once again - need some advice - landscaper experience

[RIJIMMY]

Here's my situtation. We had our back yard cleared in a few phases. This winter, I have a landscaper come by to estimate removing a few more stumps, fill, grade and install a lawn. He gives me a quote and says "I'll guarantee the seeding" in writing. He is expensive, but I like him and we give them a go. Due to the rainy spring, they come in early May. It looked great when they were done. They hydroseeded the entire yard. Right after they seeded, we had a thunderstorm and it looked to me that alot of the seed washed away but I figured we'd wait and see. I watered the lawn as instructed - spending close to an hour in the morning and afternoon moving the sprinklers around. As the lawn starts coming in, we notice that there is a lot of non-grass coming in too. At first its subtle since its green and the same size as teh grass, then its more and more - weed. The lawn itself was spotty, lots of dirt spots. In the last two weeks, the weed exploded. The yard looks awful. So I email the landscaper to come and take a look, he send his lawn expert by and they send me an email with a list of things they can do - blah, blah $60, blah blah $40,,,,,etc, etc. to remove the weed and then he could re-seed for no charge!
I never had a lawn installed, I had a weed field installed! So, am I wrong in thinkning this guy should fix this at no charge to me? It looks terrible and I paid a lot of $ for this. He said he guaranteed the seeding. The lawn should have taken. The weeds are a result of the lawn not coming in. Any thoughts? I sent him an email back chewing him out and will call him tomorrow. I am SO tired of people doing crap jobs. Am I wrong here?
If he doensnt fix it, what can I do? SMall claims court?

[spence]

I would think the seeding means germination at the least if not full establishment. If the storm washed away a lot of the seed before it even had a chance to germinate you'd have an argument that it should have been repaired.

It would be great if you had snapped some pics along the way, but I'd think you have an argument for small claims court if it had to go to that.

I would think there's some info in message boards if you search around. That and be a pain in his ass if he won't be reasonable.

-spence

[JohnnyD]

Pictures, pictures, pictures.

Take a ton of them and time/date stamp them. I'm sure you kept the receipts so you know when the seeding took place. If he guaranteed the hydroseed (which isn't too tough to take root in the first year), then I'd definitely press him hard... as long as the guarantee is in writing.

This news pisses me off even more that McGuire Landscaping blew you off. He does a good job and doesn't BS people, but as you experienced, he sucks with his timeliness and getting back to people. From my experience landscaping in high school and first couple years of college, there are two types of landscape companies - the scumbags and the well-intentioned, poor business-oriented ones.

I'd say, compile the evidence - contracts, pictures and guarantees - then tell him he has two options, fix it or small claims.

[UserRemoved1]

YOU CAN'T KILL WEEDS AND GERMINATE GRASS AT THE SAME TIME.

Bag of seed $20

Court....TIME...MONEY.....WASTED.

Bottom line is you can't do %$%$%$%$ to anyone in court. You can't collect.. Faggetabout it. It's a TOTAL waste of time. Suck it up and spend a half hour with a new bag of seed. Mow the weeds this summer and use weed killer this fall.

[Raven]

meaning pre germinated

it shoulda been up in days

i'm thinking it got frosted and killed off

i would start over, maybe even roto till down to 3 inches
to kill the weeds

forget that guy if he's not going to re do it for free

was the guarantee in writing?

[RIJIMMY]

I talked to him today and he was reasonable. I was really fired up last night. They seem like good guys. Its just that the lawn looks terrible and we paid a lot of $.

Salty - I get your point. I left out that this project started with a landscaper that didnt haul away all the trees we took down. he dumped them in my woods. We had talked about removing them but I didnt have it in writing. So - I spent 4 weekends, renting a trailer, hauling brush getting guys to take away the wood for firewood. My shoulder is still f-ed up from all the chainsaw work and after the 15th trip to the dump, I jackknifed the trailer and dented my car. All this work because someone screwed me. Im not doing it again. I expect the same quality work I do in my job done for me.
I think Im all set. We'll see. Im ready to move into a condo and never do lawn/yard work again,

[UserRemoved1]

if you need more firewood I got about 10 cords here. Hemlock n mixed woods. you haul

[fishbones]

Jimmy, the tree guy wouldn't happen to be the guy you recommended to me, would it? I still haven't heard back from him after he came and marked off 26 trees last fall. I'm finally getting them all taken down next week from a guy from RI for a great price. I can't wait to have sunlight in my backyard for more than a couple of hours a day.

[MakoMike]

Just curious, what did you guys pay to have the stumps removed, grading and seeding? I ask because I am thinking about doing the same next spring. I want to move the woods back about 100 feet in front and in back of the house.

[spence]

You guys could negotiate a volume deal, get one landscaper to screw you all over for the same high price

-spence

[Swimmer]

Use a good lawn starter fertilizer from Scotts. It kills most of the weeds that sprout up along with new grass seed. But if the grass was seeded properly there should be room for weeds to see the sunlight. Have to use good starter fert though. I bought cheap stuff years ago against the advvice of the salesgirl where I use to buy my stuff and SHE WAS RIGHT. Go cheap, walk with the weeds.

[SurfCaster413]

RIJimmy am a landscaper and know all the little ins and outs, you gotta watch guys that hydro seed. They are suppose to pay for the water out of hydrants, but what they do is go to a local pond and suck the water up for free. They then do your lawn and spray seeds from all the funky weeds they sucked up out of the pond,then the crap grows in your lawn. thats why we hand seed or overseed our lawns. You cant grow grass now because the weeds will grow faster then grass itself. Have him spray and put a turf builder down but tell him you want it overseed after labor day but make sure he goes north and south and east and west with it. that way the lawn gets done twice