Dean Landscape Construction

The design process was good and they were very responsive. The owner Micah disappeared once the patio was in process. Frankly it looked pretty decent installed, but immediately had drainage issues which we brought to his attention. We went back and forth for a year and Micah would say they will be out net week and we're busy but will get to it. Never happened. Here we are 3 years later and have a new company looking at regrading it. We came to find out that the advantage we may have gotten in price was taken out of the quality. They didn't put proper support under the seat walls or the paver floor. Actually put 1 inch of sand and that's it! A patio calls for 4 inches of compacted gravel. Micah is a scammer and total fraud. Do not use this service.

He took a down payment 12/15/14 for $1200. He never did the work. By September of the next year (2015), I really needed to get the job done, since the house was going on the market. Micah made repeated promises to come by. I mean daily promises. He broke every single one. He just lied that "I'm starting today... yadda yadda." Eventually on November 3rd 2015 I told him it was too late. The house had sold and I had to make concessions to the seller to finish the house.

Micah assured me he would give me my deposit back. He said he'd take a loan from his family. But, he lied. He refused to take my calls. Wouldn't respond to text messages or notes I left at his house/office.

I think the bottom line is this business is going under and Micah is just robbing Peter to pay Paul. I'd avoid Dean Landscaping like the plague. 

They were terrible. They took my deposit and then didn't do the service. I've hired a lawyer, I don't know what's happened too them. They may have gone out of business. I sent them email, their phone is disconnected, I sent them a letter asking for my deposit back and I've not received any feedback at all. So I have a lawyer looking into it. I did just update the Better Business Bureau. I contracted with them in April and all summer long I had to chase him to try to get his men out here to work and he always had a reason why they couldn't. Part of it was weather related early in the summer and I could understand that but as the summer wore on, he kept making excuses and then one day I called and there was no phone.

I called the company to inform them that two of the plants had died and attempted to get them back out to replace them under the 1-year warranty, he said that he would take care of it but never scheduled an appointment or showed up after I called. I have attempted to call multiple times thereafter to get them to honor their word on replacing the plants and I am still unable to get them back out.

This was a great experience.  From the start Micah separated himself from the other companies that we spoke to about our project.  First, we wanted a company that could do everything for us.  We found lots of patio guys, and lots of landscapers, but not many that did both on top of drainage work.
I scheduled an appointment for a quote.  Micah was the third quote that I had received.  Micah took his time in working up an exact quote for me.  He answered a lot of questions for me.  I appreciated him giving me options, but also his recommendation.  Micah was the most expensive of the three quotes.  However, I hired him as I felt that he understood my needs better than the other companies, and was going to deliver a professional outcome.  Frankly, I trusted Micah.
I ended up delaying the start of the project for personal reasons.  Micah was very understanding and worked with us on changing the start date.  This project was very intimidating to my wife and I .  And not to mention it was a lot of money.  Micah walked us through every step.
When the project started his team arrived as scheduled and began to work.  All of the team was professional and very polite.  They answered all of our questions.  It was very hot when they were working.  I was so impressed with their work ethic.  Their attention to detail was amazing.  
At one point their Bobcat damaged our vinyl siding.  They informed us of the damage and replaced the vinyl siding the next day.
Like any large outdoor project, weather became a factor.  Micah kept us well informed when the weather forced a call off for the day.  The project did take longer than estimated.  However, this is no one's fault.  These large projects run into changes.  I credit Micah for keeping us informed daily. 
And the estimate stuck.  I give Micah a ton of credit for that.
Whatever technique they used to re-seed the grass worked beautifully.  Now, we have a beautiful patio and yard.  The drainage issues that we were having are now non-existent.
Thank you to Dean Landscaping!  We look forward to using you again for the front yard project.

We were very impressed with the professionalism of Dean's Landscaping. We contracted them to remove/trim all of our front landscaping and re-grade. Very good work and cleaned up very well afterwards.

Micah is a professional and kind man....however the work provided by his company left something to be desired and we were in conflict for awhile.  However, Micah made sure that the issues were resolved- perhaps not as quickly as I would like--but the issues were corrected and I am satisfied with the result.  Would I hire Micah again? Even with the problems- I would give him another try if I had more work to be done.

