Mahar Landscape Services

Last summer I contracted with Mahar Landscape Services, 5647 45 th Ave SE #A, Lacey, WA 98503, to lay top soil and sod on the front lawn of my residence. Right away I found that the owner, Bryan Mahar, was extremely difficult reach, either by phone or e-mail. On those rare occasions when he could be reached, he would frequently miss appointments by either not showing up at all, or showing up several hours late. He would never contact me to cancel or reschedule. When he finally did show up (after some weeks), he told me my lawn didn?t need sod and should just be dug up (to remove thatch) and reseeded. I noticed that when he would arrive at my residence to meet with me, he frequently didn?t have, or would forget to bring basic tools with him (such as shovels or other lawn maintenance implements) and would have to borrow whatever I had on hand in my garage. During our conversation I mentioned the difficulty I had keeping my lawn irrigated and that I was considering installing an automatic, underground sprinkler system to deal with the problem. Mr Mahar offered to install the sprinkler system in conjunction with removing the thatch and reseeding the lawn. However, he wasn?t very prompt in completing the work, and didn?t actually get started until well into October. Of course his employee and he forgot to bring a ladder to install the rain sensor on the roof, so again they borrowed (without asking) the folding construction ladder from my garage. The sprinkler system was finally installed sometime in November, at which time he reseeded the lawn (in November?) and he never did remove the thatch. I asked him if it was too late in the season to put down seed, but he insisted it wasn?t. Naturally, the following day the sparrows came down en masse and gobbled up all the seeds. A few days later Mr Mahar showed up unannounced at my residence well after dark. When I went outside to see what he was doing, he told me he was putting down ?Top Soil.? He started dumping this stuff on my lawn without clearing it with me first; and what he referred to as ?Top Soil? actually consisted of sand, gravel, rather large rocks and broken pieces of concrete. Obviously it was refuse from another job site that he didn?t want to pay to dump somewhere else. I was shocked, but didn?t say anything because it was too late. This stuff was now all over my lawn. I was grateful it was so late in the season that I didn?t have to mow the lawn anymore, because there was no way I could run a lawn mower over all those rocks. Over the next week I picked up the broken concrete and several of the large rocks and threw them into the rock garden between my porch and driveway. But I knew there was no way I could mow my front lawn again unless/until I had all that garbage scraped up and removed. This spring I had to pay another landscaper to come in and rake up all the sand, rocks and gravel dumped on my lawn by Mr Mahar and put down legitimate top soil and grass seed. The other landscaper was just as shocked as I was at what Mr Mahar had dumped on my lawn. Predictably the seed Mr Mahar threw down the previous November (at least what was left of it) didn?t grow either and my lawn looked worse than ever. Finally, this spring while attempting to mow the sparse clumps of grass that were still growing on my front lawn; I accidently hit one of the sprinkler heads with my lawn mower, which broke it off below ground. Most of the sprinkler heads (which rise up under water pressure) were flush with the ground, as they?re supposed to be. But he left a few of them sticking up above the ground by a good half inch or more. So, if you?re not extremely careful, you run the risk of damaging them if you inadvertently step on them; bump them with your foot or something; or in my case, hit them with a lawn mower blade. I know that throughout the installation of the sprinkler system, Mr Mahar had considerable trouble digging down in the soil due to the excessively rocky ground (not to mention the time of year he chose to install the sprinkler system). In fact, instead of running the sprinkler line under my driveway to reach both areas of my front lawn, he routed the line ALL THE WAY AROUND THE BACK OF MY HOUSE to reach the other side of the driveway. Amazing! Anyway, as long as the sprinkler system worked, I was okay with it. But after I broke the sprinkler head, I tried to coordinate with Mr Mahar to get it replaced. I tried to call him on the phone several times on 4 Apr 15, but had no luck reaching him. The phone would ring, then automatically pick up as if you could leave a message, but no message system would come on-line. You could hear sounds and voices in the background, but no one would ever answer the phone. After that I sent him an e-mail detailing what happened to the sprinkler head and asking if he could fix it. To my astonishment he actually responded and said he would call me the next day. But as usual, he never did. I sent him a follow-up e-mail on 18 Apr 15, because the sprinkler system had started coming on automatically around 0300 a.m., and the water coming out of the broken sprinkler was creating a mess. Again, to my amazement, Mr Mahar responded and said he would come out the next day to fix it. Naturally he didn?t show up. I sent him one more e-mail on 19 Apr 15 advising him that if he didn?t come out to fix the sprinkler head, I would have to look for another contractor to fix it. I received no response except a couple of silent, ?unavailable phone number? calls and never heard from him again. Although the sprinkler system he eventually installed was just ?okay,? he certainly IS NOT reliable to say the least. And since my lawn (which he really wrecked with that phony ?Top Soil?) never grew at all, he is definitely NOT honoring his ?One-Year Satisfaction Guaranteed? warranty. Obviously I don?t recommend this guy AT ALL and strongly suggest any other potential customers steer clear of his landscaping business.

I HAVE USED THIS SERVICE FOR THE PAST 6 MONTHS, TWICE MONTHLY. IN THAT TIME THEY HAVE NO SHOWED FOR THEIR APPOINTMENT ONCE, HAVE LEFT THEIR WORK GEAR/TOOLS TWICE, AND HAVE LEFT MY PET GATE OPEN ONCE. THE JOB ITSELF IS ADEQUATE. BRIAN MAHAR HIMSELF IS VERY PLEASANT, HIS WORKERS JUST DO THEIR JOB.