised that they can re-grade any property without the need of a French drain. While he did recommend a dry river bed, he said it wasn’t necessary and that re-grading the property could take care of the problem alone. Blackstone’s quote came back with basically three steps: 1) kill everything and start from scratch 2) bring in top soil and re-grade for proper drainage and 3) hydro-seed the yard. While the quote was higher than we expected, Tim’s enthusiasm and seemingly friendly personality won our business. Blackstone started the project and we noticed from the beginning that no herbicide was applied to kill the grass, weeds, moss, etc., as stated in the quote. Instead, all the weeds and grass were just ground into the existing soil and some areas covered with a new layer of top soil. When we asked Tim about this, his response was that this would not make a difference in the final product. Against our better judgment, and with no real alternative, we acquiesced and continued the project. While Tim was here on the first day, I walked around with him on our property pointing out and verifying things we wanted him to do. He was very nice and was saying he would do the things we were showing him, without hesitation and seeming sincerity. We thought we were on the same page. We had also asked Tim during this time, if he would be willing to take up the asphalt on our driveway, widen and straighten it in the process, and then lay down some crushed limestone. After about six hours of work, Tim announced they were done for the day and would be back the next day to finish. At this point, the yard looked sloppy (as expected), and we assumed it would look better after they were finished the next day. They arrived around 10am the next day and were completely done and gone by 2:30. They did very little re-grading or raking and were basically there to apply the top soil and hydro-seed. Large parts of the backyard were left untouched, and the boundaries were not straight or even looking, so the finished product looked quite sloppy, like something we could have done ourselves if we had rented the equipment. They didn’t do as much re-grading/reseeding to the front yard as Tim had agreed to do, nor did they fill in the ditch in the front yard like Tim promised. In addition to the above, there were low spots, none of the debris was raked out, and random pieces of wood, rocks, and vegetation were visible at the edges of the fresh topsoil. Tim claimed these things would go away after the first mow. The hydro-seed was sprayed everywhere - on trees, rocks, the dead vegetation left in the yard, sewer drains, and on the house. The only instructions we received were verbal: water 3x a day and when you mow the grass the exposed tree roots won’t grow back. As for the driveway side project, instead of widening or straightening the driveway as promised, they just took up the asphalt that was already there. When Tim came back a few days later to lay the crushed limestone on our driveway, I expressed my concern regarding the main job. He started addressing my concerns but quickly grew visibly agitated (large arm movements, talking louder and faster). He stated the ground was too wet to do the rear part of the property (the very job I hired him for) but offered to provide another quote to resolve the issue. He said that he would rake the debris but then no grass seed would be there. Tim stated that correcting the obvious low spot where water was already pooling would have to wait until the spring. If Blackstone does come out to address this or the many other issues, I will be happy to update this review. As the conversation progressed, Tim grew increasingly agitated and stopped addressing my concerns; instead, he changed the topic to payment. Staying calm, I explained that I wanted to reach a reasonable payment schedule to ensure my concerns were addressed and fixed. He quickly started walking towards his truck and told his crew to stop working. (This turned out to be for the best given the fact that they were not doing what we wanted with the project.) He offered to not charge us for hauling away the old asphalt, but before he left, he threatened to place a lien on the house if we did not pay the remaining balance that very day. Being naive to the lien process and not wanting the legal hassle, I reluctantly agreed to Tim's offer of withholding the final 5% payment and paying the remainder that day. Tim called me a couple hours later - I initially thought his call was to work things out and to apologize for his unprofessional behavior, but his call was just to threaten once again to place a lien on the house if we didn't pay (yes, after I agreed to pay - not sure what he was hoping to accomplish by this). No apologies, no trying to reach a reasonable solution, nothing. Because he was so quick to repeatedly threaten the lien process, I wonder if he has done this with other customers not satisfied with Blackstone's services. Enough time has passed that parts of the re-seeded lawn have grown. Not surprisingly, so have the weeds, vines, moss and mushrooms that would not be there if Tim had done the job right. None of this can be treated until the new grass matures. What I didn't expect is how patchy the new grass is. In some areas of our property, new topsoil was applied, but it was not applied in others. Some areas were re-graded, but some areas were not. Nothing grew in some areas that were re-seeded. What did grow is different thicknesses, heights, and colors, large areas of the original grass remain adding yet another variation to the yard. To add injury to insult, the water drainage issue was not corrected. Water still pools in several new low spots left after the re-grading. After it stops raining, the standing water lasts for days to weeks, depending on the spot. The entire thing looks worse than it did before the project. I believe it will be many years before my yard recovers from Blackstone's work, and I am going to have to shell out even more money to fix his mistakes. We got a second opinion from another landscaper on Tim’s work, and they agreed it was a poor job. They said Tim should have came to spray everything and let it sit for one week to wait for the spray to kill everything. After at least a week, then Blackstone should have completely hauled away and removed what was dug up before applying new top soil. Needless to say, we wasted significant time and money on Blackstone and write this review to help others not make the same mistake.

Great. They came in wiling a crew of 5 peolple that were very curtious and has the roof replaced before the rain came in. Would definitely use them again. Hopefully not for another 25 years!

More like what he didn't do.... which is anything. I don't understand these companies who treat potential clients like garbage. Is business really that good? It must be. We contacted Blackstone and were glad to hear they could come out the same day. They were in the area and would stop out around 3. Was it true? Nope. Didn't come. Didn't call. But ok... things happen. So we texted around 5... no response. Then called again about an hour later and got ahold of someone. They apologized. Promised they'd be out the next day and call ahead. Did they do that? Nope. Didn't call. Didn't stop out. Who is running these businesses? It's crazy. Now almost a week later still nothing. I can only imagine how bad they'd be if they were actually doing work for us.

Timely, professional, competitive pricing, honest, extremely nice. They treat you like you are their only customer. I highly recommend Blackstone!

From proposal to completion of the work the were a pleasure to work with. Very responsive to our requests and did a professional job with our hardscaping and landscaping.

Tim and Rick arrived at 9 AM as planned. Brought 9 yards of mulch with them. Immediately started worked in areas around large trees in side yard. Worked their way around the yard mulching and edging trees and 4 large flowerbeds. They removed 11 bushes and replanted 9. They worked for 10 hours until the job was done! Upon completion, they made sure all plants were thoroughly watered, and swept and washed off the areas where the mulch had been dumped. They were extremely professional and diligent in their work! A job well-done!