What you should know before hiring a landscaper: Part 2

When researching reliable landscape contractors, reviews from people who worked directly with the businesses – the more, the better, and with photos – are helpful indicators, and would-be clients might request references that would require the contractor to receive consent from previous customers. A contractor with a gallery of completed projects on their website can show the caliber of the business and also what is possible on projects that prospective clients are looking to do. Seeing completed work is one way to gain trust with a company. 

An onsite consultation with the company is vital, and the client should have at least a general idea of the project in mind before scheduling this meeting, which avoids either party wasting time. This process, necessary from sales and estimating perspectives, can alleviate a lot of questions and concerns and start to develop the relationship between homeowner and landscaper, who takes measurements and gets to know the property in order to create full transparency. 

To evaluate a contractor, homeowners should look for someone with experience and appropriate qualifications, and who is informed on the services being sought and up-to-date on trends and techniques that will provide the best possible outcome for the desired project. 

A landscaping contractor should not take the lead in making suggestions about the property, but rather listen to the wants, the needs, the pain and the pleasure of what the client is going for. That should be a starting point for the concept for the space, then the landscaper or designer can contribute ideas to support that vision. For specific projects and any type of installation work, whether plants or hardscaping, it’s important to have a conceptual plan that is produced and executed by the landscaper to ensure a seamless process from start to finish. This also assures mutual understanding and transparency about the scope of work prior to breaking ground. It’s much easier (and cost-effective) to make changes on a piece of paper or computer file than on a job site. Golden Wolf Landscape & Design, for example, offers top-down 2D CAD drawings and 3D renderings for accurate visual referencing. This and other well-qualified companies can offer a turnkey process that includes the services of specialists such as architects, plumbers or electricians. Not every company can do this, but honesty is the way to address such questions.  

While budget is often the least discussed topic, it’s also among the important to address since this frequently emerges as a determining factor for a project’s feasibility. Here again, being honest, open and transparent about what the services are going to cost, from installation to maintenance, need to be part of the sales process – which manages the client’s expectations about what they can get for the amount they want to invest. Changing or reducing the scope of work will reduce the overall costs. This difficult-to-have – but essential – conversation should be addressed upfront and not put on hold until the last second. 

Timelines for projects depend on multiple factors, including the size of the job, and a range of dates should be discussed in terms of weeks, months, seasons – or even years – as needed. The focus should be on managing client expectations appropriately. Scheduling is an entire job in itself, and the understanding and flexibility of things changing due to weather or materials available, to name a few, should be discussed during the sales process before the client even signs the contract. And that applies to a maintenance or service contract as well. 

After the contracts have been signed, a deposit is made to the contractor. That starts a chain of action, from reserving materials to scheduling work. The company handles logistics such as making sure that equipment is ready, deliveries are set, and a crew and project manager in in place. These actions enable the job to be executed properly and in a timely manner. 

With any kind of landscaping or hardscaping job, some kind of maintenance will be involved because you are dealing with the outdoors and Mother Nature. Having a client prepared with an appropriate service time frame should be clearly laid out before the work is completed – to provide and maintain the best quality hardscape and landscape. 

If you are not currently a customer of Golden Wolf Landscape & Design LLC, we would love to add you to our growing family of customers. Our focus is on residential and commercial properties in New Jersey. Our goal is to provide the best experience and value for each and every one of our customers. Contact us at (908) 578-1179. You can also fill out a request form for a quote on our website under our “Contact Us” tab. We're looking forward to hearing from you!