I met with the owner Micah Dean on a Friday we talked through all the yard issues. He listened  understood exactly what I wanted done.  He said the entire job could be completed in five days.  Although it rained on one of the scheduled work days, they still completed the job on time.   There were several different crews working from fencing to landscaping and they were all very professional and  responsive as the job progressed.  After some of the large bushes were torn out from between the houses I asked if an 8' shrub (after the fact and 3 days into the project) could be placed in the side yard to provide some privacy right at the kitchen door.  The next day... there it was!   When the project was completed I could not believe the transformation.  Micah and his crew really enjoy what they do, and customer satisfaction is important to them.  This is reflected in the quality of their work.  
As a side note, I also had a very large limb that had fallen and was hanging on the power line (the week before I contracted with Dean Landscaping) from my neighbor's tree.  Micah had arranged to have it hauled away, since it had taken the power company so long to respond.  The power company did finally arrive and removed it, however it was very reassuring to know I had a backup plan.  
I couldn't be more pleased with Dean Landscaping.  I will definitely be calling them in the future to have additional work done.   

The owner is very responsive and he has come out and talked to my husband several times. They've done great work. The mower accidentally broke one of our fences and they came out and replaced the fence.

I received estimates from five of the top landscape outfits on Angie" List and Micah responded on behalf of Dean Landscaping.  Micah returned my email in a timely fashion and showed up on time for our pre-arranged walk through.  He was very knowledgeable and made several observations and recommendations which were missed by all but one of the other companies.  He took the time to listen, provide feedback and provided a quote on the spot after calculating the labor and supply costs. 

As the project design evolved and changes were made follow up w/ Micah was sporadic.  He would either email a response right away or it would take four to five days.  My impression is his company is one of the better and busier firms in the market and this is the busiest time of the year for them.  I ended up not utilizing Dean Landscape because of their busy schedule,  but I will definitely call them in the future simply because Micah was so straight forward and knowledgeable.  

Two people came out to do the job.  It took a few times to finally complete the job.  We signed the contract in April and did take him some time to come out.  They had to cut rose bushes, ornamental grass and other things.  It was important to get them done so it would be easier to complete the job on time. It was a good job when it was finally completed.  I would tell members to make sure you know what date or what the plan is before they sign the contract.  The owner seems very nice but it is a new company so they have a few things to improve.  The job was satisfactory since some things were not done they way they should.  If the rose bushes had been taken care of sooner we might have some roses.

Inconsistent mowing schedule.  We'd call Micah when it was over two weeks since they came and our lawn was way overgrown.  He'd tell us he'd get someone out to mow on a specific day and the crew never showed up.  This happened several times, but they'd get to it eventually.  This season, it started off the same way (inconsistent mowing, overgrown lawn).    The two times we did get our lawn services in 2014, the crew left lawn clippings all over our patio and flower beds (they are supposed to blow that off).   We emailed/called him and said if service didn't improve we would cancel.   We received no emails or returned calls, no apology when we actually cancelled the service.  Poor customer service, the only thing that would show up on time was our bill.  We are much happier with our new lawn service. 

He was flexible like he could come in the evening after my office to come and talk to me about this.They were reasonable.

