79% of Americans believe that having a lawn is an important highlight when they rent or buy a home.
If you’re like most people in this country you either have a lawn already or you desperately want one. Having a nice yard is desirable, but it also requires a lot of care and upkeep. With the busy lives that some Americans lead, hiring yard care service contractors can be a great solution.
Are you in the market for a yard care service? Perhaps you’re no longer happy with the one you’ve been using. Maybe this is the first time you’ve ever thought about getting this type of care for your property.
Either way, finding a yard care service company that you can trust can be difficult because there are just so many options out there. If you’re interested in some of the main points that you’ll want to consider during your search so that you can find a winner, keep reading below.
Look at How Much Yard Care Experience They Have
All businesses won’t have much experience when they first open, so this doesn’t necessarily mean you should count out new businesses. However, you want to make sure that the person that will be working on your yard knows what they are doing to avoid causing damage or destroying your lawn.
Anyone that has access to a computer and has a few extra dollars can register a yard care company online in just a few minutes. So, you need to do a little bit of research and make sure that the companies you’re considering are reputable and have experience with your type of landscape.
Lawn care is not an easy task, and a lot more goes into it than what we can see from the outside. Your yard care agency needs to work with employees or contractors that know how to care for your landscape correctly and provide all required services.
Consider Their Specific Knowledge
In most neighborhoods, if you look around at the different lawns that every home has, most of them are going to look fairly similar. Did you know, however, that there are more than 6 different types of landscape designs that are commonly found in the United States?
For instance, if you’re living in more of a desert community (like parts of Arizona and Nevada), you may have a desert landscape with sand, succulents, rocks, and concrete. If you’re in a slightly more forgiving climate that still has a lot of warmth, you may have a tropical landscape with palm trees, lava rocks, and tropical plants.
Regardless, you need to hire a lawn care provider that knows how to care for the specific type of landscape design that you’ve already worked so hard to create. Even different types of grass require different care methods, so there is a lot of information that you will want to make sure that the professional has before you decide to hire them for your lawn.
Ask About What Chemicals They Use
While adding a lot of synthetic fertilizer to a lawn will make it look green for a while, it doesn’t actually make it any healthier. It also makes it unsafe for you to walk on it without shoes on. The point here is that although chemicals may help upfront, your lawn still requires proper care treatments that chemicals can’t do all on their own.
If you choose a lawn care company that does work with chemicals, you need to know what their plan is with the chemicals and how they are going to use them. You should also inquire about the types of chemicals that are going to be used to make sure that they are safe for your family.
Fertilizers that are used should only be used to make your grass healthier. Weed sprays should only be used in areas that have serious weed concerns.
Many lawn companies today don’t even use many chemicals because they prefer to keep the grass (and the rest of the landscape) as natural as possible. It’s good for the environment and for the lawn itself.
Talk With Friends and Family Members
If you know people in the area, such as friends or family, that have worked with landscapers in the past, you may want to consider reaching out to them to see what their experience was like.
Not only could you potentially get a good recommendation for a local yard care contractor, but you can also learn about companies that you may want to stay away from entirely. If someone you trust has had a poor experience, you’d want to hear about it before you accidentally think about hiring that company.
You can also consider asking them about some of the qualities that they looked for in their provider. Think about the things that they say they liked about their experience and things they dislike to tailor your questions for the companies you consider.
Look at Their Online Review Pages
Thanks to the internet, almost everything in the world can be reviewed and commented upon by people all over the world. Landscaping and yard care companies are no different. With a quick search engine query, you’ll be able to find information about what others think regarding the service, quality, price, and much more for different businesses.
While you will want to take online reviews with a grain of salt always (remember that you don’t actually know if you can trust these people), they can be helpful to see things from a different perspective. Once you start looking at them, you can also generally tell which reviews are honest and which are probably exaggerating a little bit.
By making sure that they are reputable and that people generally enjoyed their services, you can get amazing lawn care from a local provider without having to do that much extra sleuthing.
Question Their Credentials
A lawn care provider needs a few different certifications (depending on their state). You’ll want to make sure that you ask about this before you hire a company. That way you know with certainty that they are working within the law, but that they also know how to do the job well.
The main two certifications are pesticide application and fertilizer application. Every state requires a lawn care provider to have a pesticide applicator license or certification, while only some require a fertilizer certification.
In addition to that, you should ask if the business is properly licensed or permitted to act as a business within your local government. Some states will require their own license, while a county or city board may require a separate license for operation.
If you’re able to find a lawn care company that has employees with additional certifications, this means they really care about their work. Some of the extra certifications or memberships that are not required, but are desirable, include:
- Lawn care technician
- Exterior technician
- Certified irrigation designer
- Certified irrigation contractor
- Business manager
- Horticulture technician
- Certified landscape water manager
Browse Their Website
Another thing to do if you want to choose the right yard care service is look at their internet presence. Get online and click on their website to see if it looks professional, well-put-together, and generally cared for.
You should see if they have blog posts that look high-quality and if they offer any other pages, such as a gallery or testimonials, for you to view. Most businesses that really care about their company know that in this modern world, you have to have a good website to get ahead. It’s how people find your business, but it’s also important for general professionalism.
Consider only working with businesses that have websites that look expertly and well-kempt. You don’t want to risk giving your business to a company that doesn’t care about how people see them.
Choosing the Yard Care Service That Gets the Job Done
There are a lot of factors to consider before you find the yard care service that will be right for you. Not only do you need to consider how well they will actually do the job, but you also want to know how they have treated past customers
Instead of choosing the first lawn care company you come across, consider doing your research to make sure that your lawn is well-cared-for.
Are you interested in learning more about how to take care of the exterior and interior of your home? If so, take a look at some of our other articles today.