Barnes Inc

Realized a bit later in the mowing season that I needed to find someone to mow my lawn for the rest of the summer. Called Barnes and they were out to give me an estimate AND managed to fit me into their mowing schedule right away even though there had been several rainy days. Always showed up and mowed in a variety of patterns. Lawn always looked great.

Chris was easy to reach by email, stopped by to offer an estimate. I liked his can-do attitude and he answered all my questions so I didn't bother to get another estimate. We have a lot of leaves. Barnes brought a team and they had it done in hours. It was a miracle. They hauled away the leaves and it was like fall never happened. I get a "heads up" when it's my turn, they show up, do the work and are always kind to me. They also did a spring clean up and brought and placed mulch. This is our first year in this house so when I saw the cost of mulch, I was a little surprised. . . but then when I saw how much mulch was involved, I understood. Two helpers got it all done in a few hours and got the yard off to a good start. Chris always answers my questions with a quick response time. Looking forward to using Barnes for as long as they'll have us!

I've been with them for quite a few years and they have never raised my price. They are very friendly.

They have never raised my price in ten years, and I am going to jinx myself. Since I told you this, I'm going to get a price raise. The workers were very friendly.

I would use them again. It wasn't the first time I used them. I have been using them since the winter of 2014. They cut about 3 trees then. They did other work too.

The hedging is coming apart and we've had some plants die. They were supposed to take the existing rocks out. The guys on site just piled the new rocks over the old rocks. They have temporary fixes so we're stuck with what we have.

This winter we had fairly light snowfall and for most of the winter we had a bit warmer temperatures, which led to needing more salting. The snow removal portion of the service was good, we had little to no complain from the owners of our condo association, which was good to hear. However for the precipitation we did have they severely over-slated and re-salted. Any time their was a chance of precipitation or cooling after a warm spell, they would salt. This led to an excess of salt on the ground, but they would salt again anyway. Several times I watched them salt wet, not frozen ground, due to the salt that was already on the ground. Why salt over already salt covered driveways and sidewalks? After a recent meeting with them to remove some of the salting's from the bill, they came back to us with a firm "no", the bill stays as it is. I will say that they probably salted to the letter of the contract. However they appear to have over salted to just keep raking in money. In my mind this situation is morally and ethically wrong for a business to treat their clients this way, and a good way to loose them as they have us. This was our first year using Barns winter services since I have been here. I should have had a little more of a concern from the beginning when our 2014 bills didn't come until 2015, which hurt our condo association budgetary. Then after we asked them to stop coming to salt automatically and check with us first, they came 3 more times, stating it was a disconnect with the office and their crews. That tells me they were doing this to everyone. I just hope other people put their foot down and say something also, maybe they will get the hint and stop taking advantage of their clients. I know Barns has been around for quite a while, and they are a bit higher priced but from what I had heard they were a more reputable company and would provide better service. That is why we switched to them. However my experience with them is just the opposite and given the chance to correct it, they did not. All I can say to others is watch your bill closely, and be careful of how your contract is worded... They will take every opportunity to provide service, even if it is truly not needed.

It seemed to go well at first. The rock walls by the driveway went up while the house was being built. Once the house was finished, we started looking closer at the walls. There were big gaps and you could see dirt and landscaping fabric sticking out. The walls were not straight. We are aware that you are dealing with a natural product, but there didn't seem to be any plan for how the wall was put together. Many of the rocks chosen are sandstone and are crumbling even now. The real problem were the walls next to the house. They just started building the walls, putting up stones and a stairway leading up to the deck. There was never a plan made. It just went up one day. We never knew what was happening when. The two walls on front of the house were a mess. They took whatever rocks they had and just put them on top of each other. The steps up to the deck were the worst. Uneven heights between the steps, big gaps and a large hole at the top of the stairs where you could easily fall into, were just a few of the problems we encountered. We had them try to fix the walls three times, but they just didn't get it. We finally just told them to stop and not to come back. In general, we felt they just wanted to get the project done, not done well. No plans and shoddy workmanship were evident everywhere. We ended up finding another landscaper on Angie's List that is still in the process of repairing the damage done by Barnes. We will now pay twice for a job that should have been done right the first time. We would never use or recommend Barnes again. Maybe they can mow and plow ok, but nothing more complicated than that. Don't use them!

Very dependable and efficient. They came quickly, they were good at following instructions, I have no complaints about their work, the only complaint about that Barnes is that they're a large company and they do a lot of business and they're pretty pricey.

I had the piles of brush ready to be chipped but there was too much to pile in the terrace for the city and the city won't come on private property. I was given an estimate by a supervisor with the city of how long it would take their guys to chip it all if we got it in the terrace and was astounded when I received a much different outlook from Barnes. As it turned out I was able to rent a chipper myself and the work took a little more time than the city's estimate but much less time than the Barnes estimate. Being a small non-profit, we can't afford much and quot;helpand quot; with projects that won't directly help the bottom line. At least Barnes got back to me in a timely manner - other contractors didn't.

