KELLY'S GREENSCAPES LLC

Shawn and Katee and the team at Kelly’s are tremendous ! We have hired them multiple times for major projects and the quality of their work and the prices have been great !! I cannot recommend them enough … a friend of ours recommended them to us … I’m thankful to her and to Kelly’s !!!

They never even contacted me to say they would or would not do the job

Over all the job was done in a very timely fashion even with running out of the natural stone for the wall which only took them a day to get a hold of. Total time frame was a 4 day process with one of those days being down waiting on the other stone to come in. It was quoted out to be a week or so long project and done much sooner. Yard was completely cleaned up and driveway as best as they could. Shawn stayed involved with the project via phone besides stopping a couple times to check on things and was more than happy to answer any of our questions. Katee who did the design for us was outstanding and knew exactly what we were looking for in the landscape. Granted it has only been a little over a month but have been very happy with the outcome of phase 1 in our yard and looking fwd to having them do phase 2 hopefully next year.

Awful

unknown

Terrible. 100% of the work had to be redone and replaced by another Landscaping company at our great expense. 1. We contracted and purchased an NDS underground drainage system. When the second landscaping company came in to redo everything – we discovered that our gutters were simply buried underground and there was in essence NO system in place. Our sump pump had a 10’ solid PVC pipe attached to, buried about 2’ underground that that ran along the side of our house that simply ended in dirt. No net, clean out, day light, no French drain, no NDS system – nothing. We feel blessed we discovered this or we would have eventually had 4 sink holes in our yard and a sump pump that would have backed up into our home. When we discovered this – it was a mouth dropper. 2. Concrete work was rough. Inexperienced crew. The sidewalk along side our home was not parallel to the house and drifted approximately 12” from back to front. The hand cut expansion joints were “eye balled” and not parallel with each other. The turn of this sidewalk into our patio was at an odd angle – not 45 degrees as per plan – and h****** the eyes. The carriage walk to our street was originally formed “off/unparallel” with the top at 36” width and at the street 34” width. I caught this before they poured. It should have been my warning as to how bad this crew was. 3. The Polymeric sand was installed incorrectly. On every instruction I’ve seen, paper or web, the critical step #3 states that the excess sand should be removed from the stone with a leaf blower before you wet and activate the polymeric sand or you will stain the stone. This step was not done and yes – all the stones were stained – and it looked awful. The stones looked dirty and oily. The owner of Kelly’s Greenscape attempted to clean the stones – but with no success. In addition, sprinklers were set on the newly seeded yard at the same time – not allowing the polymeric sand to “set” properly leaving many places where the sand came out of the joints. 4. The stones originally used in our front stoop were the broken, tossed stones from the two patios. We believe he only order “just and quot;enough”. It looked awful. Kelly’s Greenscape did agree and came to replace “some” of the stones. However, we had a brick pattern using half 4x4 bricks and half 4x8 bricks. In his “redo” he only used 4x8 bricks – not following the grid pattern of the stonework. Between the polymeric sand not applied right and the brick pattern not followed, this was a horrible eyesore right out our front door. 5. The crew did not clean the yard before applying the topsoil and grass seed. After 2 lawn sprinklings, a tremendous amount of gravel surfaced. Most of these stones were 1” in diameter or larger disbursed throughout the job by their trucks and bobcat. All of the planting beddings had the overflow of crushed stone topped with mulch. When I went to garden, I found NO dirt for the plants. 6. The berm was created with mostly waste dirt from the demolition phase. The berm was excessively high and rolled over 12”-18” into my neighbors yard. The crew had not marked the lot line. When they came to correct this problem after the neighbors politely complained to us – they simply “cut” that side of the berm away and refused to lower the berm to an appropriate height or re-sculpt the curve of the berm. 7. I had ordered small Technito Arborvitae and found out from the 2nd Landscapers that what was planted where Techno Arborvitae which would grow large and not to the scale we were looking for. Not only did we verbally complain, we wrote the owner of Kelly’s Greenscape a letter at the conclusion of the project stating all that was wrong and what we wanted corrected before we made final payment. He refused and stopped communicating with us. We have had to take Legal action.

I used them because they gave me a good first impression.

I like their pricing, communication, follow-ups and the quality of their work.

The overall experience was great. The landscape team of Sean, Katee and Martine communicated every step of the way. They were professional and reliable. We never experienced any problems from the first day of planning and during the three week project. They used top quality materials and the work was done by true craftsmen who took pride in their work. Very respectful and they kept the work site clean after each day of work.

The design was quick and professional and clear. The removal of existing plants went well but they broke some sidewalk when removing the front stoop. We were able to quickly solve the sidewalk issue and they built a new section of paver at a reduced cost. All in all the work was of good quality, but with all these types of things they want to finish the job as quickly as possible and get to the next job. While I like the new front stoop very much, not all the sand between the bricks settled properly and there are gaps that I know will have to go back and seal to percent freeze/thaw displacement. Most of the foliage they planted took nicely, but some of the plant were very undersized and one large shrub was pretty much dead right from the start. I might use the contractor again and overall I'd rate the experience a and quot;Band quot;.

Absolute nightmare. Please save yourself years of anxiety and frustration and thousands of dollars.

We met Shawn Kelly at a garden show and were very impressed with him and his high energy and willingness to spend time with us. As spring 2012 unfolded Shawn met with us on several occasions to plan, re- plan what we wanted to do with our landscape. We set a date and his crews showed up on agreed upon day and were very professional and friendly. The crew did great work and clean up was outstanding. There were no surprises in the final billing and my wife and I absolutely love our new patio!

The results are amazing. Our backyard is paradise. The crew cleaned up every day of the project and at the end we didn't have any clean up to do. Other contractors we have used always left a mess we had to deal with. I highly recommend Shawn, he worked with us and within our budget. His crew was friendly and very easy to work with. We are going to use them for more landscaping this summer.

From the design discussions, to construction and completion we were kept fully informed during the process. Final product exceeded expectations.

Met the owner at the Waukesha Home Show. He came out to the house and gave me an verbal estimate. He also gave us tickets to the NARI show at state fair so we could see some more examples at this two booths. Spoke with him after the show to firm up what we wanted and the price. I got ahold of him and he told me he would call back in 20 minutes -- he did not. Called him two days later and left a message -- no return call. He was a nice guy and it looked like quality work -- I wish it would have worked out better.

Poor communication. No instruction on how to care for our new landscaping. The owner came to give the initial estimate and informed us that we would have to pay $150 to get a precise estimate and design, but that in his opinion our project would cost less than $5000. We were pleased with that figure, and so went ahead with the $150 design consult. We selected simple plants and seed rather than sod, etc., and our "precise estimate" came in at nearly $11000. At that point we were already invested, and worked with the designer to reduce our cost to about $7000. When they completed the project, they forgot multiple plants. Furthermore, they left the seed with no straw or covering, and it rained just days after the completion of the project, completely washing away much of the seed. We called and asked them to return and patch the bare spots in our yard and they were very resistant. Ultimately they did come to spread some additional seed, but expressed that the spots were bare because we weren't watering the grass sufficiently. (Our water bill can prove otherwise - but, moreso, it would have been nice to have some care instructions so we would know exactly how much/little to water....)

He arranged for things to be done and he wanted to be a general contractor and sub contract out the jobs and he did a very poor job. When we initially contracted for the final landscaping, I asked him about elevation and positive surface drainage and he said would do it. He never did do it. He did a poor job at final grading as well. He used a bobcat, and the operator was with questionable ability.