Dean Landscaping is the epitome of why Angie's List was started in Columbus and the reason why we joined.  As mentioned above, the project was to be completed by the first week of December and Micah reassured us on many occasions that they work in any weather and temperature. From the start we were told of delay after delay. The fence did not come in on time, the trees were not delivered to the nursery on time, people did not show up for work, equipment was stolen by his employees, employees family members passed away, employees were poked in the eye by tree branches, Micah Dean himself was sick,  weather to wet or cold, it honestly was excuse after excuse. This was of great concern to us because the trees did make it to the nursery in early December and we expressed on many occasions our concern for the trees being out of the ground for a prolonged period of time, but every time Micah assured us that once planted the trees were guaranteed for a year (industry standard) and the trees were dormant and not susceptible to the cold and would be fine for prolonged periods of time.  At the end of December he told us that we had a drainage problem in our back yard and it would cost $6000  for him to fix. We did not have that in our budget for the project and my family member is in landscape and construction in another town and advised us that in no way would it cost that much to lay some drainage pipes in the backyard and that the trees could be planted on raised beds, which would take care of any standing water issue. Micah agreed and said he would charge $1500 to do a little work on the drainage and raise the beds.  Finally, in February the fence, which had remained partially erected through the winter, was mostly complete.  Finally, the 39 trees were delivered on March 24 (they had been out of the ground for 4 months). Most of the trees looked in terrible shape, some turning brown and dropping. I asked Micah to come to look at them that day and although he expressed resistance to making a "site visit", he did come to see them and agreed some looked rough. He even had his guy remove one he already planted that I called "the Charlie Brown Christmas tree". Micah assured me the trees would be fine and they were still dormant and if there were any issues that they are guaranteed for a year. Hesitantly, we went ahead and let him plant the trees.  At that time I asked him if we should water the trees because it was spring and was raining a lot and he said no, you do not need to water them. It was raining a lot but we checked the ground every other day or so and watered as needed 1-2 times per week.  We had another landscaper come and look at the trees after they were planted to get his input and he agreed they did not look healthy, but with a little time we would know if they would survive. Once they were in the ground after the first 1-2 weeks, several of the trees continued to deteriorate. I notified Micah Dean on April 25 that 3-4 of the trees were dead or dying and several others looked bad. I requested that he come and take a look at them because they seemed to deteriorate more each day and also sent him pictures of the trees, and he told me they needed water. We had been watering them so this baffled me. He said he would come by early in the week but we never heard from him. By late in the week I asked him if he came by and he had not but said he would the next day (Friday, May 2). Another week went by and he had not looked at them and I texted him to let him know that more trees were deteriorating. On Friday, May 9 he sent me a text that the nursery from whom he purchased them went by , said they needed water 1-2 times per week and they would be fine. He said he would replace the 4 trees that were completely dead. Again, I told him we had been watering them 1-2 times per week, yet they continue to die. I had not heard back from him so I sent a text on Monday, May 19 to let him know that at least 7 trees were dead.  He advised me to keep watering.   I received an email from him on Friday, May 23 stating that he would replace the 4 original dead trees and that he would give us a 20% discount on any additional trees we wanted replaced. At the same time, the landscaper that looked at the trees after they were planted returned at my request and said that we could have not watered them since they were planted on March 24 and there is no way they would have died that quickly. He said they suffocated from prolonged exposure of the exposed roots to cold and said that any guarantee would cover that type of issue. I notified Micah Dean of this on May 23 via email as well as our dissatisfaction with his offer to replace 4 of dead trees and offer us a discount to buy more. To be honest, it completely baffles me how he can even suggest such a thing.  As of today, May 31, there are 11 dead trees out of the 39 and 4-5 more look like they will be dead in a few days.  We have not heard from Micah Dean since May 23 and he has failed to reply to my email and text messages. He has been contacted by the Better Business Bureau as we filed a complaint, but has yet to respond to them either.  We have lost thousands of dollars and completely baffled how this person is still in business.

Micah did not show up for our appointment or return subsequent calls.

Design: Micah Dean met with my wife and I for an hour and we discussed exactly what we wanted and the three of us collaboratively created a plan. Dean created a quote, itemizing all the things we had discussed, and handed it to us before he left. I told him that we didn't need a full design drawing as our project was relatively simple and he seemed to clearly understand exactly what was needed. We decided on general types and sizes of plants for purposes of getting a quote with the understanding that we'd pick the specific species of plants after we decided on a landscaping company. We met with representatives of two other companies (all three are highly rated smaller companies that specialize in residential landscape work with specific experience in installing large trees) and then decided to go with Dean. We chose Dean because of reputation, confidence in his understanding of our project and our priorities, his ability to articulate a plan to meet our needs, ability to complete the project in a timely manner, and lastly price. We made our decision the third week of March.
Via email, we discussed exactly which species of plants and trees were to be used for which locations and made final decisions.
Demolition (late April): Micah's crew ground the stumps. They removed the plants we wanted to save (placing them temporarily in a different bed) so they could completely remove an old Rose of Sharon that we wanted to get rid of, which involved removing lots of roots and shoots throughout the planting bed. They removed the old brick planting bed borders. This work was done thoroughly and efficiently.
Preparation (early May): Micah used a subcontractor to grind the roots from our old maple tree flush with the lawn (kind of like refinishing a warped wood floor). The edges of the planting beds needed to changed and redefined. Micah's did not seem to thoroughly explain the details of the project adequately to his crew. This is where not having a drawing started to become a problem. The edges were not where the three of us had decided upon, and his crew had to come back to fix them later. They put stakes in the ground where they intended to install each of the plants. We moved one of the stakes and let them know about it. They delivered the soil and properly graded the planting beds and lawn area.
Delivery (early May): Five Arborvitae, one Ninebark, one Maple tree, and one Redbud tree were delivered. The Ninebark and the Redbud were not the specific varieties that had been agreed upon. We decided we actually liked the delivered Ninebark better and kept it, and Micah exchanged the Redbud in one day without any friction at all. Accuracy: C; Responsiveness: A.
Planting (early May): They were about to put the Maple where the Redbud was supposed to go and the Redbud in the Maple's intended location, but luckily my wife caught this before they actually put the large (2 - 2.5 inch caliper) trees in the ground. Again, a drawing and better internal communication within the company would have prevented this. They installed one of the Arborvitae in the original location of the stake and not where we had relocated it. They installed another leaning at a noticable angle. They came back and moved and replanted the two Arbortvitae the next day. They spread the grass seed and straw and the mulch. They left the plants that were supposed to go back into the front bed in one of the side beds, missed several areas around the trees that needed to have been seeded, and one of the mulch rings was significantly off center around one of the trees. The spade edges around the planting beds were of uneven depth, which was both an aesthetic issue as well as a functional one (in terms of being able to evenly mow the lawn up to the edge of the beds). The Maple tree needed to be pruned to correct some early-growth bad habits that should have been obvious when they planted it. They corrected all the issues the day after I notified them. Accuracy: C; Responsiveness: A.
All in all, I am satisfied with the end result. The work was completed when I had been expecting. I would like to have had fewer issues along the way, but Micah had his crew addressed every issue I reported promptly and without any push-back. I have very high standards and am a tough grader, so don't take my giving Dean Landscaping mostly B's to be a negative. I would use them again, but I would insist on a detailed diagram showing all borders and edges and exactly which plants were to end up in which locations, and specifying details such as the depth of the borders to reduce the change for misunderstandings and mistakes.

