How To Avoid Being Overcharged For Lawn Care Services

Taking care of your lawn and making sure that it looks nice and neat can take a lot of work. If you enjoy doing yard work, you can take care of your lawn yourself using these secrets only professional landscapers know. If you don't have the time to properly do everything yourself, you could be doing these things that are secretly ruining your lawn, meaning it may be time to call in the professionals. With so many lawn care companies available, it's important to do a little homework before making any calls to be sure you get a company that will do a good job and that won't overcharge you for their lawn care services.

With just mowing the lawn going anywhere from $50 to $200 (let alone landscaping and other services), a little education about lawn care services and the going rates in your area equips you to not be taken in by inflated prices. To get a good picture of what the average lawn care rate is, it is important to know exactly what services you want done and when. You also need to know how often you want them to take care of your lawn. Is this a one-off job or do you want something weekly? Are there tasks you want done each time or some, like fertilizing, you only want done once per month or less often? Writing down this information before making calls will help you remember everything, and it will also let companies know that you are not someone who is clueless about lawn care services. Finally, it's important to remember goods and services cost money. What may feel like an overcharge may not be. Asking friends and neighbors and comparison shopping can help get the full picture.

An unkempt yard can quickly make your yard the topic of neighbors' conversations if it's left for too long. You don't want to find out things the neighbors secretly hate about your yard from the homeowner's association board. The easy way to take care of this is to decide what your yard needs on a regular basis and hire a great company to take care of these needs for you. The number-one tip to avoid being overcharged is knowing how much individual lawn care services generally cost in your area. Basic lawn care maintenance services include weed eating, mowing the lawn, and sometimes edging. There are no firm prices for these basic services but costs on average, according to the Angi website, can range anywhere from $100-$500 dollars each time, depending on the size of your yard.

Full-service landscaping tasks that don't fall into the basic lawn care services could include tree trimming, pruning, weed control (both pre-and post-emergent), installing mulch, weeding flower beds, trimming hedges, lawn seeding and overseeding, leaf removal, grass and leaf blowing, fertilizing, and aerating. Each service usually has its own cost which is why it is so important to know what you want done ahead of time. The company can give you an accurate quote if they know exactly what you want, and will generally break down an estimate by specific service.

Once you've selected a company, communication is the biggest way to avoid misunderstandings and problems. Start by being completely upfront about the tasks you want done and how often you want them done, so they can give you a fair quote. Waiting until they arrive, then springing extra work on them is not fair nor does it make the company want to work with you. If they know up front all you want done, they can make sure they send the appropriate tools and manpower to get the jobs done to your satisfaction. If they do a good job, make sure to leave them a good review as this helps their business and makes your relationship with them even better. If surprises do pop up, that established line of communication ensures neither you nor the company feels taken advantage of.

Finding a lawn care company that will put in writing the jobs you want done, how often, and the fees they charge for each job helps ensure no surprises come bill time because it will have already been discussed. A long-term contract isn't necessary (though some companies may insist on one), but a written invoice of what will be done and what the charge will be before they begin work is not asking too much from a professional company. This is also why it is important not to add jobs after they have already started. You should also request that they not do additional jobs on their own without permission from you. Communicating properly with the company will ensure there are no misunderstandings and no overcharges to worry about.