JAS Landscaping & Grounds Maintenance

Joe Sciuto has been mowing, mulching and cleaning up yards around Lawrence and Methuen since 1981 — 45 years, by the count on his Better Business Bureau page, run as a sole proprietorship with four employees and a bookkeeper. The HomeAdvisor profile lists a Certified Arborist credential, and a customer writing in 2018 described him pinpointing disease in an evergreen and treating it in time to save the tree. The customers who are happy tend to be the ones who knew what was coming. A 2021 reviewer said the crew showed up exactly when they said they would and were meticulous; another that same summer found Joe personable and knowledgeable and wanted him back. A 2018 homeowner was phoned ahead with the lawn maintenance schedule for the spring cleanup. In a 2011 fall "rake and take", the customer vacuumed piles while Joe manned the truck, and he credited back part of the time. The complaints, running back years, are about money. A homeowner in September 2011 paid in full against a signed $455 estimate and then received a bill for $646. Another that July was charged $155 above an estimate they had in writing, and said they would not have booked the job at that number. A 2019 reviewer objected to being charged for loading the truck; the company replied that the fee applies only to jobs needing specialty equipment, at a reduced rate. Joe answers most of the criticism on that page directly instead of leaving it unanswered. The most recent review is the hardest. In August 2025, a one-star customer said materials were marked up heavily — down to being charged for the twine used to tie a shrub — and said items went missing from their home. On HomeAdvisor the business averages 3.9 across 31 ratings going back to 2010. The BBB gives it an A+ and has not accredited it. For routine grounds work — mowing, mulching, aeration, overseeding, spring and fall cleanups — this is a long-established local crew with an arborist's eye for a sick tree. Get the estimate in writing, ask which charges sit outside it (specialty equipment, materials, haul-away), and settle in advance what happens if the job runs past the quoted scope.