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Micah came and looked at the issue(s) I would like the original concrete contractor to address.  He showed me what needed fixed and explained how it could be done.  I asked him for an estimate because I do not think the original contractor will fix the problems.  He gave me a very reasonable estimate.  He also noted that the landscape work his company did last year wasn't up to par.  I was contributing extreme temperatures [near 100 in summer and minus 30s in the winter] to the landscaping issues.  He is going to bring in additional soil and re-seed the lawn without my asking [or any additional charge]!!!! 
On another note - I did tell him that he is not listed as "concrete work" on Angie's List.  "Hard scape"?? is the same, but not recognizable to customers!  He is going to change that, so everyone can enjoy the exceptional service Dean's Landscaping has to offer!
Micah cares about his company AND his customers AND the services they provide.  This is why I choose Dean's Landscaping! 

he was very quick to cash the check, very slow in in finishing the work. Dumped sod and dirt in a wooded area without permission. Never finished gluing the cap stone on the tree ring, we went to Home Depot and did it ourselves. Way over priced and underperformed.

2 day project took 2 weeks to complete.  They started one day and came back about 10 days later to complete.

He came out when he said he was going to. He gave me a decent price and a discount because I'm an Angie's List member. He grabbed my snow shovel to dig my car out so that he wouldn't have to get too close with his equipment. He went above and beyond what he needed to. I have a hundred foot driveway and he got the extra snow on the sides as well and around the mailbox.

I could not be more pleased with all of the services Micah and his crew have done for me.  They are as regular as clock work for the weekly grass cutting and always leave my lawn looking great. Annually they mulch the front and back flower beds and do a very comprehensive spring and fall clean-up.  I needed to have a privacy fence replaced and they quickly got me on the schedule, removed the old fence and erected a new 6' fence. 

This summer I needed to have a massive tree removed from my front yard.  Due to the size of the tree and difficulty getting machinery in for the removal my lawn took a beating in the process.  To insure my property looked great when the job was complete they replaced the front lawn with sod.

Most recently they have been removing snow from my driveway and walks and also salting the area.  They do a terrific job.  I have it set-up that snow is removed if there are a certain number of inches and salt if necessary or a small amount of snow. In addition we have set a time by which the snow should be removed so I am always able to get out and get to work. My driveway is very long and their snow removal service is invaluable to me. 

All services I use Dean's Landscaping for are reasonably priced.  I have obtained quotes from others for the same services and Dean's Landscaping always provides a competitive price with a comprehensive description of exactly what work is to be completed. 

The price turned out different,than the Angie's list price,due to more men.I was told it's in the small print,to read it.They sent me a bill for $500.00 .When I called to inquire why I received this bill I was told to disreguard.Aside from the price difference and incorrect billing they did get the job done.

I had Micah come out to do MAJOR lawn repair after another contractor made a mess.  While he was here, he told me his company does concrete work and would have repaired the lawn damage if I had contracted with them.  When he came for final inspection on the lawn repair, I asked for a quote to seal the concrete.  Not only was his quote cheaper, he included ALL 5 areas instead of just the driveways.  I accepted.  He called one morning and asked if they could come and seal.  Sure!  They came.  They sealed.  Work done!  I am saving his card for ANY future projects!!!  I have already recommended him to friends.