We have a very large property and many, many oaks, hickory and cherry trees. The result is knee-high leaves across several acres of lawn and gardens. We have hired Barnes to clear this area for three years. This year was especially challenging with the late leaf drop, early snow and then rain. Knowing that the leaves were wet and heavy Barnes sent four young men (one additional) to clear the debris. Chris was in frequent contact as we were watching weather conditions and setting a date for the work. They arrived yesterday, introduced themselves and immediately asked specifics of what we wanted them to do. They always are courteous and professional. They found out where to put the leaves once they had them all in piles and in five hours of continuous effort they had the whole property beautifully cleared of leaves and twigs. Now we can decorate for the holidays. We are so pleased with Barnes work that we have hired them to do our lawn fertilization program too.

Did not use. Their bid was almost three times amount of other bids, with no difference in work to complete.

The person that was sent out did not know what he was doing. It had been raining for days and the grass was very wet. It was agreed prior to the job that they would use a regular lawnmower as the grass and soil were brand new. They ended up bringing a large commercial lawnmower. Turf was dug up and the whole yard was covered with huge clumps of grass We agreed that they would now go below 3" in length and it was different lengths in different spots around the lawn and the turf was damaged. I told them the way I wanted the work done prior to the job and they did not listen. Also the person that was here would not directly speak with me, only the company over the phone.

It turned out great. The cost was medium. It was a bad snowstorm and in a hard area to reach. The tree had come across my deck. They were able to get the job done rather quickly. They also told me whether it was salvageable or not.

The retaining wall is only part of the story. The lawn division of Barnes was contracted to do the weeding and feeding. After an initial appearance in late April, 2013, to do the spring clean-up, core aeration and to apply pre-emergent to the lawn, weeks passed with no sign of them. At the end of July, I called and terminated the service. The Barnes landscape division was contracted in May 2013, to do three projects for me. Eight weeks later, no one from Barnes has appeared, no one called, and they are not yet done. I have terminated these services as well. This is not a very happy story, and I will never hire, or try to hire, Barnes, Inc.again.

Our service experience has been great. Our lawn was always mowed on time and was neatly trimmed. All trimmings were removed as promised. The snow removal was done well. There were a couple of marks made on our lawn by their equipment. They have already agreed to repair the damage free of charge.

I looked at a couple of other services and the prices were competitive. We were very happy working with them; they were very responsive when we had changes or things that needed correcting. The guy that was managing the job was out right away to look at it; he did the work himself and I would recommend him.

The quality of their service and responsiveness was very good, and I would get a quote from them again in the future.

They did a good job; they were responsive since I called them yesterday and they were here today.

They show up on time, they use the natural fertalizer. They are very polite when you are home. If you are not at home, they leave you a summary of what they have done. I have seen them work h****** my yard.

We had contracted out with this company for many years for snow removal. Until the last two years they were very good; very prompted and careful. The last two years we were not very satisfied. While previously they would have our sidewalks and driveway done early in the morning, this year we often waited for half a day or a day for the removal. We had asked to be placed high on the priority list as we live near a school. We were concerned with little kids falling (and us getting sued) if they had to navigate the snowy and slippery walks. We called and made this request. They responded but the next snow fall they were again late. In addition, they were not very careful; they damaged the garage door frame and also rode the plow over the edge of the lawn. Needless to say we will be contracting out with another firm next year.

I've used them for years and they're great. They show up before dawn and take of everything. They're so reliable; they're just great and follow my instructions well.

They did not come to service our lawn unless I called and questioned why they had not been over in awhile. We got a bill at the end of the summer for "sales tax".

I requested an estimate from Brett at Barnes last Fall to help me decide how much work I could afford to have done in 2010. The original estimate was just for the paver patio. At the time, I didn't believe I was going to be able to have the work done this year, but my situation changed a little and I emailed Brett to see if he could update the quote. Brett responded quickly (via email - my preference) that he would honor the estimate from last Fall. Additionally, I asked him to quote the removal of the asphalt pad and basketball goal. He responded quickly to that as well and I faxed back the contract. At the same time I was arranging for a new cedar privacy fence to replace the current chain link one. Brett and Barnes worked cooperatively with Quigley Decks and Fence to sequence their relative jobs to make the least mess and overlap, etc. I'm very happy with the work Barnes, Inc. performed. Brett was very communicative (did I mention that he was more than willing to communicate back and forth via email - my preference?). I got quick, professional responses from him. I would definitely use Barnes, Inc. again - I've already contracted for them to do my Summer fertilizer/weed control and aeration.

Very professional, very nice people. The only problem was the price. Delivered plans on time and to spec, but we chose not to have them do the implementation.