Mac's Landscape Contractors

A homeowner who had spent years being ghosted by other landscapers wrote in December 2025 that Gerry McCarthy came out the day after they called, quoted the job on the spot, and had their 2,700-square-foot yard leveled and hydroseeded within days of starting. Speed of response is the thread running through most of what people say about Mac's Landscape Contractors. The company works out of Billerica and says it has been family-owned since 1975, when it started in Arlington with one person and one truck; it names Christine and Gerry McCarthy as its owners and counts 51 years in business. Operations moved through Stoneham and Burlington before it bought the Billerica property in 2018. The work spans residential and commercial: design and installation, masonry and hardscape, seasonal cleanups, ongoing maintenance and commercial snow removal. Reviewers writing through 2025 keep describing the same pattern — crews that show up when they said they would and stay until the job is done, and relationships measured in years rather than single jobs. One 2025 customer credited Gerry's son with the finish quality on a backyard build. The owner's own presence on jobs comes up often enough to read as how the company actually runs rather than a one-off. Weigh that against hardscape durability. In a 2022 review, a customer described a 40-foot retaining wall and a 180-square-foot patio built in July 2021 where the pavers cracked within about two months; the crew returned and filled the gaps with sand, the separation kept widening toward an inch over the following year, and the customer said the company put the patio's placement back on them. One account, four years old — but specific, about a $20,000 job, and about whether built work holds up rather than about scheduling. On Google the company averages 3.9 across 14 ratings, which sits below the run of five-star write-ups posted there, so the written reviews aren't the whole picture. Its site also lists industry awards and association roles for Gerry McCarthy, among them the Associated Landscape Contractors of Massachusetts' Henry David Thoreau Award and a national chairmanship at PLANET; those are the company's own claims. Massachusetts exempts landscaping-only contractors from home improvement contractor registration, so there is no state licence to check here. For cleanups, planting, lawn care and season-to-season maintenance around Billerica and Burlington, this is a straightforward call with a long history behind it. If you are hiring them to build a patio, walkway or retaining wall, get specific first: base preparation, drainage, and exactly what happens if pavers move.